Comment: 267 O’Connor Street: “Never demolish, never remove”

Erwin Dreessen

Taggart Realty Development has applied for a demolition permit for the medical services building it owns at 267 O’Connor Street.

The application may come before the city’s Built Heritage Committee on May 14.

Some worry about where all these medical service providers will go, but there is little rationale for this concern. There are plenty of empty spaces in Centretown to choose from! Besides, finding alternative locations is not really Taggart’s responsibility.

Of more concern is the initial shrug at the prospect of the building being demolished. No new ideas have come forward since the initial proposal of two 30-storey towers was thoroughly debunked by a Special Design Review panel back in 2021.

In my opinion, demolition should always be an absolutely last option for any development. The champions of reuse are Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, two French architects who won the Pritzker Prize in Architecture (architecture’s top prize) in 2021.

According to an article in The Guardian, their rallying cry is “Never demolish, never remove – always add, transform and reuse.”

As cited on the Prize’s website, Lacaton explains, “the pre-existing has value if you take the time and effort to look at it carefully. In fact, it’s a question of observation, of approaching a place with fresh eyes, attention and precision…to understand the values and the lacks, and to see how we can change the situation while keeping all the values of what is already there.”

I found their transformation of Tour Bois-le-Prêtre in Paris and Grand Parc in Bordeaux particularly impressive.

Their work suggests a way in which redevelopment of 267 O’Connor could achieve “iconic” status, namely by transforming the existing building into an example of how the old can be made new again. It would set an example in Ottawa of what can be achieved without sending many tons of material to a landfill while meeting high standards of energy efficiency, saving millions of dollars in construction cost and making badly needed affordable housing feasible.

The parking lot could be transformed into a park – another amenity that is in very short supply in Centretown.

I have made these suggestions to Taggart in an effort to persuade them to consider an alternative to demolishing and building anew.

Erwin writes on erwindreessen.substack.com/