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Small is Beautiful: Dartmouth’s Findlay Centre and the new Master Plan

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Dartmouth – With summer at an end, public consultation for Halifax’s new Community Facilities Master Plan (CFMP) is underway, setting the stage for a possible second battle for Dartmouth’s Findlay Centre. To the surprise of many Downtown Dartmouth residents, municipal staff recommended closing and consolidating the Findlay with the Dartmouth Sportsplex back in 2014. City […]

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Book Review – Roads Were Not Built For Cars

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Author: Carlton Reid (Island Press, 2015)

There has been a lot of discussion recently around getting more cyclists on the roads, be it for health, environmental reasons, or relieving traffic congestion. We’ve seen the addition of various bike-related infrastructures—from bike lanes on streets to new “lifts” or pulley systems that help haul a bike up steep inclines—so it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that bikes are playing a larger and larger role in road design and operations. But this relationship suns deeper, and in Roads Were Not Built for Cars, readers are taken through a massive history lesson, drenched in facts and anecdotal information, around just how influential bikes have been throughout their time.

From the moment one picks up the book, it is evident that Carlton Reid has gone to incredible lengths to demonstrate how bikes played a pivotal role in creating the roads that are now claimed by the automobile (a term we’ve come to understand as meaning “cars”). There isn’t a day that goes by it seems that there isn’t a debate raging somewhere about bikes on roads, but this book steps back from that a bit and answers the who-came-first question about bikes and cars, in an interesting fact-filled journey.

Roads Were Not Built for Cars started from a Kickstarter (crowdfunding) campaign, in 2013. This allowed Reid to fund his research into the history of biking and roads, which is what makes the book stand apart from other similar reads. The book is broken up into simple and understandable chapters that move through history and tell some of the untold and lesser known facts about automobiles, methods of paving, technology, and one of my favourites, succinctly titled “Without Bicycles Motoring Might Not Exist”. These chapters are followed by an epilogue, and then three appendixes which span almost fifty pages, and make for a great resource to look back on.

While the structure of the book is simple, it is massive, and that is both a positive and negative attribute. There were times where I was absolutely riveted, I couldn’t peel my eyes from the page. For instance, in the chapter “Mastodons To Motorways”, some light is shed on how people viewed motor car use in the early 20th century. Reid writes that in 1904, “an American magazine called automobile drivers ‘a reckless, bloodthirsty, villainous lot of … crazy trespassers’”, continuing that a “number of localities banned the ‘devil wagon.’” It was interesting to read this, knowing some of the venom that gets spit in the direction of bikers nowadays. There will always be those that don’t follow the rules of the road (which they helped create), but it’s sobering to see that individuals (walkers, horseback riders) in the 1900s had a similar view of the motor car.

As I mentioned, though, there were also parts of the book where the facts became overwhelming and the pages seemed encyclopedic to the point that it was hard digest everything at once. The sheer amount of factual information is truly awe-inspiring, but certain sections were treated with more wit and literary savvy than others.

That being said, I think I may have missed out a little bit by reading the soft-back, print version of the book instead of the e-book format. On his website, Reid talks about the latter, and after seeing this, I think that perhaps with all the supplemental material that accompanied the digital version, these heavily fact-laden sections may have had a bit more flow to them. Although both the e-book and print versions contain the same content, the former seems to have more accompanying images, with a lot of the factual information has been placed within them, such that readers can scroll around the image, make it larger, and/or pop up windows to show facts in context. There is even an interactive map of London from 1906 so you can zoom in and look through different road surfaces and see more facts. After watching the video, the book seemed to take on a new life for me, and it was almost impossible to compare the two.

This aside, the fact that many of our roads advances came from the world of bicycles was surprising to me, but not shocking. The book was filled with information that makes you stand back and ponder just how much our society has changed into a world dominated by motor cars or automobiles as we refer to them now. The fact that some of the largest policy makers at the turn of the 20th century were bicyclists, that cyclists pushed for paved roads, and that, in the early 1900s, car enthusiasts and bicycling enthusiasts were usually one in the same is astounding….almost unbelievable in todays contested climate on road domination.

Although it is clear that, for the moment, cars have overtaken bikes in their road dominance, I found myself asking, “for how long?” by the end of the book. We know there are other technologies on the rise, and we know cycling is making a massive resurgence in many communities across North America and the rest of the world (where it isn’t already still the primary mode of transport). So, I was left wondering, is the car the next technology to be surpassed, and what will come after it?

Overall, Roads Were Not Built For Cars was a thought-provoking, fact-filled read. Reid did a fantastic job bringing to light the importance of knowing the history behind our roads and just how pivotal a role bicycling played in the advances we see today, be it policy, technology, or even the design of cars themselves. It certainly left me wanting to know where our roads are going to go from here and with an excitement to see how we will get there.

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For more information on Roads Were Not Built For Cars, visit the Island Press website.

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Jeremy Senko is happily lost in the world of theoretical architecture and design. He is forever a student at heart, consistently reading, experiencing and learning about the world he inhabits. More specifically, he works as an Interior Designer in Vancouver and plays an active part in bettering the environments we live in.

