City presents design panel for Lansdowne reno

The group that wants to redevelop Ottawa's Lansdowne Park introduced the team Thursday that will decide how the elaborate collection of sports fields, shops, cinemas, condos and green space would actually look.

It's an impressive team with the likes of George Dark, an urban designer from Toronto, who told CBC News he wants to save Lansdowne Park from the clutches of mediocrity.

He said he saw little in the original concept for the park that excited him.

"I didn't really think there was a design. I think there was a series of diagrams designed to back-stop a commercial discussion. It does not reflect the kind of hard, slogging, detailed evolution of ideas that is required for this site," Dark said.

Also on the Strategic Design Review and Advisory Panel are Rick Haldenby, the director of the School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo a specialist in mid-sized cities like Ottawa and Marianne McKenna, an internationally acclaimed architect and founding partner of the Toronto architectural firm KPMB.

This panel will review designs submitted for the three main elements of the Lansdowne redevelopment:

• The new, green front yard next to the Rideau Canal, integrating use of the two heritage buildings at Lansdowne, the Aberdeen Pavilion and the Horticulture Building.
• The mixed-use building of stores, restaurants, offices, cinemas, hotel and residential units.
• The reconstructed Frank Clair Stadium and Civic Centre.

Even though the process will cost them more money and time, the proponents of the redevelopment plan admit the final design will be an improvement.

"We have a lot of work to do. George Dark has clearly indicated the bar we need to exceed, and it's the right thing. We're delighted with that," said Roger Greenberg, CEO of Minto Developments, and one of the partners in the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, which in turn is a partner of the city in the Lansdowne Partnership Plan.

For the next six months the panel will sift through ideas and design plans.

"I think they are indicating to everyone they are setting the bar incredibly high," said Peter Hume, chair of the city's planning committee.

"We get to turn this jewel in the city of Ottawa into something I hope every Canadian, every tourist, will want to come and will want to enjoy," said Mayor Larry O'Brien.

Dark said he wants Lansdowne to become a civic meeting ground, "a living piece of the city."

He said he is expecting open and constructive discussions with the OttawaSports and Entertainment Group, and with the city, until the new designs and concepts are unveiled in June.