Let's dissect a few things.
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Mockups for the building, named for the Anishinaabemowin word for “storytelling,” reveal what looks like an IKEA store on steroids, a melamine monument to a broken procurement process where the lowest price is the law.
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An IKEA store is a blue and yellow box. Not seeing it at all.
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Never mind a design competition, or the thought of prioritizing aesthetics over cost.
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They did "interview" quite a few teams of architects, and the lead picked has quite a good reputation nationally.
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This building, destined for the edge of a field along a traffic thoroughfare,
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Major improvements coming to Albert, with wide sidewalks and bike lanes.
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seven minutes away on foot from the nearest LRT station,
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As Harley pointed out, that is quite an exaggeration.
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at the bottom of an escarpment that cuts the building off from the city,
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It's about mid-way down the escarpment.
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will be the off-brand version of the Calgary or Halifax libraries: an unimaginative pastiche of function over form.
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I agree Calgary did it better, but I never understood why Halifax's library is presented as being such a masterpiece. It's a fine building well suited for a mid-sized city, but would have been quite a disappointment had it been built in Ottawa first.
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Adisoke will reside on the edge of LeBreton at 555 Albert St., right at the southbound turnoff for Bronson Avenue — a strange no man’s land flanked by condo buildings. It is part of the city’s enduring commitment to turn LeBreton Flats into something more than a big empty field.
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Condo dwellers don't deserve easy access to a library?
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The better solution, McKenney says, would have been to take a page from Calgary’s library and integrate the Pimisi LRT station right into Adisoke.
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There's no station integrated into Calgary's Library. It's just built over the tracks. It's a little closer to the nearest station, granted not uphill, but requires crossing one or two signalized intersections, so probably a wash time wise.
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And include housing, including affordable units, on top of the library, they add.
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That cheapens a project, IMO, like OAG with a hotel/condo tower on top, the municipal institution feels like an afterthought. I think most would agree that a stand alone building has a greater impact.
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“And then, make transit free from, I don’t know, U of O and Pimisi, or U of O and even Tunney’s [Pasture]. That means that essentially, the central library for anyone living in that whole area is as close as your nearest transit station,” McKenney says.
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I prefer lowering fares rather than creating a free transit zone. That said, free evenings and weekends might be interesting to explore.
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Central to all this nonsense is the man of the hour: Mayor Jim Watson. He is the so-called puppeteer of the “Watson Club,” the derisive name given to the councillors who vote with him more often than they vote against him, and the person ultimately responsible for the decline of the Ottawa core.
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He supported the rail tunnel to get buses off the street, the, well you know, central library, the OAG, rebuilding Rideau, Elgin Street, Lansdowne Park, significant cycling improvements, countless private development projects. Watson was suburban minded much of the time, but overall still was good to the downtown core as well. The one thing we can reproach him for is keeping urban Councillors off the City's Leadership boards and terrible urban transit.
The library won't be an international showpiece, but will be an impressive build nationally, I believe, if a little short of landmark status. The location seems odd today, but with the development of LeBreton Flats, it will make more sense. At its current location, it will stand on its own as a local landmark, visible from multiple viewpoints, including from the Portage Bridge. Had it been built in the CBD, it may have been a bit lost in a forest of towers. Similarly if it had been built at Pimisi station. Between the Library, the War Museum and (hopefully) the arena, LeBreton will have 3 solid anchors to build upon a fantastic new district for locals and tourists alike.