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Small is Beautiful #2: The Findlay Meeting

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Dartmouth – On Tuesday night at Halifax’s Community Facilities Master Plan (CFMP) consultation, in front of around 100 concerned residents, Dartmouth councillor Gloria McCluskey said unequivocally that the Findlay Community Centre won’t be closing. Municipal recreation staff added in their presentation that the CFMP isn’t about specific closures. If it had been left at that, […]

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Message to Trudeau: Voters spoke loud and clear for cities

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trudeau-vaughan- Alex Guibord

A month before the election, Calgary’s hugely popular mayor Naheed Nenshi told a reporter: “Whoever gets transit right, whoever figures out how to improve the quality of life for people who live in Canada’s cities, well that person gets to be prime minister.”

Many voters in Canada’s largest cities decided that Justin Trudeau got cities best: all of Toronto’s 25 ridings went red, as did most in the 905 belt, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Halifax and Montreal. And, for the first time in almost 50 years, Calgary elected not one, but two Liberal MPs.

As Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson told me in an interview last week, “Voters spoke loud and clear for cities.”

This election affirms that cities have regained their political voice. But if Trudeau is to continue harnessing the power of the urban voters who put him into the Prime Minister’s Office, he must emphatically commit to creating a strong institutional relationship between the federal government and urban regions, even if the constitution suggests that municipalities are “creatures” of provinces.

The mayors of Canada’s largest 22 cities are members of the Big Cities’ Mayors Caucus (BCMC) and together represent fully 40% of the country’s population. This body, which has put together a robust national agenda for cities on issues like housing, transit and infrastructure, deserves a seat at Trudeau’s renewed intergovernmental table.

Municipalities as mature governments

Section 92 of the British North America Act gives provinces power over “municipal institutions.” But in 1867, 80% of Canadians lived in rural areas and 20% in cities. This proportion today is reversed. Yet for decades, provinces have treated municipalities like unruly teenagers while prime ministers and premiers used the constitution as an excuse to avoid forging a federal-municipal relationship.

In recent years, some provinces have elevated the status of their largest cities with charters or special legislation. In 2006, the Ontario Liberals granted the City of Toronto extra taxation and accountability powers, and Queen’s Park must now directly consult Toronto if it is planning to introduce new policies that will affect the city. Montreal, Quebec, Edmonton and Calgary are all pushing for the same framework, replacing one-size-fits-all municipal acts.

With a few exceptions, the federal government has avoided any direct relationship with cities, citing that outdated constitutional mandate. Under former prime minister Stephen Harper, attention to “urban issues” took the form of multi-billion dollar infrastructure programs, like the Gas Tax Fund (introduced by Paul Martin’s Liberal government) and the New Building Canada Fund, which heavily favoured rural areas and small municipalities.

Yet big cities contend directly with federal policies, such as immigration, disaster relief, and homelessness. Urban mayors – and most Canadians – know that regardless of wording in legislation, it doesn’t matter which government is technically in charge; what matters most is that things get done as quickly and efficiently as possible. While the Conservative’s infrastructure transfers were substantial, Ottawa largely allocated dollars based on political patronage instead of policy. Much of the rest of the federal-urban relationship was ignored.

Trudeau’s platform has promised to end these politicized spending decisions by making infrastructure funding more transparent. The Liberals offered up dozens of policy pledges, including a quadrupling of public transit funding, renewing federal investment in housing, and investing in social infrastructure such as seniors housing and daycare, all issues that matter most in large urban areas.

But does regime change provide an opportunity to fundamentally change this fraught relationship, beyond simply transferring dollars? Robertson, currently BCMC’s Chair, concedes that the municipal sector opted to avoid that discussion in the past. “Mayors have been reluctant to challenge the Constitution.”

Robertson is emphatic that cities need the federal government to fulfill its promise to increase funding, especially for infrastructure. He also believes that BCMC has the right institutional structure to get those dollars flowing.

Yet some legal scholars believe that the language of the Constitution should be interpreted as a “growing tree,” respectful of today’s context, not as fathers of the BNA Act wrote it 148 years ago, before we had cars, indoor plumbing, subways, subsidized housing and income support, which are largely delivered by big cities.

Towards a new partnership?

BCMC’s members, including mayors from every province, have tremendous political capital and are no ordinary interest group. They have first-hand knowledge of enormously significant issues facing the country. Robertson, Edmonton’s Don Iveson, and Brian Bowman of Winnipeg represent a generation of young, energetic leaders with new ideas and a hopeful vision that arguably sets the stage for the acceptance of an equally youthful prime minister.

Other countries have recognized the importance of linking national and local government. Strengthening and formalizing the federal/municipal relationship has been a part of President Barack Obama’s agenda. In 2009, he set up, by Executive Order, the Office of Urban Affairs, which reports directly to the President and the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. He regularly attends the U.S. Congress of Mayors, which represents cities with populations of more than 30,000. Experts say that Obama’s urban agenda led to an unprecedented level of interagency collaboration and new initiatives like the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, the Affordable Care Act and the Promise Neighborhoods Program, all aimed at helping the urban poor. Still, as the University of Toronto’s Richard Florida notes, still more can be done to advance urban needs.

Trudeau has the opportunity to go further by making cities direct partners in crafting and implementing policy solutions on housing, infrastructure and the environment. In bringing cities to the table, Canada and the provinces will be forced to reconsider their governmental relationship to the four in five Canadians who live in urban centres.

As Robertson puts it, “The dark ages of cities without resources and jurisdiction isn’t going to serve us in the 21st century. BCMC is hopeful that the Trudeau government truly wants to build a strong partnership with cities. An institutional structure will help.”

