235 King Edward Ave (Holiday Inn) | 27 m | 9 fl | U/C

[loga0082]

Originally Posted by Mille Sabords

It wants to do the right thing, it has the potential to do the right thing, and yet it still fumbles and stumbles in a couple of respects IMO. The ground floor has to have more doors that open onto King Edward. The restaurant has to be a streetfront operation, for hotel guests and for people going to La Nouvelle Scène, and whoever else ends up walking up and down King Edward. The Murray Street side is too blank and given over to cars. The St. Patrick side is OK - the tucking-in of the vehicular lay-by doesn't unduly tax the public realm and represents an OK way to handle this operational function that hotels always say they need. In doing this, though, they yield to the temptation of turning their back on King Edward, and/or only leaving token glazing as the interface with that side which is -and should be treated as - the real front and most important facade. And, again IMO, the architecture is unsophisticated. It tries to do a few different things and ends up doing none convincingly.

Maybe they should put more sliding doors. Where are they going to put the parking garage? To me, building a Holiday Inn hotel between St. Patrick's street and Murray Street is not a good idea. How can they fit a big hotel in a small plot of land?

loga0082

[Boxster]

Originally Posted by loga0082

Maybe they should put more sliding doors. Where are they going to put the parking garage? To me, building a Holiday Inn hotel between St. Patrick's street and Murray Street is not a good idea. How can they fit a big hotel in a small plot of land?

loga0082

This hotel is considered small. Parking will be underground.

[loga0082]

Originally Posted by Boxster

This hotel is considered small. Parking will be underground.

In my opinion, I do not find having a Holiday Inn at St. Patrick's street and King Edward is a good location. It is too close to the 'Shepherds of Good Hope' and the market area, where there are many drunkards and drug addicts. Lower Town is also quite rough. They have all that public housing, where there are many foreign immigrants from Somalia, the Middle East, and the Caribbean who tend to come from rough family backgrounds. I would not say that it is very safe for tourists, especially girls and women; to be walking there in the evening. It can also be very dangerous. The drug addicts and drunkards are always begging for money and the tourists could be robbed, if they are not careful.

loga0082

[J.OT13]

Hope they get it done by Canada Day 2017, but I doubt it. All in all, it's a Holiday Inn. Looks OK, kind of like King Edward. Good candidate for demolition and re-development in 20-30 years if/when the trucks are buried.

[loga0082]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Hope they get it done by Canada Day 2017, but I doubt it. All in all, it's a Holiday Inn. Looks OK, kind of like King Edward. Good candidate for demolition and re-development in 20-30 years if/when the trucks are buried.

I think that they are going to start building the Holiday Inn hotel in January, even if there is full of snow and ice. I sure the area between St. Patrick's and Murray Street will look much nicer, once the hotel is built. It looks like an eye-sore now with an empty space and two ugly looking buildings.

loga0082

[rocketphish]

This has been newly redesigned, and is now referred to as 235 King Edward Ave. I find it to be a more harmonious design, more pleasing above street level, but the ground floor is less interesting without that long glass wall.

---

The current development proposal is for a nine (9) storey full service Holiday Inn Hotel containing 167 suites. The proposed development is intended to offer standard hotel accommodations. The ground floor will be approximately 1205 square metres and will accommodate the main lobby and reception, a media lounge, a family dining bar and buffet, a meeting room, kitchens, washrooms, service rooms, and storage rooms. Five visitor parking spaces will be provided outside of the main entrance along with a lay-by for two vehicles at the entrance and all other parking will be provided underground. A total of 79 underground spaces will be included. Ingress to the site will be provided from St. Patrick Street and egress will be provided on Murray Street.

Development application:
http://app01.ottawa.ca/postingplans/...appId=__9PYWNQ


Renderings:










Siteplan:

[teej1984]

Well that looks quite different from the original proposal.

[acottawa]

Former Chimo hotel near St. Laurent is converting to a Holiday Inn, I wonder if they will both end up with the same branding.

[J.OT13]

For comparison. Before and after for each angle. Thanks to rocketphish who is the original poster for all of these pics.













Preferred the original, which had a more "mid-2000s" design compared to the "90s" design of the newer version. Both inoffensive, but disappointing. So much more could be done with that site 20 years down the line once the truck tunnel opens (maybe).

[sestafanos]

*yawn*

[movebyleap]

Ugh. Why?!? This would be a great hotel somewhere along a highway but not downtown. Shame on the person who approved this!

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by movebyleap

Ugh. Why?!? This would be a great hotel somewhere along a highway but not downtown. Shame on the person who approved this!

King Edward at that point is 8 lanes, St Patrick is 6. "Along a highway" is a pretty good description of its location.

[passwordisnt123]

This location is basically across the street from a homeless shelter and is, as acottawa rightly points out, at the intersection of an 8-lane road and a 6-lane street.

Frankly, I'm surprised we're even seeing this level of investment in this area so I have a hard time criticizing the developer or city council for this bland building considering its surroundings.

[Uhuniau]

Would be nice to have a modicum of better ground-level presence.

[Boxster]

How about this.

It would make a great homeless shelter.

[TransitZilla]

From the renders, the branding seems to have changed from a full-fledged Holiday Inn to a Holiday Inn Express, so that's likely the reason the design has been toned down a bit.

I preferred the original version's glass wall along King Edward, but this isn't bad. And given the context it's way better than nothing.

Also, it still looks better than the Andaz.

[rocketphish]

Demolition is in progress...

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Demolition is in progress...

I noticed that today. This thing might be done by 2017 after all. The new design looks great for a suburban hotel but it will add little to the neighbourhood in which it's being built. This is the second least inspiring design being built in the core after Andaz IMHO. I wonder if they will put 'homeless fences' along the street level like all the houses on Murray between King Edward and Cumberland. I also wonder if it will be the only hotel in the city without a public washroom in the lobby like the Tim Hortons across the street, which is the only only coffee shop without a public washroom in the city.

[khabibulin]

Originally Posted by Harley613

I noticed that today. This thing might be done by 2017 after all. The new design looks great for a suburban hotel but it will add little to the neighbourhood in which it's being built. This is the second least inspiring design being built in the core after Andaz IMHO. I wonder if they will put 'homeless fences' along the street level like all the houses on Murray between King Edward and Cumberland. I also wonder if it will be the only hotel in the city without a public washroom in the lobby like the Tim Hortons across the street, which is the only only coffee shop without a public washroom in the city.

Meh. Much better than the barren field that used to be there. Are you promoting the idea of the fences? What are your thoughts on why they exist now?

[rocketphish]

Some sort of excavation has begun now.

Mods, can we please change this thread title? Thx!

235 King Edward Ave (Holiday Inn) | 27 m | 9 fl | U/C