Community leaders from Centretown and other downtown areas are urging municipal planners not to let the city’s new multimillion-dollar street furniture program detract from the individual identities of Ottawa’s neighbourhoods.
Street furniture across Ottawa, including benches, trash bins, bike racks and bus shelters, is scheduled to be comprehensively revamped in 2010.
While some communities are worried that the streetscape makeover could lead to an uninspiring uniformity, others say smart furniture design would be the best solution.
“It is about the look and feel of our main streets,” says Michael Murr, manager of strategic initiatives for the City of Ottawa, “and that we have streets that are as uncluttered and as beautiful as possible.”
The integrated street furniture program will replace the jumble of existing elements and streamline the design across the city. A 20-year contract will be awarded to one company in charge of design, placement and advertising of furniture.
“Currently, there’s a range of styles and formats that really have no relationship to one another,” says Murr. “It’s that lack of relationship that really leads to that lack of co-ordination, that sense of visual clutter.”
Making streets look and feel better is what matters, but communities need to have a say in the project to keep their own identity, says Shawn Menard, president of the Centretown Citizens’ Community Association.
“Having a clean city is important, and I don’t think you have to have everything the same to accomplish that,” he says. “I think that the intricacies of community and the way that (the street furniture) is designed will make the project successful.”
At a February meeting of about 50 urban designers, many suggested opting out of the street furniture program should be an option for communities that feel the program encroaches on their own initiatives.
“We need flexibility of the system, because the idea is that this system would work throughout the entire city, including not just the downtown urban areas but the rural villages,” says David Becker, an urban designer for FoTenn Consultants.
“If we have community support behind these things they won’t be abused and they will look good and be usable,” adds Mike Sirois, a partner at DW Product Development Inc.
Annie Hillis, executive director of Wellington West Business Improvement Area, says she’s worried about a uniform design for the city.
“We are distinct and we need to be treated distinctly,” she says.
The Hintonburg community has put time and money into revamping its streets over the last few years, and if the current program goes through, Hillis says all this planning will go to waste.
“It would undermine everything that we’ve been doing for two years, because we want to create a better identity here, we want to create our own uniqueness.”
However, Becker says a simple and contemporary design would fit in any community no matter what its identity.
“My personal preference is to see a uniform design system throughout the city that is clean, simple, contemporary in appearance and functions well,” he says. “Different communities would promote their identity with either a logo or a special typeface.”
New technology is also an option, with designers at the meeting mentioning ideas such as WiFi, solar panels and systems that would call out the next bus.
However, Becker says these things may be a long shot for the city.
“We’re not there yet in terms of technology or cost,” he says.
The city plans for the program to come in at little to no cost for the city, hoping advertising will cover most expenses.
Regardless, Menard and Hillis are worried advertising will take the forefront in the new design.
“It shouldn’t be a profit-making motive,” Menard says. “You have advertising up and it should be tasteful and sensible, but it should be at break-even cost. It should be geared towards the comfort of citizens rather than the bottom line for the city.”
Sirois says a marriage between technology, design and community is possible.
“Advertising, if done properly, is not a painful thing,” he says.
Sirois suggests bus shelters be equipped with screens to advertise electronically. That way, he says, local and national advertisers could weigh in.
“You install them once and no one has to turn up throughout the year to change the banner, change the poster,” he says. “You push a button and download new information to it.”
He says a certain percentage of time could be dedicated to local advertisers or transit information, allowing community ads to preserve a sense of community identity.
Touch screens could even help people plan bus routes, look up bus times and find out when they will arrive at their destination, he adds.
Above all, the project won’t have any clout unless the community is behind it, Sirois says.
“If the communities buy into this and they see this as a positive for their community, for them riding the bus, for their friends coming to visit, for the overall vision of the city … these bus shelters will (belong to) the community.”