Alexandra Flynn is a PhD candidate and adjunct professor at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School. Follow her at @alexandraeflynn.

photo by Alex Guibord

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Critical Elements to Make Pedestrian Streets Work

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We currently dedicate an excessive amount of street public space for the movement and storage of automobiles. We can bring dignity to our streets where people live, work and play by reclaiming it for people. It has been shown that cities are significantly quieter when there are lower traffic volumes, or even when the vehicle traveling speeds slow down to a more humane speed (40-30kph). There are also fewer automobile related injuries and fatalities. It can also make us happier since we can spend more time outside and meet more of our neighbours.

So how can we reclaim some of this space? Pedestrian streets offer one way to do this, but it has been demonstrated that pedestrian streets in North America have failed in the past (see Buffalo’s Main Street, Ottawa’s Sparks Street, and other examples). Interestingly, many European cities of different sizes, climates and cultures feature widely-visited, vibrant pedestrian streets. These include Northbrook St. in Newbury, UK (pop. 31,331 in 2011), Calle San Jacinto in Seville, Spain (pop. 702,355 in 2012), Exhibition Road in London, UK (pop. 8.3 million in 2013). They also exist in various sizes either as a short section of one street or a network of car-free streets like those in Delft, Netherlands or the Stroget in Copenhagen. This article explores several of these successful pedestrian streets and breaks down several of the elements that make them work.

Single Street Pedestrian Zone

Car-free Northbrook street in Newbury, UK

Car-free Northbrook street in Newbury, UK

Northbrook St. is a pedestrian street in Newbury U.K that was established in 1998. The zone is only closed to automobile traffic from 10 am to 5 pm using electronic bollards. The absence of cars also allows markets to regularly set up two-three times a week.

After 15 years, the results are dramatic. Northbrook St. is a bustling and vibrant street full of people. The street is lined with outward facing fine-grained retail uses, which is critical for attracting people and ensuring its success. People are attracted to visual stimuli, therefore, having many small building fronts and many stores displaying their wares in the window present a wealth of details that will attract people’s attention inviting them to stay and linger (similar to the photo above). Fine-grained retail uses means that building facades are varied and interesting enough that our sensory experience is enhanced. Also critical for pedestrian streets is to have public or private places to sit. This can include formal seating—such as benches, movable tables and chairs—or informal seating, such as the steps of a stair, planters, or edges.

Shared Streets

London's Exhibition Road Shared Street mixes low volumes of slow moving vehicular traffic with people walking and cycling

London’s Exhibition Road Shared Street mixes low volumes of slow moving vehicular traffic with people walking and cycling

Successful pedestrian streets do not mean you have to close the street to vehicular traffic completely. The Exhibition Road in London was an attempt to create a different kind of pedestrian street and is an example of a ‘naked street’—or a shared street—where access for all modes is provided, but the most vulnerable modes (walking and cycling) are prioritized. One of the more well known examples of a naked street is the Poynton intersection. All of the traffic signs and road markings are removed while street use and safety is regulated by the unpredictability factor of a street with no traffic control mechanisms telling you how to behave. Consequently, drivers are more cautious and alert as they navigate the street.

Unsuccessful portion of London's Exhibition Road fails to create a safe and inviting place for people walking & cycling due to the lack of fine-grain retail uses

Unsuccessful portion of London’s Exhibition Road fails to create a safe and inviting place for people walking & cycling due to the lack of fine-grain retail uses

Exhibition Road can only be called a partial success as it is only on the south portion where people are present. What is the reason? Well, this is the only segment of the street that is lined by fine-grained ground floor retail and skinny building facades. The remainder of Exhibition Road is flanked by large museums and limited street facing retail uses that do not actively engage the street.

Seville's San Jacinto Shared Street

Seville’s San Jacinto Shared Street is also a success

Wide open spaces with clear lines of sight permit people to feel like they can get away with driving through quickly. In order for a shared street to work properly, it needs to have edges that create friction to force drivers to slow down to human speeds. These can either be hard edges through the use of landscaping or design, or soft edges like having people present. Ensuring that you have fine-grained retail with many store fronts lining your pedestrian street will ensure there are plenty of people.  These uses also invite people to stay and partake in many activities including people watching, shopping or eating.

Car-Free Centres

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With a population of about 100,000 people, Delft is a relatively small Dutch city with a network of car free streets in the city centre. Like any other city in the 70’s, its city centre public spaces were dedicated as car-parks. Today, the city centre could be referred to as a place of “people-parks”. The lack of automobiles has a dramatic effect on the experience of the city, most noticeable is the quietness.

Delft took a slightly different approach to create their car-free status. The city built a series of parkades around the perimeter of the city centre. They also invested in digital wayfinding signage, directing people to the nearest parking garage and indicating the real-time capacity of available parking stalls. The wayfinding also indicates the walking distance from the parking garage to the city centre. Consequently, on-street parking is priced higher than the parking garages. Finally, the entire core is within 800 meters—or a 10 minute walk—from a local tram service and regional train station.

All of this encourages people to spend less time circling for parking and more time shopping within the core. While driving in the core is discouraged,  people are still allowed to drive into there during the evening hours for critical deliveries and pick-ups, with the appropriate permit. Since the core is also more comfortable for walking and cycling, it provides significantly more capacity for people, while still maintaining walking distance access for those that need to drive.

