265 Laurier | ??m | 18 fl | Proposed

[Deez]

265 Laurier - Proposed
Currently a parking garage, GWL plans to build a 385,000 sq. ft. office tower on this site some time in the future
Developer: Great-West Life
Location: 265 Laurier Ave. W.
Web: Not available
Rendering:

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

Looks nice!

[waterloowarrior]

here's a render from David S. McRobie Architects

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

I really hope this thing gets built and is made 20 stories taller.

[cityguy]

Twenty stories taller?...good luck with that.

[eemy]

The plaza will be a nice feature that is generally missing from the CBD.

[harls]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

The plaza will be a nice feature that is generally missing from the CBD.

I noticed that too.. and isn't there a parking lot there right now in front of the BMO building? good riddance to it!

[Davis137]

That will look awesome, and I think they could totally go over 20 stories...this area is already a giant screen of buildings blocking view of the peace tower already anyways...

[Mille Sabords]

Originally Posted by harls

I noticed that too.. and isn't there a parking lot there right now in front of the BMO building? good riddance to it!

Yeah, I don't know who at the city approved a surface parking area in the downtown core in front of a Transitway station.

Good riddance alright.

[brentgaulois]

Originally Posted by Mille Sabords

Yeah, I don't know who at the city approved a surface parking area in the downtown core in front of a Transitway station.

Good riddance alright.

Four years later and nothing has come up about this project? It's too bad, I'd love for the parkade to be replaced with something nice, and for the piazza to be redone.

I feel like this site will have a nice little collection of unfulfilled construction projects in Ottawa.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by brentgaulois

Four years later and nothing has come up about this project? It's too bad, I'd love for the parkade to be replaced with something nice, and for the piazza to be redone.

I feel like this site will have a nice little collection of unfulfilled construction projects in Ottawa.

As much as I would like to see this building as well as Standard Life III, the reality is that we have millions of square feet of office space under construction or recently opened throughout the NCR (3 large scale federal buildings in Hull, 2 mid sized buildings in the old east end, 2 buildings, one federal and one private containing a combined total of nearly one million square feet downtown). Furthermore, the feds are trying to reduce their presence in the downtown, a decision I personally don't agree with.

Last decade, we saw ground-breaking for 8 new office buildings downtown, that represented around 2.14 million sqft, but I believe that between now and 2018, we will only see the completion of three, possibly four, downtown office towers (up to 1.4 million square feet);

The two already U/C,
-Lorne 2.0 (646,000 sqft);
-Performance Court (325,000 sqft);

One with the most advantages for the developer;

-Place de Ville Podium replacement (300,000 sqft), due to the fact that the Podium has a huge wasted space in the former theatre and the linkage/integration into the Lyon Subway Station (you want that connection completed and fully operational from day one and you certainly don't want to disturb that unique amenity with construction);

And possibly;

-Cathedral Hill office tower (134,000 sqft); a smaller office building might be easier to fill with private businesses or, possibly, potentially the new NCC headquarters (earlier this year, the NCC announced that it was "studying" office space of around 100,000 sqft. Considering that their lease at the Central Chambers will be up for renewal in a few years and that their space is around 100,000 sqft, it would suggest they want to move).

[Urbanarchit]

I decided to move the discussion from Slater to it's proper location in this thread.


Surface parking lot by Shel DeF on Flickr

Below is the lane beside the parking garage and BMO; it's definitely big enough to allow for some retail for a new building.


Surface parking lot by Shel DeF on Flickr

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Two 30 storey residential towers would be nice. the alley way would be a great place for a restaurant terrace. They could also build a market like courtyard between the old buildings on Bank (note that I think those buildings should have a full historic designation so no façadism à la Ogilvy).

I went to find the parking lot beside BMO. You have to pass through the carriage way for this building to access it, as it's cut off from the parking lot/ plaza.

