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Posted Apr 14, 2008, 9:11 PM
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Mooderator
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Aylmer, Québec
Posts: 19,702
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Here's the article in full.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...International/
Quote:
Race narrows to three cities
Developers in Ottawa and now Edmonton have stepped up, while Calgary has put itself in the driver's seat
KATE TAYLOR
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
E-mail Kate Taylor | Read Bio | Latest Columns
April 12, 2008 at 8:22 AM EDT
The race to build a national portrait gallery is emerging as one that reflects current political tensions in the country: In the home stretch, it's Ottawa and Calgary in the lead, but now with Edmonton in a surprise sprint coming up from behind.
The city of Ottawa will vote later this month on a proposal by a private developer to build a home for the gallery at the base of two condo towers that the company hopes to construct on a site it is buying six blocks from Parliament. Meanwhile, the city of Calgary has chosen two prime downtown sites owned by that municipality and is interviewing prospective developers with a view to launching a bid. In Edmonton, a private developer is preparing a bid to include a building for the gallery attached to an office tower that is part of the redevelopment of the downtown Station Lands.
This week, the federal government extended the deadline for bids from April 16 to May 16, after Calgary had sought an extension until June. However, it increasingly appears that only these three cities will come forward, despite some initial interest from developers in Vancouver and Halifax. The scarcity of bids - nine cities in total were invited to compete - reflects the unusual nature of the competition, which invited private developers, rather than civic governments, to take the lead and then round up local support. Ironically, Quebec City, the home of federal Heritage Minister Josée Verner, who has defended the competition as an exercise in democratic decentralization, looks unlikely to be a player. (The other cities were Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg.)
The competition was launched last fall, a year after the Conservative government had stopped work on renovations to the former U.S. embassy on Wellington Street in Ottawa, where the previous Liberal government had already spent $11-million to start building a home for the gallery. (The Portrait Gallery of Canada is currently a virtual museum, with a real collection owned by Library and Archives Canada and warehoused in Gatineau, Que.) In most instances where Canadian cultural institutions are housed in mixed developments, the arts group and the city government have worked together to find a suitable private partner. The government's request for proposals turned that proposition on its head, seeking private developers in the nine cities to come forward with schemes to build the gallery that then needed to show local support. In that regard, Edmonton's bid looks like the closest match for the government's odd model: Qualico, a large western commercial and residential developer, is suggesting it will build a three-storey home for the gallery as a "podium" on the 28-storey Epcor office tower it is constructing on the vacant Station Lands at the northwest corner of the downtown core. The bid, which would locate the gallery a block and a half from the performing arts and civic facilities in Churchill Square, is politically supported by the city but has, however, no municipal financial contribution.
In Ottawa, a private developer, Claridge Homes, is also taking the lead, but it still needs city approval for its plan that would almost double the permitted density on a site it owns at the corner of Metcalfe and Lisgar streets, just six blocks from where the gallery was to have been housed originally. If city council, which will vote on the plan April 23, approves it, the developer would be permitted to build a 20-storey tower and a 24-storey tower on a site where zoning would only permit one 27-storey structure. The city, which has already voted to waive up to $430,000 in development fees for whoever builds a portrait gallery, now has to decide if it will trade a large increase in density on the site for the chance to keep a national cultural institution in the capital.
In Calgary, the city is running the show, refashioning the request for proposals as the kind of publicly driven project that is the more common way to build a public institution. It has selected two prime sites where the gallery could be located, both of them currently owned by the municipality. The first is on the west side of the Olympic Plaza, home to city hall, the central library and the Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts. The second site is on the downtown side of the Bow River, at the foot of the bridge that leads over to the hip neighbourhood of Kensington. Calgary has already set aside $500,000 for its bid and, as an added boost to either Albertan city, the provincial government has set aside $40-million as a contribution to the gallery once it opens.
The free land and the provincial contribution leave Calgary with a decided edge, says one Ottawa observer. "The federal government is looking for the cheapest gallery possible... ," said Ottawa city councillor Diane Holmes, who does not support the idea of increasing density on the Metcalfe Street site that is located in her ward and expects heated debate at the Ottawa meeting April 23. "It looks like the call for proposals is designed for Calgary: Calgary is providing free land, the development charges will be waived and the government of Alberta is putting up $40-million."
The federal government expects to chose a winner in early October and wants the facility to be completed in the spring of 2012.
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I agree with kwoldtimer. And there is no reason why the 20- and 24-storey height on the proposed towers should stand in the way. 
nice!
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