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Pedestrian cores can also work at a larger city scale such as the Stroget in Copenhagen (pop. 569,557 in 2014). Starting as a temporary trial and created in 1962, the idea faced intense opposition from the adjacent merchants who thought it would kill their businesses. Over time, the Stroget expanded to include more streets and plazas, and grew to currently cover over 1.8 km of streets today. It is a great success with numerous new cafes, shoppers and street life. In the summer, the Stroget sees an average 80,000 (2008) people per day passing through its pedestrian network. In the winter, there is on average 48,000 (2008) people.

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From these examples, it is clear there is no single way to create a pedestrian street. However, there are several key ingredients. It is important to create a comfortable, human-scaled environment that provides access for all modes but maintains a pedestrian speed. Access for automobiles can be provided either during off-hours or evening, or be tolerated in low volumes travelling at human speeds using designs that force drivers to “feel unsafe travelling at unsafe speeds.”

It is also important to have streets lined with fine-grained, street-facing retail uses with many store fronts that offer a wealth of activities and details. This is important for creating an interesting place where people want to stay and also speaks to the important of retail frontage dimensions when designing adjacent architecture.

It may also be important to take an incremental approach and starting small at first—i.e. only opening the street to people walking and cycling during day light hours, or only creating a small pedestrian street segment. It is better to create a small, high-quality pedestrian-only street than a large ambitious pedestrian-only street that doesn’t work. The larger the pedestrian street becomes the more issues one has to address, such as storing cars and providing crucial delivery access.

Keeping pedestrian streets smaller initially guarantees that the complexity and costs are lower. Furthermore, the impacts to vehicular traffic flow are likely to be negligible, as there are many alternative routes and there is greater vehicle access to the site.  A small but successful pedestrian street is also more likely to seem fuller than a mediocre large pedestrian street…adding to its allure.

Pedestrian streets can also be set up with low costs as a pilot project, using nothing more than a temporary barricade to block or slow down vehicular traffic and create an inviting and comfortable environment. After a pedestrian street has gained success, it can always be expanded on to include more hours or more streets.

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Slow Streets is a Vancouver-based Urban Design and Planning consisting of Darren Proulx and Samuel Baron that provides original evidence for people-oriented streets. We believe streets serve many uses beyond moving automobiles quickly.

 

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Event: Re-Imagining Urban Form and Policy Symposium, Call for Abstracts

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Re-Imagining Urban Form and Policy in a Global Economy – The (Im)possibility of Design

March 10-12, 2016 |  University of British Columbia, Vancouver
View the conference website

This is a call for abstracts for an international symposium on the theme “Re-Imagining Urban Form and Policy in a Global Economy – The (Im)possibility of Design”, a symposium jointly organized by the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA) and The School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Confirmed keynote speakers for the event include, Professor John Friedmann (University of British Columbia and University of California, Los Angeles), Professor Albert Pope (Rice University) and Professor Matt Hern (University of British Columbia).

We welcome proposals that explore emerging paradigms in the context of four interconnected themes:

1. Capital: Restructuring and Redirecting Capital Flow and Value Growth in the Making of the New City

2. Reimagining Governance and Planning Policies

3. Reframing the Agency of Design

4. Looking Back and Looking Forward: Reflections on the 1976 UN Habitat Forum

Abstracts can be submitted here:
http://sala-mud-forum.sites.olt.ubc.ca/abstract-submission/

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Urban forestry and the greening of Canadian cities

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Call it the second wave of urban greening: hot on the heels of urban farming, urban forestry is emerging as the new frontier of sustainable urban planning and land use.

Canada’s urban forest exists in many forms. Public parks, streetscapes, natural areas and yards form a complex forest ecosystem that can be dramatically different than the vast forest landscapes we typically imagine.

More than 80% of Canadians now live in cities. Since Canada’s first Urban Forest Strategy was developed 2006, urban forest policies have been developed by more than 20 municipalities including major urban centres such as Toronto, Vancouver and Halifax. In the US, the Arbor Day Foundation lists 63 state agencies that now employ staff responsible for urban forestry.

Like urban farming, urban forestry requires more than simply translating rural land management practices into an urban setting. In particular, operating in an urban environment requires a high degree of engagement and consultation with local people and organizations. Conventional forestry principles are combined with modern information management and communications tools to achieve a broad range of social, ecological and economic benefits.

It is these benefits that are attracting the attention of government agencies across the country. This spring, researchers at the University of British Columbia received support from the Canadian Forest Service to review the various ecological, social and economic benefits of urban forests and develop a better understanding of the future of urban forestry in Canada. The Social and Economic Values of Canada’s Urban Forests: A National Synthesis unearthed a wealth of information about the benefits of urban forests and identified numerous opportunities for government and public involvement in urban forestry.

Trees are known to improve air quality; an important service in an urban setting that can improve the health and longevity of residents. They also moderate temperature by providing shade and cooling in the summertime and reducing heat loss by winds in the winter, which translates into lower residential energy bills and lower carbon dioxide emissions associated with energy use. Trees also reduce costs to municipalities by helping rainwater to infiltrate into the soil, thereby lessening wear and tear on stormwater infrastructure. And urban forests can produce substantial economic benefits by raising local property values and occupancy rates, attracting shoppers to local business districts and drawing recreational visitors and tourists.

To date, most research on urban forests has occurred outside of Canada, leaving municipal governments with more questions than answers when it comes to planning and managing their forests. Social and cultural preferences strongly influence the benefits of urban forests to residents; while some inferences can be made based on research from other countries, Canada’s urban population undoubtedly unique. Municipalities need better information in order to build a strong business case for funding urban forestry programs and defending urban forests from threats of residential, commercial and infrastructure development.