It's a bit smelly and grimy because the other restaurants and stores keep their trash back here, but the carriageway would make for a cool entrance to an outdoor restaurant here. It's definitely big enough to build a kitchen and maybe some indoor space, but definitely for an enjoyable "courtyard" dining experience.


Hidden parking lot by Shel DeF on Flickr


Through the carriageway by Shel DeF on Flickr

I walked around a bit and tried to take some pictures of some public squares, but none were either well-designed or attractive, and to prove it there were no people there (then again it is winter). One is for the Varette Building - it has a southern exist onto, and beside are entrances to the garages. It needs improvement.

The other, for Jean Edmonds Towers could also be better designed, but it mostly has to do with the two buildings beside it. They cast a dark shadow over it, which makes it cold and perhaps not too pleasant, unless you were sitting outside in hot and humid weather.


Varette Building exit by Shel DeF on Flickr



Jean Edmonds Towers by Shel DeF on Flickr

Originally Posted by defishel

I think this building will still make an impact immediately around it, especially if someone convinces BMO to change their public square out front into a proper one.



Just look at this aerial image and you can see the potential the space has.



The parking garage could be replaced with another building (I vote for two slimmer residential towers), and then with the completed Slater it would be perfect for a proper square. We could get some decent stores or something around the area and that may contribute a bit?

Originally Posted by defishel

I'm probably going to have to agree somewhat with OTSkyline. I was excited to see something was imagined for this area, but I'm still not that impressed with the building or square.

The building is quite bulky and similar to BMO, save for the convex western side. I don't know if I'd consider it to be visually appealing for people to come and visit, the area other than for work. And the plaza would be used more by office workers on their lunchbreak than visitors to the area.

I'd prefer to see two slender towers proposed for that sight that are taller than BMO to create a varied and visually interesting view of the sky. I would hope for residences because there's a serious dearth in our CBD, and adding a few more people living in the area might go a long way to helping out downtown regain it's vitality.

Although, the people living higher up may be stuck with an unappealing view of BMO's rooftop. Maybe that could be motivation to producing variegated rooftops, maybe green ones?

I'm sorry that I'm such a Debby Downer who criticizes or hates most things, but the square doesn't please me. Eliminating the surface parking lot and laneway east of BMO would be an excellent improvement, but this square looks too cluttered with unnecessary boxes of shapes, most of which seem to be right at the street. I'd like to see a simpler design with more trees and less awkward shapes that serve no purpose (I imagine) to the area.

I was thinking, the new building could allow for some retail of some sort, if it would work. Having some of it facing onto the square, and especially along the side alley between the new building and BMO could contribute to a cute little alley that might attract people? Though it's unlikely that anything other than lunch shops and cafés would be succesful here, as there isn't yet much to attract people to our CBD...

Originally Posted by defishel

I attempted to draw (rather crudely) a diagram of what the property beside BMO should look like (although the actual style of the towers could/ should be nicer). I tried to model the roofs after the Bank of America Tower's roof (which is also similar to the condo tower proposed on Daly and Wurtemburg) for a non-square, flat-topped roof.

Please excuse my terrible drawing skills... One day they'll improve.

[J.OT13]

I know we've all noticed the blue glass district around Slater/Lyon/Kent (Minto Place, Constitution square, centennial Building) but anyone ever noticed the white granite district (Place Bell, L'Esplanade Laurier, BMO and possibly BMO II)?

[Urbanarchit]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I know we've all noticed the blue glass district around Slater/Lyon/Kent (Minto Place, Constitution square, centennial Building) but anyone ever noticed the white granite district (Place Bell, L'Esplanade Laurier, BMO and possibly BMO II)?

Don't forget the concrete/ Mid-Century Modernist buildings right beside that section. And then technically orange bricks near that. Nor the Claridge Plaza district.

I wonder if there's a connection between building buildings with similar materials next to each other and people complaining about something being out of context with what's around presently...?

