I Need Floor Plans Of The Old Ottawa Train Station

[Hybrid247]

Does anyone know where i can find anything showing the layout of the Old Ottawa Train Station (Government Conf. Centre)? I'm a 2nd year student in the Architectural Technician program at Algonquin and I'm doing a Case Study for a City Centre Transit Hub for Ottawa.

My Case Study is centered around this building as a future transit hub for LRT (future underground LRT station), Inter regional trains, city buses and possibly a greyhound terminal.

I haven't been able to find much with google...

Any info or pics would be greatly appreciated.

[Chris-R]

Originally Posted by Hybrid247

Does anyone know where i can find anything showing the layout of the Old Ottawa Train Station (Government Conf. Centre)? I'm a 2nd year student in the Architectural Technician program at Algonquin and I'm doing a Case Study for a City Centre Transit Hub for Ottawa.

My Case Study is centered around this building as a future transit hub for LRT (future underground LRT station), Inter regional trains, city buses and possibly a greyhound terminal.

I haven't been able to find much with google...

Any info or pics would be greatly appreciated.

I couldn't point to anything (easily or at all) available online, but you might have some luck with the LAC. I have always found them to be tremendously helpful.

It appears that the RG30M contains thousands of architectural drawings of CN's railway infrastructure (including those transferred by the Grand Trunk when it was nationalized in 1920). The vast majority of that group is open/unprotected. Link to Record

[J.OT13]

They gave away plans of the ground (Rideau Elevation) floor at the last Doors Open Ottawa event. It doesn't have any measurements or anything, mostly designed to direct people to the different public areas, but we can see how it is divided.

Problem is, I'm not sure how to post pictures on here. But if you would like, I could give a general description on here.

Other ways to procure these plans might be thru the Bennett or other reports. Here are a few links;

List of multiple reports;

https://qshare.queensu.ca/Users01/go...pital/link.htm

Bennett report;

https://qshare.queensu.ca/Users01/go...1915/index.htm

Bennett's Transportation Hub (showing about 300 meters around Union)

https://qshare.queensu.ca/Users01/go...5/drawing6.htm

https://qshare.queensu.ca/Users01/go.../drawing6B.htm

Go thru these and you may find something.

They are currently renovating Union. The architect is Barry Padolsky, if you want to see if he might give you any information.

I hope this helps.

[J.OT13]

Floor plans of main public area;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/larrys_...ay/7834429240/


Pictures from the Ottawa Citizen.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/ch...279/story.html

Main concourse before people got on trains, looking at the plans, this is on the right side (lower part);

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/...940/story.html

Main waiting area, looking at the plans, middle part where we have the big arch on the canal;

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/story.html?id=6666358

In the main waiting area (big arch from the canal) looking towards Rideau street exit (stairs heading up). Doorway in the middle is to Château Laurier Tunnel;

http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=union+...r:25,s:0,i:159

In the halway up the stairs towards Rideau, there are two big rooms (behind the pillars on the first third of the building) on each side. The one on the canal side was the waiting room for VIPs.

[J.OT13]

For exact measurements, keep this in mind;

The main departures hall (now the main conference area) is a 3/4 replica of the Roman Baths of Caracalla and therefore a half-size equivalent of the now-destroyed departures hall of New York Penn Station.[

from http://traductor.sensagent.com/Union...Ottawa)/en-en/

So if you can find the mesurements of these other landmarks, you can calculate the size of the waiting area in the middle of the building.

Penn Station
http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=Penn+S...9,r:1,s:0,i:82

Ottawa Union Station

http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=Ottawa...9,r:0,s:0,i:79

[Hybrid247]

Amazing! I can definitely work with that. Thanks for the links its greatly appreciated

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Hybrid247

Amazing! I can definitely work with that. Thanks for the links its greatly appreciated

No problem buddy! Glad I could help.

[eemy]

Didn't want to create a new thread for this question, so here it is.

Does anyone know what happened on the east side of the station facing the Rideau Centre? It almost looks like it was sliced off there. Evidently the existing facade is newer, so I would be curious to know what existed prior to that.

[Urbanarchit]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

Didn't want to create a new thread for this question, so here it is.

Does anyone know what happened on the east side of the station facing the Rideau Centre? It almost looks like it was sliced off there. Evidently the existing facade is newer, so I would be curious to know what existed prior to that.

I believe the reason for that is because there was originally a building there that was demolished. Corry Block was built... I think in the early 1900, and then the train station was built afterwards in 1912.

You can see here in this image. There also used to be a dome on the top of Union Station, but from what I heard, they got rid of it to create more office space.

[J.OT13]

Instead of having a plaza next to the station, I hope they build something to block off that horrible blank wall.

They were recently talking about fixing up the station (for the Senate) and decided against tearing down the penthouse and replacing it with a new dome. They also decided against tearing down the crappy 70s extension at the back of the building.

[Urbanarchit]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Instead of having a plaza next to the station, I hope they build something to block off that horrible blank wall.

The smooth wall is a bit odd, but I really like the station window and staircase (is that what it is?). They could cover it with something... maybe a mural depicting Ottawa's ferroviarian past (I may have just made up that word)?

Oh, for a plaza or station, they could build that fan-shaped train garage there? It's thematic, and depending on what you do it could be like that round screen thing shared in Architecture for Ottawa.

[kwoldtimer]

I'd be OK with a plaza on that site, as long as it were encased in a glass structure.

[J.OT13]

Black vertical thing on the blank wall, left side? Yes, it is a staircase.

[gjhall]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Black vertical thing on the blank wall, left side? Yes, it is a staircase.

It's very attractive at night and one of the few buildings where light is used to highlight a feature. That blank wall has never really bothered me because of the giant highway style ramp from Mackenzie onto Colonel By forcing me and other pedestrians into an underpass that is awful.

[J.OT13]

I can live with the staircase structure, but not the blank wall.

[Kitchissippi]

Somewhat vaguely related, but since this building has scaled down details similar to New York's now demolished Penn Station, it's worth mentioning the great documentary that aired a few weeks ago on PBS' American Experience. Interesting to hear how some people felt about the station, and makes one think about the potential of opening up Union Station to the public again. Despite having been paid for by private funds, these old train stations were built as public spaces and without public access they lose their soul.

PBS just put that episode online recently (it's a little quirky at the moment, the video seems to freeze frequently so you need to coax it by clicking on the slider once in a while). It's a great watch if you have an hour to spare, especially the tunnel building part — they dug under the Hudson River by hand in about the same time it's taking our three machines to dig ours!

Here's the link: The Rise and Fall of Penn Station

EDIT: The link above oesn't seem to work on some computers Here's Chapter 1 on Youtube:

• Video Link

Interesting parallel with Ottawa's tunnel project: Too many ferries on the Hudson = Bus jams in downtown Ottawa