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We already know this about the LeBreton Flats proposals to be unveiled Tuesday: there aren’t enough of them.
The National Capital Commission began with four proponents and ended with two. There may be lots of splendid, innovative ideas in those proposals, but two is still two.
Truth is, the NCC has been sent plenty — maybe dozens — of ideas over the years, some of which have come our way as well. We have a lot of smart, creative people in this city and country, and we ought to be looking at 10 or 20 visions, not a pair with significant overlap.
Some of the LeBreton ideas the NCC is not talking about:
1. The Eden Project
Local technology executive David Hayes points us to this well-known attraction in Cornwall, England. An old crater was converted into the world’s largest indoor rain forest via a series of biodomes made with a woven glass to help control temperatures year-round. There are lots more: outdoor theatres for summer concerts, seasonal gardens, winding paths for all-season walking, mounted exhibitions, programs that employ the disadvantaged. (For a peek, visit www.edenproject.com.)
There are indoor classrooms and fun stuff like the country’s longest zip-line, and elevated walkways through different climate zones.
Some of you know about a long-standing plan to create a proper botanical garden in Ottawa. Is there a way to do this? Can we somehow incorporate the Ottawa River, or create observation decks? Think of the High Line in New York. Is this a way to echo that oasis feeling in central Ottawa?
Much of the Eden Project was built with lottery/millennium funding. In any case, the English version cost less than a modern hockey arena and, since 2001, it has attracted more than 13 million paying visitors. Imagine being able to walk from LeBreton’s LRT station, on a minus 20 day in February, into a warm indoor forest with tropical birds.
Imagine? No, we’re not even doing that.
2. The Canada Building
Ron Brown is a retired Ottawa resident and claims no particular expertise in land development. But he’s sent along an interesting idea he calls a “Provincial Heritage, Tourism and Development Emporium.”
Essentially, it is a long structure shaped like the map of Canada. Each province would be responsible for its piece, in terms of developing the contents to best highlight the glories of Manitoba, et al. The Rockies, he muses, could be glass pyramids, the Great Lakes could be big ponds, the Peace Tower could be an observation deck to view the whole modelled country.
He sees a little railway running from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland and heritage points illustrating where the Vikings landed or major immigration gateways. There could be a winter ski hill on the Rockies roof and skating on the frozen ponds, displays of fishing, logging and other resource industries. You get it. Plus the usual venues for food, entertainment, weddings, what-have-you.
Brown sent the idea to his MP, city councillor and the minister responsible for the NCC. The Canada Building? No takers: a pipe dream, true north, strong and free.
3. A sports museum or Canadian hockey centre
These are two ideas, from two different individuals, but thematically they’re similar. Jean-Marie Leduc, 79, is a local collector best-known for his vast trove of antique and historic skates, some from Olympians, one pair made of 15,000-year-old bone. He has more than 350 pairs and they’re worth a small fortune.
Why not, he asks, a new museum dedicated to Canadian sport? He’s talking about something broader than a hall of fame, which each sports tends to have. Instead, a museum that would display and celebrate the origins of hockey, the saga of the Canadian Football League, our early baseball days, our figure skating successes?
Did a Canadian not invent basketball? Did Babe Ruth not once barnstorm in Hull? What about our Olympic stories, from Barbara Ann Scott to Ben Johnson? Sport, of course, is social history. How we played is how we lived. I think he’s on to something.
In a similar vein, former Ottawa city councillor Peter Harris pitches the Canadian Centre of Hockey. It would tell the story of hockey in Canada at all levels — from tykes to international play, on the ice and in our cultural fabric — and dovetail with a new NHL arena.
There so much more but, in the end, a simple question: Why is NCC burying all these ideas?
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
The National Capital Commission began with four proponents and ended with two. There may be lots of splendid, innovative ideas in those proposals, but two is still two.
Truth is, the NCC has been sent plenty — maybe dozens — of ideas over the years, some of which have come our way as well. We have a lot of smart, creative people in this city and country, and we ought to be looking at 10 or 20 visions, not a pair with significant overlap.
Some of the LeBreton ideas the NCC is not talking about:
1. The Eden Project
Local technology executive David Hayes points us to this well-known attraction in Cornwall, England. An old crater was converted into the world’s largest indoor rain forest via a series of biodomes made with a woven glass to help control temperatures year-round. There are lots more: outdoor theatres for summer concerts, seasonal gardens, winding paths for all-season walking, mounted exhibitions, programs that employ the disadvantaged. (For a peek, visit www.edenproject.com.)
There are indoor classrooms and fun stuff like the country’s longest zip-line, and elevated walkways through different climate zones.
Some of you know about a long-standing plan to create a proper botanical garden in Ottawa. Is there a way to do this? Can we somehow incorporate the Ottawa River, or create observation decks? Think of the High Line in New York. Is this a way to echo that oasis feeling in central Ottawa?
Much of the Eden Project was built with lottery/millennium funding. In any case, the English version cost less than a modern hockey arena and, since 2001, it has attracted more than 13 million paying visitors. Imagine being able to walk from LeBreton’s LRT station, on a minus 20 day in February, into a warm indoor forest with tropical birds.
Imagine? No, we’re not even doing that.
2. The Canada Building
Ron Brown is a retired Ottawa resident and claims no particular expertise in land development. But he’s sent along an interesting idea he calls a “Provincial Heritage, Tourism and Development Emporium.”
Essentially, it is a long structure shaped like the map of Canada. Each province would be responsible for its piece, in terms of developing the contents to best highlight the glories of Manitoba, et al. The Rockies, he muses, could be glass pyramids, the Great Lakes could be big ponds, the Peace Tower could be an observation deck to view the whole modelled country.
He sees a little railway running from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland and heritage points illustrating where the Vikings landed or major immigration gateways. There could be a winter ski hill on the Rockies roof and skating on the frozen ponds, displays of fishing, logging and other resource industries. You get it. Plus the usual venues for food, entertainment, weddings, what-have-you.
Brown sent the idea to his MP, city councillor and the minister responsible for the NCC. The Canada Building? No takers: a pipe dream, true north, strong and free.
3. A sports museum or Canadian hockey centre
These are two ideas, from two different individuals, but thematically they’re similar. Jean-Marie Leduc, 79, is a local collector best-known for his vast trove of antique and historic skates, some from Olympians, one pair made of 15,000-year-old bone. He has more than 350 pairs and they’re worth a small fortune.
Why not, he asks, a new museum dedicated to Canadian sport? He’s talking about something broader than a hall of fame, which each sports tends to have. Instead, a museum that would display and celebrate the origins of hockey, the saga of the Canadian Football League, our early baseball days, our figure skating successes?
Did a Canadian not invent basketball? Did Babe Ruth not once barnstorm in Hull? What about our Olympic stories, from Barbara Ann Scott to Ben Johnson? Sport, of course, is social history. How we played is how we lived. I think he’s on to something.
In a similar vein, former Ottawa city councillor Peter Harris pitches the Canadian Centre of Hockey. It would tell the story of hockey in Canada at all levels — from tykes to international play, on the ice and in our cultural fabric — and dovetail with a new NHL arena.
There so much more but, in the end, a simple question: Why is NCC burying all these ideas?
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