So who will do this important work? To meet the growing demand for urban forestry professionals, colleges and universities across Canada and the USA are developing programs to help students develop skills ranging from planning, geographic data management, communication, outreach and extension in addition to tree selection, planting and maintenance. For example, the University of Toronto hosts an annual urban forestry field course, Fleming College has offered an Urban Forestry Certificate program since 2012 and the University of British Columbia will launch its full undergraduate degree program in Urban Forestry this September.

In the field of urban forestry, the time is ripe for innovation; Canadians just need to pluck the fruit from the tree.

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Ngaio Hotte is a Resource Economist and Facilitator affiliated with the Department of Forest Resources Management in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia. She was the lead author of the report, The Social and Economic Values of Canada’s Urban Forests: A National Synthesis.

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Overhaul or demolish 24 Sussex?

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Much has recently been discussed about the restoration or demolition and replacement of 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa. Like many old buildings, this house has asbestos, leaky windows, and a terrifying electrical system, all housed in what is perceived to be a dowdy building.

A series of criticisms have been posed about the building. The building is in dire need of basic repairs and upgrades.  It does not programmatically function well for the purpose it serves, being the residence for the prime minister and their family, and for their hosting of functions in that space. It is an inefficient building, but that site could be a model for sustainability.  The architecture does not represent the best of current Canadian architecture, nor does it necessarily reflect anything interesting about Canada’s culture. And perhaps most publicly damning in a national capital rife with public buildings of internationally renowned picturesque architectural exuberance, the architectural expression of 24 Sussex is mind-numbingly dull.

Generally one could also ask whether 24 Sussex is the right building, the right size, shape, and programmatic flow. Examining the site in comparison with two of its neighbours – the French Embassy, and Rideau Hall — it is clear that the scale of 24 Sussex is diminutive for the roles it has the opportunity to play.

Functionally, the property needs to serve a number of purposes. It is the private house of the prime minister and their family within a secured perimeter. It is used for more intimately scaled state events hosted by the prime minister. And it could speak to the country’s identity to international visitors.

The prime minister’s office and those of Cabinet are housed in Langevin Block and Centre Block, removing that burden from the residence. Official events are shared by the Governor General’s residence Rideau Hall, Parliament Hill, and 24 Sussex, with the majority of ceremonial events being hosted at Rideau Hall across the street from 24 Sussex. Citizenship ceremonies, state dinners and swearing-in of new ministry occurs at the Governor General’s residence, as is the custom. But is it appropriate that official events of a modern Canadian government be still hosted in the vice regal building of Rideau Hall, representing the Queen’s residence in Canada, or would some of these be more suited to being hosted in 24 Sussex?

Rideau Hall is historic and palatial, but its site is public and the character of the building is one of a stately monument. While the site of 24 Sussex is not enormous, there is opportunity to enlarge the building and perhaps better separate the public and private functions inherent in what has to be a home as well as perhaps a more relaxed gathering space than Rideau Hall. The size worked well enough this spring for the friendly meeting between the Prime Minister and the Aga Khan during his last visit to Ottawa, but events for even 20 people are said to be cramped; it is likely that the building could stand a substantial reworking of spaces and an addition.

What other countries have done

Internationally, there are no hard and fast rules of what a prime minister’s official residence should encompass or what scale it should occupy.

Sweden recently purchased Sager Palace in 1988, before which there was no official residence for the head of government. Australia’s “the Lodge” was a purpose built prime minister’s residence, built in 1926-27 as a temporary measure “until such time as a monumental prime minister’s residence is constructed, and thereafter to be used for other purposes.” Denmark’s “Marienborg” was only acquired in 1962, and the historic palace similarly performs as a residence (primarily a summer residence), separated from the prime minister’s office at Christianborg Palace.  Following the revolution, Cuba turned their existing monumental presidential palace into the Museo de la Revolución, while the Castros occupied a number of the mansions left behind when wealthy Cubans left the country.

The US recently upgraded the historic White House for $376 million and Turkey recently built a new faux-historic presidential palace for $350 million. Like most of Central and South America, Mexico’s “Los Pinos” is a historic palace reflective of their colonial wealth. But Oscar Niemeyer’s 1957 Palácio da Alvorada embodied mid-century modernity and was the first government structure built in Brazil’s new national capital. Japan on the other hand demolished their previous residence and constructed a new building in 2002, housing the residence, their offices and entertainment facilities.

And many are adapted residences like 24 Sussex. In the UK, 10 Downing Street is an assemblage of three ancient houses with an understated street presence, comprising 100 rooms serving as the office and residence of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Norway’s Inkognitogata 18 was completed in 2008, incorporating multiple historic buildings and new architecture, additionally housing government offices and an official residence for visiting dignitaries.

Buildings can be repaired, asbestos removed, and tangles of electrical cords replaced. And buildings can be altered to become an appropriate expression of the face we want to show as a nation, and the role we need them to play. But does this building bring anything to the table to contribute to a great work of architecture or should it be replaced?

