OTTAWA COMMUNITY NEWS, By Laura Mueller
The National Capital Commission wants to know which elements of three themes - history, aboriginal culture and art - people would like to see in new public areas at LeBreton Flats.
The federal agency plans to spend up to $700,000 to make improvements to three corners of the vacant Booth Street and Wellington Street intersection.
The themes emerged from a May 13 consultation the NCC held. Richard Daigneault, the NCC's lead on the project, said he wants feedback on which ideas and elements should be incorporated into the new public spaces.
"It could include different aspects of each theme and maybe a combination," he said.
The historical theme, titled "Homage," is centred on the history of the flats as an industrial area with pulp and paper manufacturing with a working-class heritage.
David Flemming of Heritage Ottawa was encouraged to see the concepts presented because he said Ottawa needs to do a better job of recognizing the history of the labourers who built the capital. "One of the things that's always been lacking on the flats is a real appreciation of what it has been to the city of Ottawa," Flemming said. "This was the industrial transportation centre of the city, before it was the capital ... So I think we need somewhere to do this."
Flemming suggested merging the "Homage" theme and interpretive signs with a theme suggested to honour the Aboriginal experience of the site, titled "Pimisi Gateway." That theme suggests building large landscape art using soil and grass landforms integrated with water and floral elements to celebrate the Algonquin nation's cultural symbol, the Kichisippi pimisi (eel), which the future light-rail station at the site is named after.
The third theme, "Capital Art-scape," resonated most with Nour Aoudé, a blogger and "urban decoder" for Youthful Cities, a global initiative to rank the world's top 100 cities from a youth perspective.
The theme aims to make the area into a creative space with public art, community art programs and interactive elements.
"I like the forward-looking side," Aoudé said. "Art and contemporary design speaks to me and what I want Ottawa to look like."
The NCC will collect suggestions and bring the final plan to the NCC's board of directors for approval, likely in September. The concepts can be viewed at ncc-ccn.gc.ca and comments can be sent to info@ncc-ccn.caConstruction would begin next summer and would be completed by 2017, Daigneault said.