Jamaican-Phoenix
Nov 27, 2007, 3:51 PM
Last night I had an urban design/planning brainstorm which will see the transformation of Gladstone Avenue from a dingy main street in Centretown to a nice place to be.
Techtown
Gladstone Avenue remains one of Ottawa's more dilapidated roads. It is a visual blight on the city of Ottawa, especially to Centretown, which boasts Bank St., Sparks St. and Somerset St. If we are to transform Gladstone Ave., we need to be smart about the situation especially in terms of how to work with what Gladstone has to offer. Gladstone Avenue has many infill opportunities, all that is required is some vision from people and willingness from developers.
First steps to a transformation, is to set up a Business Improvement Area for Gladstone Avenue that runs from Bank St. all the way to Loretta Avenue. As new projects begin to get underway, wires will be buried, modern and artistic streetlamps will be installed, sidewalks widened in many areas, and large trees will be planted to help minimize noise levels. In order to fit in with local developments, new condos and office developments will be required to have at least one ground-level retail occupant and will be limited to six to eight storeys in height.
Gladstone has enormous potential as a new, trendy neighbourhood due to its close proximity to many of Ottawa's great locales. Gladstone intersects Bank St. and the Bank St. Promenade, is within reasonable walking distance to Chinatown, intersects Little Italy, and in the future will be served by the O-Train and LRT. The Number 14 bus also runs along Gladstone Avenue.
Projects for Gladstone Avenue involves the entire replacement or preferably revamping of existing businesses that are located in unsightly buildings. We propose that the auto industry oriented businesses be reconfigured in a way to make the streetscape more appealing. For example, the AVIS car rental place on Gladstone and Kent will be torn down and replaced with an eight storey condo tower where the ground floor will be configured to serve as an interior car rental place with the office being close to the sidewalk. For auto repair/body shop places, especially in more decrepit looking buildings, existing buildings will be torn down and replaced with more modern facilities where the body shop is in the rear and the offices being near the sidewalk.
Possible projects that can be underway within one to three years are the following; new Urban Capital condo development at Bank and Gladstone, two low-rise condos at Gladstone and Kent(Avis and used car lots), creation of public park/space on green lot that is close to Gladstone and Lyon, condominium development on empty lot across from Arya Food Mart, creation of Community Garden at McNabb Park, condo or office development at corner of Gladstone and Bronson, condo at the corner of Gladstone and Bell, condo at Gladstone and Lebreton, redevelopment of Dante Park(Gladstone and Booth), LRT station on Gladstone where the O-Train runs and new condo towers will be built in the surrounding locations.
Some businesses could set up shop along Gladstone that would help to draw people to the area. Such businesses would be a neighbourhood Home Hardware or Canadian Tire, PC Cyber, EB Games, some exotic restaurants, eclectic and funky shops, office space and perhaps even some Korean Businesses.
Techtown
Gladstone Avenue remains one of Ottawa's more dilapidated roads. It is a visual blight on the city of Ottawa, especially to Centretown, which boasts Bank St., Sparks St. and Somerset St. If we are to transform Gladstone Ave., we need to be smart about the situation especially in terms of how to work with what Gladstone has to offer. Gladstone Avenue has many infill opportunities, all that is required is some vision from people and willingness from developers.
First steps to a transformation, is to set up a Business Improvement Area for Gladstone Avenue that runs from Bank St. all the way to Loretta Avenue. As new projects begin to get underway, wires will be buried, modern and artistic streetlamps will be installed, sidewalks widened in many areas, and large trees will be planted to help minimize noise levels. In order to fit in with local developments, new condos and office developments will be required to have at least one ground-level retail occupant and will be limited to six to eight storeys in height.
Gladstone has enormous potential as a new, trendy neighbourhood due to its close proximity to many of Ottawa's great locales. Gladstone intersects Bank St. and the Bank St. Promenade, is within reasonable walking distance to Chinatown, intersects Little Italy, and in the future will be served by the O-Train and LRT. The Number 14 bus also runs along Gladstone Avenue.
Projects for Gladstone Avenue involves the entire replacement or preferably revamping of existing businesses that are located in unsightly buildings. We propose that the auto industry oriented businesses be reconfigured in a way to make the streetscape more appealing. For example, the AVIS car rental place on Gladstone and Kent will be torn down and replaced with an eight storey condo tower where the ground floor will be configured to serve as an interior car rental place with the office being close to the sidewalk. For auto repair/body shop places, especially in more decrepit looking buildings, existing buildings will be torn down and replaced with more modern facilities where the body shop is in the rear and the offices being near the sidewalk.
Possible projects that can be underway within one to three years are the following; new Urban Capital condo development at Bank and Gladstone, two low-rise condos at Gladstone and Kent(Avis and used car lots), creation of public park/space on green lot that is close to Gladstone and Lyon, condominium development on empty lot across from Arya Food Mart, creation of Community Garden at McNabb Park, condo or office development at corner of Gladstone and Bronson, condo at the corner of Gladstone and Bell, condo at Gladstone and Lebreton, redevelopment of Dante Park(Gladstone and Booth), LRT station on Gladstone where the O-Train runs and new condo towers will be built in the surrounding locations.
Some businesses could set up shop along Gladstone that would help to draw people to the area. Such businesses would be a neighbourhood Home Hardware or Canadian Tire, PC Cyber, EB Games, some exotic restaurants, eclectic and funky shops, office space and perhaps even some Korean Businesses.