2025

930 & 1010 Somerset Street West | Formal Review | Official Plan & Zoning By-Law Application | City of Ottawa, Hobin Architecture and Projet Paysage

Key recommendations

• The Panel support this beautiful proposal and expresses strong appreciation for the concept of a public realm fabric that ties the village together.
• The Panel acknowledges the complexity of the site and appreciates how the team has capitalized on these complexities - particularly the grading - to create a dynamic relationship between the development and Somerset Street, both at grade and below grade.
• The Panel highlights the value of the proposal’s deliberate effort to connect neighbourhoods and enhance integration with the surrounding street network.
• The Panel supports the urban school model and integration of playgrounds, describing it as precedent-setting not only in Ottawa but from a Canadian perspective.
• The Panel raised concerns regarding the school entrance, bus drop-off, and vehicular integration, and encouraged the design team to continue exploring solutions.
  • A suggestion was made to consider placing school buses further away from the school to allow for a short walk, referencing traditional school arrival experiences that could benefit the morning routine and enhance the public realm.
• The Panel encourages further exploration of accessibility, particularly within the residential neighborhood, given the grade changes across the site.
• The Panel has concerns with the application of a two-storey podium expression along the entire Somerset frontage and suggests additional study of the podium heights.
  • The Panel recommends evaluating where podiums might be elevated and where gaps could be closed in to reinforce the Somerset Street edge.
  • The Panel appreciates the variety of terracing approaches along the residential components.
• The Panel suggests simplifying the materiality across the project to support cohesion and clarity in design.

Site design and public realm

• The Panel supports the concept of porosity but is concerned that the porosity may resemble too much of a tower in the park proposal when viewed along Somerset Street. Understanding the importance of how the open spaces will be used and animated over time.
• The Panel encourages a more detailed examination of the transition at the Somerset bridge, emphasizing its importance as an urban interface or gateway feature and calling for unique design responses.
• The Panel highlights the importance of well-designed pedestrian connections and outdoor rooms framed by buildings, especially between the recreation centre, future school, and parks.
• The Panel encourages enhancements to the street character, particularly Street A, to foster a coherent walking and public realm network.
• The Panel has concerns with having the school surrounded by roads on three sides and recommends considering future phasing options that improve school connectivity and reduce vehicular adjacency for children safety.
• The Panel supports a thoughtful approach to border conditions and stresses the need for safe and seamless connections between the school, adjacent streets, and the park.
• The Panel suggests exploring opportunities to create vibrant, stronger animated edges, particularly at locations that will experience high pedestrian flows during events or peak school times.

Sustainability

• The Panel underscores that sustainability in this context extends beyond energy and materials to include stormwater management, grading, and landscape integration.
• The Panel suggests using stormwater as a visible, integrated design asset - potentially as a feature or organizing element of the public realm.
• The Panel encourages an overall sustainability framework that includes biodiversity, indigenous placemaking, and microclimate considerations, beginning at this early Master Plan stage.
• The Panel emphasizes that these sustainable strategies should be embedded in the site infrastructure and landscape now, so that they may inform and guide future development partners and phases.

Built form and architecture

• The Panel appreciates the urban school typology and its potential to deliver a compact, multi-level educational facility, but recommends refining the school’s architectural expression to reflect its identity more clearly.
• The Panel suggests reconsidering the neutral architectural language of the school, proposing a more playful and colourful palette that distinguishes it from adjacent residential towers.
• The Panel recommends reconsidering building massing, particularly the spacing between towers, and exploring alternate forms such as extending he podiums to minimize the apertures between towers along Somerset Street.
• The Panel encourages taking advantage of the base building and podiums to enhance architectural presence and support functional uses such as underpass integration and tunnel connections.
• The Panel emphasizes the need to ensure the interface between buildings and grade contributes to a safe, well-lit, and inviting public realm, especially in relation to the proposed underpass.
• The Panel recommends using articulation, and materiality to reinforce identity and avoid the monotony of an overly neutral palette, especially for key civic components, like the school.

945 Bank Street (Lansdowne 2.0 – North Side Stands) | Formal Review | Site Plan Control Application | City of Ottawa, Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, Brisbin Brook Beynon Architects, Fotenn Planning + Design, CSW, ERA Architects

Key recommendations

• The Panel acknowledges progress in the design and recognizes that it is moving in the right direction. However, further refinements are recommended to enhance architectural cohesion and public realm integration.
• The Panel has concerns with the treatment of the wood paneling on the arena noting that it requires further refinement to ensure it visually connects with the adjacent building. The rendering does not effectively communicate this relationship.
• The Panel supports the introduction of a warmer colour palette and recommends extending this approach into the landscape design.
• The Panel suggests that the treatment of the upper levels of the stadium requires refinement, with a focus on embracing the steel structure and ensuring a cohesive and polished architectural expression.
• The Panel recommends that the fan zone and parking lane should prioritize the pedestrian experience, ensuring that even when vehicles are present, the space is perceived as an extension of the public realm.
• The Panel encourages developing nighttime renderings and carefully considering the lighting strategy to balance visibility, safety, and animation while avoiding unnecessary glare, particularly towards the neighbouring existing and proposed residential developments.

Site design and public realm

• The Panel suggests integrating warm tones and dynamic design elements into the landscape to counteract the currently neutral and gray surroundings.
• The Panel recommends that the interface between the stadium and surrounding spaces should be enhanced to encourage active public engagement, even outside event times.
  • Consider ways of enhancing the pedestrian experience to ensure that public spaces feel vibrant and welcoming. The potential use of thermoplastic patterning or other paving treatments would help animate expansive paved areas.
• The Panel encourages exploring more options for the transition of the laneway into a functional and flexible space. It should be more than just an asphalt surface, with opportunities for it to serve as a fan zone, gathering space, or other adaptable public use.