24 Sussex at a glance

Within all of the disrepair and blandness, 24 Sussex is a massive stone cliff-top house whose material architecture is deeply rooted in the formation of Canada and the establishment of Ottawa. Its masonry, while altered in places, is of a fine level of skill and was a great feat for the late 1860’s, representing an enormous amount of embodied energy of the work of early craftsmen. The rock-faced and dressed ashlar Gloucester limestone of this building is linked to the tremendous feat of building Parliament hill, creating the Rideau Canal and transforming the civic identity of scrappy Bytown into a regal and permanent national capital. 24 Sussex, along with its neighbour Earnscliffe, residence of the British High Commissioner, is one of a small handful of residential buildings that remain to represent this founding effort to build a world capital of substance at the time of confederation. The fact that one of these buildings houses the Prime Minister is significant.

Carolyn Young’s book “The Glory of Ottawa” examined the design competition of 1858 which produced this muscular gothic parliamentary complex, and which set the course for Canadian federal architecture. That year Queen Victoria had chosen the recently renamed Ottawa to be the capital of the Provinces of Canada and the small northern town had to be rebranded. Responding to their site perched high above a rapid strewn stretch of the Ottawa River, Fuller and Jones’ original centre block (of which only the Library of Parliament remains), and Stent and Laver’s West and East Blocks represent the embodiment of Ruskin’s Seven Lamps of Architecture, in which he struggled with the challenge of developing an appropriate architecture for a “northern people”, rooted in northwestern European architectural history.

The modernity and international success of this complex in a backwater like Canada was unprecedented.  Its success set a path for architecture in the capital, with most major public buildings associated with federal use or near the parliamentary precinct choosing to respond to this complex in a picturesque and/or gothic architectural form.  The gothic would be particularly amplified in the later architecture of the Chateau Laurier, the Confederation Building, and even in Moshe Safdie’s National Gallery, and the picturesque in many works of urban design carrying through to Douglas Cardinal’s Museum of Civilization.

In 1867 its time of construction, “Gorffwysfa” (the original name for 24 Sussex, translated from Welsh as “Place of Peace” or “Resting Place”) shared a similar design language to the beautiful adjacent Earnscliffe house. Both were picturesque buildings, asymmetrical and varied, using fine stonework to great advantage and responding beautifully to their dramatic sites, similar to that of Parliament Hill. 24 Sussex had been built for Joseph Merrill Currier, a wealthy lumber baron who later owned the Ottawa Daily Citizen and who represented Ottawa in the federal house for many years, and later owners carried on these themes of lumber families and political office. Following a renovation in 1907-1909 (concurrent with the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway’s Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa adjacent to Parliament Hill) the picturesque qualities were augmented by the addition of a circular tower with conical roof, a porte-cochere and a third floor oriel window, resulting in a perhaps slightly messy but enthusiastic eclectic architecture that responded to its setting. 24 Sussex in its early form is at the root of this national capital’s design typology.

The building was expropriated in 1943 after a significant fight to wrestle it away from the Edwards family who loved the house and were not ready to move. Upon the acquisition of 24 Sussex, Public Works remodeled the building in 1950 to enlarge and modernize it and adapt the site for use as an official residence, with a conservative approach to architectural form. The architectural firm Allward and Gouinlock altered its picturesque exuberance to become more understated and vaguely Georgian in appearance.  Incorporating some spectacular elements from the original house like the dining room while altering others in a mid century neo Georgian manner, this remodeling produced a series of large formal rooms on the ground floor, and added a two storey kitchen wing on the east side of the house.  Relatively minor changes to the front stripped the façade of its picturesque qualities, removing the tower, truncating the central gable, and editing all picturesque eclectic features. Windows were replaced, the fenestration inflexibly regularized, dormers added, the entrance adjusted and simplified, and a federal crest added above the doorway. It could be argued that the resultant building design is serviceable but unexceptional.

In considering the design aspects of a renovation scope of work, there is an opportunity to work with what is significant about the house, with a mind to incorporating what is interesting, altering it to create a strong architecture that serves the purpose needed.

Guillaume Éthier’s doctoral thesis L’icône autopoïétique : l’architecture de la renaissance culturelle à Toronto (1999-2010) evaluated architecture’s ability to represent and change a culture, setting up a framework by which to evaluate 10 buildings recently built Toronto’s cultural sector. Éthier examines how these buildings challenged and disrupted l’identite Torontoise that had emerged out of Toronto’s history, and by doing so were able to strengthen civic culture. His evaluation of such buildings as the AGO, the Royal Conservatory, and the ROM considered their effectiveness with less emphasis on their functionality and more placed on measuring their iconic value and evaluating whether they accomplished the task of transforming cultural identity in the city of Toronto.  He quotes Christopher Hume that “thesis buildings stand out and make a virtue of belonging to a place,” and shows that the great success of these buildings as a group resulted from the fact that they drew their energy from the context in which they were implanted, and in turn repositioned cultural confidence of Toronto. Undoubtedly this investment of public (and private) money has created a transformation that has bettered the city’s economy as well as its sense of confidence in promoting its own value on an international stage.

Similarly, while its material built form is rooted in the founding identity of Canada’s national capital, 24 Sussex could be adapted, perhaps dramatically, to convey, reinforce, and transform Canadian culture through its architecture, both publically on the ceremonial route and internally as a stage from which to undertake intimate state events, and better function as a tool to promote and build the nation internationally.

