Lisa Xing, Centretown News
Ottawa’s newest plans for securing a bid for the national portrait gallery has sparked some concerns from Centretown residents and put pressure on city council to meet a federal deadline for proposing a potential location.
Ottawa residents voiced their concerns about preliminary designs for two 27-storey towers and gallery on the parking lot between Lisgar, Nepean and Metcalfe streets. More than 40 people came to the public meeting at city hall earlier this month to learn more about the project and share their thoughts.
Jerry Grey, local artist and member of the Friends of the Portrait Gallery, is concerned the building plans are too vague. “We really don’t know what we are going to get in the end,” she said.
Grey still supports the building because she said Ottawa needs to do whatever it takes to keep the gallery.
Some Ottawa residents are upset about the height of the building.
The two residential towers will be 11 metres shorter than the nearby Place Bell building. Residents living on Nepean Street are concerned about the wind tunnel and the sun shadow effects the building would cause.
The issue of parking was also brought up. Several people are concerned there will not be enough room for gallery visitors and tenants to share the space. The proposed building will have an underground parking garage that exits onto Lisgar Street.
Claridge Homes vice president Neil Malhotra said the building was designed with residents in mind. The towers will be on the north side, nearer to other high-profile buildings, while the low entrance of the building will face south.
“We want the building to reflect the scale of the neighborhood it is facing,” said senior architect Nathan Godlovitch of Dan Hanganu Architects.
“There will be a transition between residential and civic space.”
Malhotra said the building is still at the conceptual stage because the specifications of the future portrait gallery will only be revealed after the winning city is declared.
The federal government opened the bid to nine cities across Canada after halting construction at the original Wellington Street location. Ottawa is at a disadvantage because the location cannot include federally owned buildings. Choices such as the Lorne Building on Elgin Street and the Government Conference Centre on Rideau Street are no longer options.
Mayor Larry O’Brien wrote a letter to the federal government asking that the restriction be waived but the Mayor’s office said they have not received a reply and do not expect to.
In order for Ottawa to stay in the running, it has to rezone the Metcalfe site before the April 16 deadline. Although current zoning allows for a high-rise building, the architects need double the space allowed for the proposed 400-unit towers.
Gary Beech, who owns properties adjacent of the proposed site, said architects are overloading the property. He said doubling the space is a bad idea and the designs should be scaled-down.
Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar also came to the meeting to pass around a petition to keep the portrait gallery in Ottawa. He has collected 150 signatures so far and plans to present the petition in Parliament after Easter.
“It’s about telling our story and where we tell our stories should be in the nation’s capital,” Dewar said.
He said he hoped the gallery would have remained at its Wellington location, but would be happy to see it in any Ottawa building.
The final project is expected to be presented to the city in early April. Developers and city council will be rushing to rezone the site in order to have it completed for the bid’s deadline. Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes invites community members concerned about the building plans to write to the city.