By: Elizabeth Payne, Ottawa Citizen
The palm-tree dotted campus of the University of South Florida in Tampa might seem an unlikely place to catch a glimpse of the future of frosty Ottawa. But if you step inside a senior urban design studio there, that is what you will find.
Master’s students at the university’s School of Architecture and Community Design have spent the fall creating redevelopment plans for the Chaudière islands, an ambitious academic project that parallels work going on in real time. And Shannon Bassett, the Ottawa-born assistant professor overseeing the projects, hopes the students’ visions for redeveloping the islands will influence work that is eventually done there and which is set to get under way in coming months.
Ottawa’s Windmill Development has signed an agreement to purchase the 37-acre site that has long been eyed by planners and visionaries with views to reshaping Ottawa’s waterfront. The company says it expects to bring plans before the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau this spring.
The National Capital Commission had once hoped to redevelop the Domtar lands itself. But plans for the NCC to purchase the property fell through several years ago and, since then, Domtar has been trying to sell the site. After months of due diligence, Windmill announced last month that it had purchased the site and plans to turn it into what it is calling Canada’s most sustainable mixed-use community. NCC officials say they are working with Windmill on the project.
The land on the islands around Chaudière Falls has historical and sacred significance. It was a traditional meeting place for First Nations and later became the base for the lumber trade and pulp and paper industry around which Ottawa was built.
When Windmill met with members of the public last month seeking input on the project, it brought design principles, but little to look at. The company says it wants to seek input before unveiling design plans for the site.
The students at South Florida University, however — none of whom had ever seen Ottawa in person when they made the designs — have sketched drawings and models of what they think the future of the islands and the nearby shoreline should look like. Their work includes riverside boardwalks, park space around the Chaudière Falls, housing, stores and restaurants and the repurposing of heritage industrial buildings and artifacts.
Inside their classroom is a scale model of a swath of Ottawa’s downtown, complete with Parliament buildings, museums and waterfront. The students worked using satellite photographs. From that, students have built design plans that would turn the Chaudière islands and nearby Quebec shoreline from post-industrial wasteland to vibrant communities and public gathering places which would represent a “missing link” in Ottawa’s system of parkways and bicycle paths and would be a draw for tourists and people from around the area.
The work is being done by the six students from the U.S. and around the world who came to Ottawa for the first time in October to present their projects to city and heritage officials. The students and Bassett also met with officials from Windmill Development while in Ottawa to tour and present their visions for the post-industrial site. The reception from developers and other officials, she said, was positive.
Not all of the ideas presented are likely to be reflected in redevelopment of the site. One of the three designs proposed naturalizing the Chaudière Falls — which would require removing the dam that is used to provide power — something unlikely to happen. And Domtar officials wondered how realistic some of the students’ plans were for a walkway that cantilevered over the falls.
But Bassett said the benefit of having urban design students produce concepts for the areas is that they can explore ideas without constraint.
She said the site offers students the opportunity to work on the kinds of reclaimed post-industrial design projects that are springing up in cities across North America. After coming to Ottawa, her students visited Toronto’s Evergreen Brickworks and Distillery District, which have both built vibrant centres from reclaimed post-industrial districts.
Bassett, who studied architecture at Carleton University and urban design at Harvard University, said she has always been fascinated with the area around LeBreton Flats and the Domtar lands. A summer internship with the National Capital Commission, during which she wrote descriptions of the agency’s four major urban projects, piqued her interest in urban design.
That early interest has brought her and students from as far afield as Vietnam and the Middle East to the shores of the Ottawa River with ideas that could shape the city’s future.
She begins work with a second studio group on a similar project this month, and Bassett said she hopes her students’ projects can lead to a closer collaboration with the developers of the Domtar lands.
“It is a spectacular site,” she said. “The public loves these post industrial sites.”
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