Sustainability

• The Panel encourages the use of sustainable materials and green infrastructure within the public realm, especially in the Lane, including permeable paving and increased vegetation.
• There is a suggestion to incorporate green elements such as climbing vines, shade structures, and integrated landscaping to soften the architectural massing and improve environmental performance.
• The Panel suggests that the planters should be enlarged where possible and be designed to incorporate green infrastructure solutions for stormwater management and ecological benefits.
• The Panel suggests exploring opportunities for dynamic and energy-efficient lighting to ensure safety while minimizing unnecessary light pollution.

Built form & architecture

• The Panel recommends that the architectural relationship between the arena and the adjacent building be further refined to establish a stronger dialogue through materiality, massing, and articulation.
  • The overall goal should be to transform the site into an inviting, well-integrated sports and public facility that contributes positively to the city's urban fabric.
• The Panel suggests that the use of metal panels and curved elements should be explored to create a more seamless and fluid architectural transition between building volumes.
• The Panel recommends further collaboration with the project structural engineers to enhance the detailing and articulation of steel members to elevate the overall design quality.
• The Panel appreciates the introduction of signage, colour adjustments, and façade treatments, but additional refinements should be made to ensure these elements contribute to a more humanized and visually engaging streetscape.
• The Panel recommends that the integration of lighting should go beyond functional illumination, considering ways to create an engaging, dynamic nighttime presence that can also be used to advertise events, inspired by precedents such as Dundas Square, Toronto.
• The Panel recommends exploring a stronger upper and lower volume expression to reduce the perceived scale of the stadium stands.

1900 & 2000 City Park Drive | Formal Review | Official Plan & Zoning By-law Amendment | NEUF Architect(e)s, and Colonnade BridgePort 

Key recommendations

• The Panel appreciates the high-quality renders, especially at the ground level, in the presentation and the level of thought that went into the master plan.
• The Panel expresses concerns about the repetition of building typologies, particularly along City Park Drive.
  • The Panel suggests reducing the scale along City Park Drive and linking podiums to create a more cohesive and varied built form.
  • Explore dropping the height of Tower D to improve shadow impacts on the park and consider reshaping Tower E to enhance public space usability.
  • The materiality on the podium should be used in a noble way, looking at three-dimensional aspects of it and reducing the amount of veneer applications.
  • Reducing sameness is a common theme, and more diversity in building heights, forms, and character should be considered.
• Some  Panel members encouraged that the master plan be guided by landscape design, emphasizing discovery and joy while incorporating carbon sequestration strategies.
  • The Panel recommends that the park should not feel like an island surrounded by roadways but should instead be better connected and integrated into the site plan.
  • The Panel recommends reducing the road network in the plan. There are opportunities to reduce the amount of asphalt, particularly by exploring an East-West High Street.
  • The theme of creating a village-like environment should be explored further, ensuring that public spaces foster a strong community identity through varying  heights and building typologies.

Site design and public realm

• The Panel expresses concerns that the proposed parks should not feel like isolated islands; they should be better connected and integrated with the pedestrian network.
• The Panel encourages exploring the introduction of a high street running through the development, consolidating retail and creating a central pedestrian-friendly hub.
• The Panel recommends pedestrian and cycling circulation is prioritized and distinct from vehicular routes, reducing potential conflicts.
  • The connectivity between the site and the surrounding community should be strengthened, with a people-first approach that creates a safer environment for the residents, particularly in the transition to adjacent neighbourhoods.
  • The site design should align with adjacent street patterns, setbacks, and building character to ensure a seamless transition between the development and its surroundings.
• The Panel recommends that a stronger sense of place should be established through dynamic and varied public realm spaces, incorporating meaningful green spaces and gathering areas.
  • Shadow impacts on open spaces should be further studied and mitigated, potentially through massing adjustments.
• The Panel suggests that commercial and community spaces should be carefully located along key pedestrian routes, particularly along the high street, to create a lively and activated streetscape.
• The Panel encourages that the village-like environment, which distinguishing it from a campus-like feel, be reflected in public realm design, reinforcing a pedestrian-focused and community-oriented approach.

Sustainability

• The Panel supports that the project should leverage its scale to integrate meaningful sustainability strategies, such as rainwater management, carbon sequestration, and enhanced green infrastructure, weaving nature into the fabric of the site to improve the microclimate, biodiversity, and use of rainwater as a resource rather than a waste product. These should be prioritized within the site.
  • The development should promote sustainable transportation options by enhancing cycling infrastructure, reducing car dependency, and exploring alternative roadway configurations to enhance pedestrian movement.

Built form and architecture

• The Panel recommends breaking the uniformity of the tower and podium typology and incorporating more varied building forms.
  • Consider reducing heights along City Park Drive and employing an all-brick treatment to establish a stronger relationship with the existing urban character. 
  • Ensure podiums are well-defined and use durable materials, rather than incorporating brick as a veneer at the tower base.
• The Panel encourages architectural expression should be more dynamic, moving away from a formulaic approach to massing and facade articulation.
  • Explore the possibility of lowering or redistributing Tower D to improve sunlight penetration into public spaces.
• The Panel suggests that materiality should be carefully considered to ensure a high-quality, lasting contribution to the neighborhood, with particular attention to human-scaled design.
• The Panel encourages exploring the architectural typologies, with a mix of mid-rise and high-rise elements to create a diverse and human-scaled streetscape.