250 Montreal Road - Place Vanier

[MGB]

The architect, Martineau Inc., and owner (Association des enseignantes et enseignants franco-ontariens -- AEFO) presented their plans for developing the site at 250 Montreal Road, in a public forum on February 13.

Details are available at:
http://www.vaniernow.blogspot.com/20...te-on-250.html



What the site looks like now:
http://www.vaniernow.blogspot.com/20...real-road.html

One additional article from Le Droit:
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/le-droit/a...-de-vanier.php

[rocketphish]

7 Floors each... not bad.

Here are the parcels involved:

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

7 Floors each... not bad.

Here are the parcels involved:

Will be good to see the vacant lot go! Not so sure about losing the two smaller buildings though. Ottawa is seriously losing a lot of small-business incubator space. If the city is expecting, wanting, and needing the private sector to make up for the impending fedgov cuts, that's a bad thing. We need small, old, ratty, commercial and industrial spaces. Lots of them. We're losing them. Lots of them.

[Uhuniau]

Also, I hope they find some way of not building the pedestrian bridge.

Like, by not building a pedestrian bridge.

[reidjr]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Will be good to see the vacant lot go! Not so sure about losing the two smaller buildings though. Ottawa is seriously losing a lot of small-business incubator space. If the city is expecting, wanting, and needing the private sector to make up for the impending fedgov cuts, that's a bad thing. We need small, old, ratty, commercial and industrial spaces. Lots of them. We're losing them. Lots of them.

Sure it hurts to lose commercial space but a building this that will hold 500 workers in phase one that is very good news.

[gjhall]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Also, I hope they find some way of not building the pedestrian bridge.

Like, by not building a pedestrian bridge.

Sorry if you explained this earlier, but why?

[Luker]

Just a guess. But look at the pedestrian cross at Rideau St., it simply is out of context, ruins the streetscape, and natural view/and flow of the street. I don't think Uhunian is against pedestrian bridges in general. However, this one in particular is in a location that doesn't really demand or require its implementation/use.

Further if one is a condo building and one is mainly a building for the union, what is the great need of having these permanently attached via a large pedestrian bridge spanning a smaller road in an area that is not particularly dense.

[gjhall]

Originally Posted by Luker

Just a guess. But look at the pedestrian cross at Rideau St., it simply is out of context, ruins the streetscape, and natural view/and flow of the street. I don't think Uhunian is against pedestrian bridges in general. However, this one in particular is in a location that doesn't really demand or require its implementation/use.

Further if one is a condo building and one is mainly a building for the union, what is the great need of having these permanently attached via a large pedestrian bridge spanning a smaller road in an area that is not particularly dense.

Woops, I missed that design detail, I thought Uhunian was talking about the Sandy Hill-Vanier pedestrian bridge. Gotcha.

[kevinbottawa]

Low-scale plans for new office building in Vanier get thumbs-up from community

By Maria Cook, The Ottawa Citizen February 20, 2012 6:18 PM

OTTAWA — In a rare effort to blend into the neighbourhood, a new office building planned for Montreal Road in Vanier will have seven storeys, even though the zoning would allow 11 storeys.

“We respected the building sizes in the area by not overpowering them,” says Benoît Mercier, president of the Franco-Ontarian teachers association (AEFO), which is building the $25-million project.

“We felt not maximizing the available space was something important to residents. It’s important to maintain our good reputation. We want to be good corporate citizens.”

Rideau-Vanier Councillor Mathieu Fleury says “underzoning” is unusual at city hall.

Often developers aim to build bigger and higher than bylaws allow. This trend in recent years has led to heated opposition to infill that is seen as out-of-scale and out-of-character with existing neighbourhoods.

“Eleven storeys wasn’t needed and it wouldn’t fit,” says Fleury.

“That recognition was received with open arms from the community. It shows a form of respect for the neighbourhood. We received tons of positive feedback from residents on how it looks.”

The mixed-use building, to be called Place Vanier, is designed with seven storeys plus a mechanical penthouse. It will have ground-floor retail and offices above. It includes two levels of underground parking with 100 spaces. The AEFO will occupy one or two floors and rent the rest.