Its role in Canada needs to function as comfortable residence for the Prime Minister and their family, while also providing a face to the nation for events hosted there by the head of government and occupying a prominent site on this nation’s ceremonial route. It should be part of the ongoing project to construct a capital representative of Canada, a pluralistic, diverse northern country emergent from three founding peoples. Writers like Joseph Boyden, Thomas King and John Ralston Saul have been clarifying the ways that Canada’s identity has been assembled from aboriginal customs melded with those of immigrants, from our ways of managing government to our self deprecating senses of humour. This decade, we as a nation are coming to grips with the past reality and future opportunity evidenced in the Truth and Reconciliation Report, along with a significant correction of the unsustainable way of living that has produced climate change. The problematic colonialism embodied in this house built in a Gothic style, to house a lumber baron family who made their fortune clearing the land of its trees then becoming a federal politician represents the founding of this nation, and is very much Canada’s history. In this project, it would be appropriate that we consider ways of respecting the traditional territory of the Algonquin Nation, that we make changes to make the building sustainable, respond effectively to the sublime site, and incorporate what is useful and beautiful from the existing residence into a transformed site.

It also needs to function as the home of the first family. In fact we have recent examples of buildings such as this. Shim Sutcliffe Integral House beautifully synthesized the desired goal of the mathematician and impresario client, to build a home of an undulating architectural form emergent from musical harmonies that could also be used as a public concert hall for 150 guests, while simultaneously working as a comfortable home for one.

Its relationship with the landscape could be invigorated through alteration and changes in its relationship to the site. Patkau’s Tula House on Quadra Island and MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple’s Cliff house in Nova Scotia set up sublime relationships with the landscape disassociated from nationalist architectures.

Many recent award-winning projects have integrated historic buildings into new designs. Chevalier Morales Architectes transformed an 1845 Gothic Revival Church in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Quebec city into the Maison de la Littérature, with the addition of a crystalline box adjacent to the historic building. KPMB’s work at the Rotman School of Business and Royal Conservatory integrated historic buildings into larger new structures with a strong contemporary language. Shim Sutcliffe’s Sisters of St Joseph built upon their Integral House project with an organic response to a ravine site, enveloping a historic mansion into the scheme.

GH3’s Street House on Mackenzie surgically edited away from the historic building in Rosedale, replacing those parts with a contemporary language that respects its context while emerging as a refreshed and transformed space of beauty. Precedent also exists for the referencing of previously existing elements in contemporary language, in adaptive reuse of heritage buildings. The KPMB led team’s work at the Museum of Nature responded to the lost tower by designing a lantern that references the structure that had been lost and overhauling the building to better function.  The result is a synthesis of the original building with a contemporary architecture, in a completely overhauled stone building.

There are options.

Overhaul, not demolish

It is time for an overhaul of 24 Sussex but not complete demolition. There is an inherent irony in the suggestion that in order to be a model of sustainability one must demolish and replace a large well-built stone structure with all of its embodied energy, taxing any future gains with a starting position far in the negative. We have the talent in Canada to adapt a building like this to be something meaningful and sustainable. Though altered, the stone building is an important component marking that transformation from small northern town to nation’s capital, and would respond well to renovation, even including fairly dramatic interventions at the hand of a good architect. The building has components such as the dining room that are spectacular. An opportunity lies in making a contemporary intervention that responds to the questions being raised, and that would connect the architecture and experience of this building to the sublime power of the Ottawa River landscape, one that was lost in the Allward and Gouinlock renovation, and a connection with which all national capital landmarks are associated.

Every 50 years a building generally requires a series of updates to repair its failing systems, make alterations to suit current ways of living, and generally to return it to relevancy. With renovation, additions, partial demolition and replacement of systems the best of a building’s design can be altered and augmented with a new architecture to build something that ties Canada’s current culture to the efforts of previous generations. 24 Sussex is no exception.

Scott Weir is a Principal at ERA Architects Inc. The firm specializes cultural heritage, with an interest in adaptive reuse, improving the public realm, and conserving heritage architecture. Follow Scott on Twitter: @southofbloor

photo by Sookie

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Stadium Dreams at Shannon Park

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Dartmouth – Halifax’s reoccurring attempt to build a stadium is set to reappear at Regional Council this afternoon. A staff report recommending that the municipality study the potential of purchasing a portion of the Shannon Park property from Canada Lands for the construction of a 20,000 seat stadium will be debated. Shannon Park is former […]

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Whose Renaissance? Saint John’s future

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SAINT JOHN – Down a deceptively desolate lane lies Port City Royal, a restaurant reminiscent of a salon, which has become a magnet for creative types and foodies in Saint John, N.B. Patrons are drawn to its food and to its urban rustic vibe – the exposed brickwork, piping and unpolished wooden slats –  remnants […]

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Book Review: Start-Up City

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Author: Gabe Klein (Island Press, 2015)

When I was in my second year of University I wrote a blog post that got a lot of (very rare) traction. I pitted the new ride-sharing program Car2Go against long-time staple ZipCar. I tried to be unbiased and break down each other’s model, and in the end I found Car2Go was on the brink of something new and exciting with how they were operating, but I conceded that ZipCar had built the entire framework of ride-sharing and that I couldn’t imagine a picture without them in it. Consequently, Gabe Klein—author of Start-Up City—was a key person at the head of ZipCar and within the book, readers discover all about how he worked his plans into ZipCar’s corporate culture and grew the brand.

Klein started his journey managing a bike store and jumped around, constantly innovating and wanting to be at the forefront of business. He crafted some amazing models, which read so simple (keep the customer first) yet seem to still be missed opportunities. Eventually, Klein made a large leap and moved into the bureaucratic world of government transportation. Working under the mayors of Washington, D.C. and Chicago, Klein realized quickly that there was a large opportunity to bring his skill as an entrepreneur to a place most known for slow moving, heavily contested decisions.

