Potential Third Tower Overshadows Lansdowne 2.0

Proposed plan for towering residential buildings would hinder the "visual prominence" of some of the city’s heritage gems, including the Aberdeen Pavilion, seen here in 2017 |  Photo: D. Jones

Monday, November 6, 2023

Ottawa Citizen, By Marlo Glass

The spectre of a third residential tower looms large in the minds of heritage-minded Lansdowne 2.0 critics.

On Monday, the city’s built heritage committee heard Lansdowne 2.0’s plan for towering residential buildings would hinder the “visual prominence” of some of the city’s heritage gems, including the Aberdeen Pavilion, an ornate exhibition hall and National Historic Site built in the late 1800s.

While the city staff report concluded the towers ultimately wouldn’t have a negative impact on the heritage buildings in Lansdowne Park, Hunter McGill of Heritage Ottawa said his group is concerned the towers will crowd the historic building, cast shadows and otherwise alter the perception of the heritage structure.

As it stands, the latest plan for Lansdowne includes two towers, eliminating a third tower that was in the original Lansdowne 2.0 proposal. But last week, Coun. Tim Tierney brought forward a motion to add that third, 40-storey tower back in.

After days of presentations from businesses and community members last week, councillors batted around the idea of using the third tower exclusively for non-profit housing, although that would require a need for a partner to join in the development. Council will vote on that and a spate of other amendments later this week.

A third tower would be a “very, very unfortunate development,” McGill told the committee, for its “bulk and the inescapable shadow it would create.” His sentiments were echoed by others who presented to the committee.

The 40- and 25-storey towers in the current plan would literally overshadow the Aberdeen Pavilion, casting shadows that will obscure its “character-defining” features, a report prepared prepared for the city by ERA Architects Inc. says. The pavilion would be obscured by shadows for most of the day during the fall and winter months, but the report says the shadows would be “minimal” during the summer for both the pavilion and nearby Horticulture Building.

Anne Fitzpatrick, a senior heritage planner with the City of Ottawa, said the shadow and sightline impacts to the building would be less significant with two towers compared to three. The two-tower approach also means there’s space to include a new public green space around the Aberdeen Pavillion, she noted.

“From a heritage perspective, a two-tower option was preferred to a three-tower,” she said.

The report says the buildings’ designers should explore opportunities to “shape” the towers in order to reduce the shadows they cast onto the Aberdeen Pavilion, horticulture building and surrounding neighbourhoods.

The park is an “evolved cultural landscape” that is “dynamic in nature,” the report reads, and the changes proposed by Lansdowne 2.0 “will build on past interventions to adapt the Site to meet the City’s evolving needs.”

Committee member Carolyn Quinn brought forward a motion that the committee not support the reinstatement of the third tower, “due to the negative heritage implications.” The motion ultimately didn’t pass, with committee chair Coun. Rawlson King saying he didn’t want to be “overly prescriptive or presumptive” with what goes before council later this week.

Speaking after the meeting, King said the motion demonstrates the “substantive concerns” from the committee about the potential third tower, calling it a domino effect. There are ramifications to adding the third tower back to the plan, he said, “and I supposed one of the ramifications would be the heritage implications.”