They hope to start construction by June and move in December 2013 to their new headquarters.

“The fact they did not seek to maximize the square footage allowed is quite rare and we were very appreciative of their reasoning,” says Jevan Nicholas, president of the Vanier Community Association.

“They wanted their building to be in scale with the street. That shows a lot of thought and consideration. It wasn’t motivated exclusively by the bottom line. They wanted it to really integrate.”

Montreal Road, the commercial strip for Vanier on Ottawa’s east side, is for the most part two-to-three-storey buildings and parking lots, but in the immediate vicinity there are office and residential buildings that range from four to six storeys.

“The scale of that street didn’t really accommodate an 11-storey building,” says Ottawa architect Paul Martineau.

“It would have been kind of foreign. We decided to bring it down to seven storeys. We think it makes more sense ... as opposed to more of a tower that dominates the skyline.

“All zoning setback and height requirements were adhered to,” he says.

The project makes financial sense too, says Martineau, who is in a joint venture with Smith Carter Architects. “We’ve done our due diligence on the whole accounting; how much it costs to put a building up. It all works.”

Martineau acknowledges that the outcome would likely have been different if the proponents were real estate developers, instead of teachers. “If a developer owned that site, yes you would probably see maximization,” he says.

The Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO) represents 10,000 teachers in 450 French schools and organizations in Ontario.

The building will be designed for environmental sustainability to a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standard. Among the features is a green roof.

There will be a treed park on the south side. “We wanted to preserve some green space around the building,” says Martineau. “We didn’t want parking right up to the building.”

On the exterior, in addition to glass there will be concrete panels in a terracotta colour to tie in with red-brick buildings on the street. The main entrance is on Montreal Road, where the sidewalk will be widened and trees planted.

“We were trying to find some imagery that would complement the function,” says Martineau. “If you were to squint a bit you might imagine piles of books. It’s not a conventional looking building.”

Issues raised by the community association have to do with narrowness of side streets for access to the parking garage. They hope to see design features such as lighting to help crime prevention.

The AEFO must leave its current location on Belfast Road at the end of the year. It is being expropriated by the City of Ottawa for a future light-rail train maintenance and storage yard.

It recently bought the vacant 68,000-square-foot site at the corner of Montreal Road and Dupuis Street. “We felt it was important to establish our new office building in Quartier Vanier, which is a predominantly francophone community,” says Mercier. “We liked what we saw in the area.”

They hope to attract francophone professionals and organizations as tenants. It’s estimated 500 people will work in the building. “It’s our hope to create a hub of the Franco-Ontarian community,” he says.

“We hope to be a catalyst. We hope to have others invest in Vanier to make it a better community. It has fallen on hard times recently and we recognize that. Hopefully this will bring more life to the street and more people into Vanier.”

It is two blocks from the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health where construction is underway on an expansion, designed by high-profile architect Douglas Cardinal and his son Bret.

The AEFO also bought two small buildings west of the site. If there is demand in future, they would build a second building of seven to eight storeys.

“For us, it’s the big catalyst of change,” says Suzanne Valiquet, executive director of the Quartier Vanier Merchants Association. “For 25 years it’s been sitting empty. It’s prime space at a prime location.”

Peter Hume, chair of the city’s planning committee, says interest in mid-rise buildings is good news.

“It is an excellent sign that mid-rise buildings are being proposed and that proponents are determining that they are economic to construct,” says Hume.

“We have often heard from the development industry that in very desirable areas — the Market, Westboro, Glebe and Old Ottawa South — that four to six storey buildings are not economic to build,” he says.

“This is the second project that I have heard will come in under within the existing zoning and under the planning framework.”

A building proposed for the corner of Wellington Street and Island Park Drive in the West Wellington area will be six storeys, although the community design plan would allow nine.

The Vanier building “highlights that, although many people feel that zoning on a site always represents the optimal development envelope, that is not always the case,” says Hume.

“The proponents in this case specifically have reviewed the actual building in the context of the surrounding community and the needs of the proponent and determined that a seven-storey building best meets everyone’s needs.

