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Ottawa has kilometres of river and canal waterfront, but it is not put to its best use, the city’s design manager says
Ottawa may have greenspace galore, but it lacks urban waterfront, and that is what makes many cities vibrant, says Ottawa’s community planning and design manager Richard Kilbrod.
Despite Ottawa’s highly touted canal—which was, this year, declared a UNESCO world heritage site—there are few places people can sit and enjoy the water. In fact, save for the Canal Ritz, the National Arts Centre and Dow’s Lake, very little opportunity is afforded to Ottawa residents who want to enjoy a waterside drink, said Mr. Kilbrod. This puts Ottawa in stark contrast to other Canadian cities such as Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, where commercial and residential districts have developed around water as a result of their historical ports.
“Most old cities were formed on the basis of water, because that’s where ships came and commerce took place, so they have urban waterfronts … Ottawa doesn’t.”
Instead, Ottawa’s river and canal are lined with miles of trees and bicycle paths, but few places to sit overlooking the water and enjoy a meal or a cup of coffee.
While all the natural beauty sets Ottawa apart from place like Toronto and Montreal that lack for living scenery, Mr. Kilbrod pointed out that, on top of the waterfront greenery, Ottawa already has acres of green space close at hand maintained by the National Capital Commission.
“All that green space makes Ottawa a great city to live in, but if you want to get a little more balance, then some urban waterfront would be nice,” Mr. Kilbrod said.
It was this thought that was running through Erick McEvoy’s head when he dreamed up redevelopment plans for Lansdowne Park that include creating a separate channel of the canal that meanders across the city-owned property.
The Ottawa-based intern architect, who lives in the Lansdowne area and often goes for runs along the canal that end with a trip to the farmer’s market, has always lamented the fact that the canal was never engaged as much as he thought it could be.
When Lansdowne’s future was up in the air in 2000, Mr. McEvoy used his spare time to draft plans for the property that envisioned a new arm of the canal running through Lansdowne, modeled on San Antonio’s River Walk.
“It’s really quite a pleasurable place to spend some leisure time and relax and whatnot,” said Mr. McEvoy, who frequently visited the River Walk when he lived in Texas.
“It’s not just a city that has a canal, but a canal that is engaged in the city. Our canal just kind of runs through the city and is more of a pristine, picturesque setting.”
In the wake of renewed debate about Lansdowne’s future, Mr. McEvoy made his plans public for the first time recently.
In his design, a channel breaks away from its main path at Lansdowne’s east side, flows through the park and exits into the canal half a kilometre later to the south.
Beside the channel, he envisions a cobblestone walk lined with townhouses, hotels, shops and cafés.
As he sees it, Lansdowne Park could be just like the Byward Market, which attracts tourists and locals equally, but with the added bonus of allowing them to skate or kayak into the area.
To a certain extent, Mr. McEvoy’s vision is shared by Capital Ward Councillor Clive Doucet, who, along with Councillor Peter Hume, is trying to initiate an international design competition for Lansdowne Park. A requirement in the draft proposal is that designs must “improve and integrate access to the Rideau Canal.”
Mr. Doucet said that he would also like to bring part of the canal to Lansdowne as a way of improving community access, though he would prefer the mini-canal be green rather than commercially developed.
However, while the idea of creating a mini-canal has its supporters, it is an idea that might never be realized.
“I don’t really have a opinion about whether or not it’s a good or bad idea, but jurisdictionally it’s a nightmare,” said Sally Coutts, a City of Ottawa heritage planner.
The trouble, Ms. Coutts said, is that in order to make the mini-canal a reality, a developer would have to navigate three separate bodies: The Rideau Canal is operated by Parks Canada; Colonel By Drive, which would have to be dissected in Mr. McEvoy’s plan and have two bridges installed, is owned by the NCC; and Lansdowne Park is owned by the city. On top of that is the added complication of the canal’s recent designation as a UNESCO world heritage site.
Pam Buell, Parks Canada’s communications manager for Eastern Ontario, said since there currently is no official plan to alter the canal, it is difficult to say what the federal government’s stance would be. However, she said, any potential change to the canal would be evaluated by Parks Canada’s “existing criteria for ensuring commemorative integrity.”
NCC spokeswoman Kathryn Keyes also said that it would be impossible to comment without an official proposal, but that the commission would be involved with any proposal that could affect its property.
UNESCO itself doesn’t have any legislative means to prevent a world heritage site from being altered, but if something is done that detracts from the reason the site was chosen, the status can be revoked. Roni Amelan, a press officer with UNESCO’s Bureau of Public Information in New Zealand, said he did not know if a mini-canal would threaten the Rideau canal’s status, but did say UNESCO has worked with countries to preserve the integrity of sites that appear to be threatened.
Mr. McEvoy admits that he didn’t think about his plans in terms of the red tape he might have to cross in order to realize them.
“I’ve never really taken the concept that far, I was just starting out with ideas,” he said. “There might always be naysayers in the group, but, all in all, the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.”
Moreover, he said, Lansdowne Park might be the only area in Ottawa where it is feasible to build any sort of urban waterfront the way he envisions it, particularly since the Ottawa River isn’t navigable enough for boats to be able to get to any kind of man-made tributary such as the San Antonio river walk.
Mr. Kilbrod added that, in order to build a new channel, the land has to be at the same height as the water, and Lansdowne is the only place along the canal that fits that requirement. He said he would support creating a new arm of the canal at Lansdowne so long as the developer integrated the channel into the design so that it made sense.
Since the design competition has not yet officially begun, Mr. McEvoy has done little with his plans and his dream of an interactive canal except to discuss them. But if the opportunity ever arises, he said, he would submit his plans as soon as he was able.
“Something has to happen to Lansdowne,” he said.
“Ottawa citizens have two choices. We either do nothing and watch another decade go by of a big empty parking lot or we do something.”
© The Ottawa Citizen 2007