When I wrote about the recently demolished TD Bank branch on Sparks Street, I had noted that the one-storey midcentury gem necessitated the demolition of existing buildings. Here is a view of the facades taken on August 8, 1956. It’s all academic now, but I still prefer Mathers and Haldenby’s work to what it replaced.
When I wrote about the Alta Vista Shopping Centre a few weeks back, I did not have access to a clear(er) version of the sketch run in the Ottawa Journal. Now that I have located one, I’d like to share it. There’s something about the fantasy world of midcentury architectural sketches I love.
https://www.instagram.com/p/3uxk86Nvmw/
Admittedly, I have been slow to warm up to the cold concrete of the Brutalist aesthetic. Like most, I had found the style cold, inflexible, and forbidding. As many examples of these concrete creations approach an age at which their heritage must be considered, a number of advocates have appeared to rehabilitate the image of this misunderstood style. While those advocates like Sarah Gelbard or Shawn Micallef might not win everyone over, I’ve personally found the arguments convincing.
A few weeks ago, when I wrote about Bertram Witt and his numerous apartment buildings, I briefly discussed his brother-in-law Doug O’Connell’s purchase of the lot at 222 MacLaren. The former home of merchant Ralph McMorran was, just before the construction of the Warren Arms apartments, being used by George Murray as the headquarters of his grocery order business, Ottawa Domestic Provisioners and its Magic Cupboard service.
I first began to think about just where in the city architects were based when I began to notice that so many of them had set up shop on MacLaren street in the mid-1960s. By mapping their locations, I am not looking to make any definite argument or speculate about a neighbourhood-level Creative Class sort of situation. In a similar way that I have worked with Ottawa’s apartments, I intend to repeat this for previous and subsequent years.
Another photograph that caught my eye from the “Meter Maids” collection: this time, one of the new recruits writing a ticket at the corner of Elgin and Frank. One thing that stood out to me here is the Kenniston Apartments in the background, previous to the conversion of its basement to commercial and restaurant spaces.
Dorothea Athans was ambitious. Really ambitious. And determined. Characterized as “a visionary” with “a force of will that was incredible”, Athans (and her husband Alex, a chemist) arrived in Ottawa from Greece in 1955. That she was one of the few women in Ottawa get involved in property development would have made hers a good story. Her 1980 plan to develop a movie studio near Hawthorne Road, however, is what makes hers a great story. Unfortunately, her ambitions in the Ottawa area were met with little more than disappointment, frustration, and – in at least two cases – being caught on the wrong side of the region’s green belt policies.
Having recently referred to Imbro’s Restaurant twice recently, I figured that it would be a good idea to share its Rideau street context in 1968. Note the Parkway Motor Inn (1957) in the distance.
I recently wrote a bit about the adventures and misadventures in development experienced by Bernard Herman’s City Parking Ltd. (Citicom) in Ottawa. The photograph above was taken by Bill Cadzow of the CMHC in February 1973, just before City Parking announced its Canada Centre project. For all it could have been, the Canada Centre was permanently iced when the National Capital Commission purchased the developer’s entire downtown portfolio in 1976. It would not be until 1984 that the site would be constructed on, with the Manulife Place office being completed in 1987.
Another photograph from Ted Grant’s series “Meter Maids“. This time looking north on Bank, half way between Laurier Avenue and Slater. Outside of James Strutt’s rather disappointing renovation of the Jackson Building, one thing to notice in the shot of the Stage Door Restaurant. It’s difficult to make out on the southwest corner of Bank and Slater: just beside the third car parked on the left.