“In most cases it usually goes the other way.”

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

[kevinbottawa]

A building proposed for the corner of Wellington Street and Island Park Drive in the West Wellington area will be six storeys, although the community design plan would allow nine.

What building are they talking about? Is this a proposal for the north east corner?

[Exewau]

Originally Posted by kevinbottawa

What building are they talking about? Is this a proposal for the north east corner?

When I was down checking progress (or lack of it) on "Wellington at Island Park" I noticed that the car dealership on the south west corner of the intersection was for sale.

Rumours have been going round for a while that the Proshine Car Wash site will also be developed, maybe along with Bella's as WAIP has very few windows on the western side of the building

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by reidjr

Sure it hurts to lose commercial space but a building this that will hold 500 workers in phase one that is very good news.

If you are an established mid- to largish employer looking for digs, yeah.

Overall, though, we are losing a lot of small spaces, and not replacing them very well. Not a good trend.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by gjhall

Woops, I missed that design detail, I thought Uhunian was talking about the Sandy Hill-Vanier pedestrian bridge. Gotcha.

I like pedestrian bridges, just not stupid building-to-building pedways, unless they are done very, very well. Which they almost never are.

[waterloowarrior]

devapps link for the site plan... not all studies are up yet
http://app01.ottawa.ca/postingplans/...appId=__81MLH9

[rocketphish]

Association releases site plan for $25M office building

Published on March 14, 2012
OBJ Staff

After being displaced from its property to make way for light-rail construction, a French-language association has submitted a site plan for the facility that will replace it on Montreal Road.

The $25-million building at 250 Montreal Rd., in Vanier, will be seven storeys high with two levels of underground parking and two loading bays, according to city documents. It will be a mixed-use building, with commercial uses on the ground and office space for the rest of the floors.

The Association des enseignantes et enseignants franco-ontariens owns the site. It is primarily vacant except for a parking lot used by tenants for the nearby 290 Dupuis St. – which is also owned by the association.

Association officials announced the purchase of the site in February. The sale price was not revealed.

"We had no choice," said association president Benoit Mercier in a statement at the time.

"We were served with a notice of expropriation by the city of Ottawa for our property located at 681 Belfast Rd."

Comments are open on the site plan, which has yet to be reviewed by a city committee. No construction timeline has been released.

Subcontractors for the project so far include Martineau Architecture Inc. + Smith Carter Architects & Engineers Inc. (traffic noise assessment) and Paterson Group Inc. (environmental assessment).

http://www.obj.ca/Real%20Estate/Non-...ice-building/1

[J.OT13]

New renders on City of Ottawa application details.

http://webcast.ottawa.ca/plan/All_Im...Submission.PDF

[citizen j]

Was the new render based on the 'dazzle-ship' concept, designed to make it hard for the enemy to see the entire bulk of the ship/building clearly and thereby sink it?

[waterloowarrior]

http://www.juteaujohnsoncomba.com/ms_april2012.htm

The largest transaction was for a 57,059 square foot parcel of commercial land located on 250 Montreal Road. The property was purchased by Complexe 250 Inc. from 250 Montreal Rd Inc. for $4,030,000 or $71/sf. The purchaser intends to develop the property with a seven-storey 103,674 square foot office building with a ground floor commercial component. The majority of the proposed building will be owner-occupied. The proposed development represents the first of a two-phase office project. The second phase will be located on the southwest corner of Montreal Road and Dupuis Street, which the purchaser had acquired in January 2012. The two phases will be connected by an elevated walkway.

[waterloowarrior]

Citizen: Four storey parking garage now proposed instead of mostly underground with a small surface parking lot
http://t.co/6YxyLaZI

[Capital Shaun]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

Citizen: Four storey parking garage now proposed instead of mostly underground with a small surface parking lot
http://t.co/6YxyLaZI

A parking garage for a low/mid rise office building? They've gotta be kidding?

And the pedestrian plaza will no longer be a pedestrian thoroughfare either?

The last thing Montreal Road & Vanier Parkway need is more car traffic.