[Urbanarchit]

I decided to play around with Sketchup to make a proper modelling of what could be there, instead of my really crude hand drawing. I only included a few buildings to show it's impact. I did a very basic design, but tried to make the tower relatively consistent with the podium. The mechanical roof was inspired by the roof of Montreal's 1501 McGill College (one of my favourite skyscrapers), but sort of reminds me of Jin Mao Tower. :S

It would be nice if this could somehow be residential, although it's style makes me think more to something more befitting of offices. Podium could be offices with ground floor (and second floor) retail, or even have residences in it.

With the approximate height, the towers would be about 30-32 stories, and about 115m or so tall (not including the mechanical roof). The heights and sizes are approximately to scale. Thoughts?

Looking Southeast


Looking Southeast


Looking South


Looking down


Looking North


Looking up


Slater Street streetview


Stacked ziggurat Podium, looking from The Slater

[OTSkyline]

Nice! I really like! I like the height variance with the other surrounding buildings, I LOVE the interesting roof, love the idea of podium and two slimmer towers instead of 1 large bulky one etc...

Would be interesting to see it all done. What were you thinking for cladding? I imagine a mix of windows and concrete.. Kind of like 88 Scott Tower in Toronto would be real nice... In any case, Well done! When are you presenting this to City Hall or Developers?

[Urbanarchit]

Originally Posted by OTSkyline

Nice! I really like! I like the height variance with the other surrounding buildings, I LOVE the interesting roof, love the idea of podium and two slimmer towers instead of 1 large bulky one etc...

Would be interesting to see it all done. What were you thinking for cladding? I imagine a mix of windows and concrete.. Kind of like 88 Scott Tower in Toronto would be real nice... In any case, Well done! When are you presenting this to City Hall or Developers?

Thanks! I'm glad you like it. I'm thinking of submitting it to city hall in 2 months time, when I submit my master transportation plan that 1overcosc and Aylmer are generously drawing up for me.

I made some adjustments to the podium: every floor will have be staggered back, and the main entrance to the building would be in the middle wear the blocks are missing (there would be smaller entrances on Slater and Laurier), thus forcing people to use the cut-through and encounter stores and restaurants that are located in the podium, or use the public square in front of BMO.. This way the view walking along Laurier and Slater is much more interesting and you can see more looking up. the corners are still a bit awkward, and the part facing the Stentor Building is a bit odd, but hopefully staggering it at every floor will make up for that shortcoming.



I still have to figure out how to finish the rest of it. I'm kind of a SketchUp rendering noob, haha! I was definitely hoping for glass (the "cross" going up the sides of the building could be exterior balconies), but I don't know about other materials. We could use concrete, for sure, as that would probably look better. But the podium's inspiration came from the below renderings of some condos in Toronto, that I shared in the Union du Canada thread. Something with white bricks could work? I don't know, actually, haha.

[Urbanarchit]

Thought it might be nice to have a larger version of this photo, even if this won't ever happen.

[J.OT13]

The redevelopment represents a decent expansion of the plaza space towards Laurier. Today, the parking garage takes up the while space with the exception of two car lanes.


https://170slater.com/

[Urbanarchit]

Reposted from the General Rumours thread.

Originally Posted by Urbanarchit

I can't find the 269 Laurier folder, but it seems Phase 2 using the parking lot at 170 Slater is potentially going to be under construction. There is a more updated rendering of the office building, and the website is up and running with a flyover and additional renderings: https://170slater.com/ Maybe a thread can be made if one doesn't exist already for 170 Slater.

It will be 20 Floors, 252 parking spots, 397,974sqft of office space.




My personal preference is instead for this to be redeveloped as two slimmer residential buildings instead of another office as there are enough office buildings downtown and it seems some places might opt for WFH for a while longer. I came up with an approximate massing model (using site dimensions from GeoOttawa) to demonstrate what it could be like. A 3-storey a podium with slim towers, the one on Slater being 23 floors and the one on Laurier being 12 floors with a 3-floor podium in between. They would be set closer to the plaza and with enough spacing between them so the office building behind it on O'Connor would get sufficient sunlight still and allow residents some light in the inward-facing units.