The book is broken up into eight lessons that take the reader through simple things like, “Don’t Be Afraid to Screw Up and Learn” where the emphasis is on the learning aspect. From there, Klein talks about some of the different ways to manage others and empower your team, a lesson on budgets, marketing, how to find creative ways to fund your projects, and how to bridge the divide between public-private partnerships.

The interesting constant throughout the book is that it is seems to be written for a very narrow audience: those who would find themselves in situations where they are working in the planning parts of government. The interesting part about this specificity is that it does not deter someone in a non-government position to read and learn from it. For instance, I had heard of S.M.A.R.T. management (Specific, Measurable, Agreed Upon, Realistic, Time-Based) goals before, but I hadn’t heard of Lean Six Sigma, which is a “strategy for process improvement that irrigated in Japan and emerged from manufacturers like Motorola.” Klein gives a perfect example of how it works:

Six Sigma says that anything less than [a] 99.9999998 percent error rate, or 3.4 errors per million, is unacceptable. If there is an error, there must be a formal process to ‘lean out’ the wasted steps in the process that led to the error…Why is 99 percent not good enough? Let’s use replacement tires for vehicles as an example…In 2013, 201.6 million replacement tires were sold. If 99 percent were error free, that means more than 2 million defective tires would be shipped to consumers and installed…But with Six Sigma, we end up with a maximum of just 686 faulty tires on the road.

This example really stuck with me, and as the book continued, there were more little lessons like this that were eye opening, and could be transferred to my own work environment. There were, however, quite a few items that were very specific, as the book went on. Again, it was very intriguing to read, as Klein’s writing style is highly accessible, but when he speaks of how to creatively move money around budgets to pay for something now while one may not have the money for two years and the mayor may change in the meantime, for instance, there isn’t much room for interpretation. Again, however, this is priceless knowledge if one is working within the government and trying to get things done.

The oddest, and most exciting part for me, was the end. The last chapter—titled Lesson 8: Drive Change—speaks to Uber and Lyft (car sharing services that are currently revolutionizing transportation in cities), the rise of automation, and how governments will need to adapt to the changing transportation landscape, on the fly. I have read items like this before, like in the ominous Rise of the Robots which focuses on the rise of automation in America, but what made it slightly odd was that it seemed out of place. The book hadn’t been moving toward it in anyway other than the random mention of Uber and Lyft a time or two prior.

Perhaps it’s because I’ve personally focused a lot of time researching the “self-driving” or slightly automated car, and how this will impact our future, that I pulled almost more out of that one chapter than I did from the entire book, in the best sense. I was extremely thrilled that someone who had worked in government could see the shift that could occur on our roads as soon as the next ten years. Automation changes everything around how we allocate land for parking, how we deal with short haul trips around the city, fuel requirements (short trip cars could essentially travel to their destinations picking up and dropping off their users, and then pulling off to charge when they knew they were at a certain threshold, making them extremely efficient), and even space allocated to the roads themselves, as a car carrying one or two people could be a lot smaller.

One idea that was even posited by Klein was to use a slow-lane that was for people not in a rush, that could be shared with pedestrians and bikes. People hear Uber and they think Taxi, but the reality is, when you hear Uber, read about Google and Tesla and the innovations in wireless charging and battery capacity capabilities, all of a sudden you see how large our world could change, in such a short amount of time. Given how mauch has changed within the past ten years ago, it isn’t hard to see that with the exponential growth of this type of technologies, we could be staring down one of the largest urban transitions since the rise of the car, itself. All of these elements have a bearing on the built environment and Klein made sure to reference back to this frequently, but even his conclusion read more like a futurist manifesto than a Director of Transportation letter.

This being the case, the only critique I could give about the book was that it didn’t contain enough of what Klein focused on in Lesson 8 and the conclusion. Truthfully, I wanted them to be a book in their right. But in saying that, I realize that putting them in the context of Klein’s argument—starting with governments and private entities and moving through important lessons on management and approach—the future is just as important and needs to be treated as such.

In the end, I loved Start-Up City for its witty writing, the lessons it taught and its amazing push of future technology at the end. Gabe Klein did an amazing job of distilling his practices, the elements that made him what he is and the cities he worked with, presenting them in a fun and interesting way…definitely worth of the short time it would take one to read it.

One humble request, however: Dear Mr. Klein, please write a book that expands on government and the future of technology. They need it laid out.  We need it laid out. And if you can make it as accessible as you’ve made Start-Up City, our transition to the future will surely be that much easier.

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For more information on Start-Up City, visit the Island Press website.

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Jeremy Senko is happily lost in the world of theoretical architecture and design. He is forever a student at heart, consistently reading, experiencing and learning about the world he inhabits. More specifically, he works as an Interior Designer in Vancouver and plays an active part in bettering the environments we live in.

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Fredericton – The New Roundabout and the Crosswalk to Nowhere

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FREDERICTON – When the City of Fredericton opened the new roundabout, there was a lot of local media coverage. It was the first two-lane roundabout in the city, it was along the highway. Would Fredericton drivers – “Fredericton driver” has become a synonym for bad driving – be able to handle it? Despite some incidents […]

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How to have better conversations about Paris

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paris attack  Kazuky Akayashi

This article was co-written with Beyhan Farhadi

Immediately following the Paris attacks a deep divide emerged. On one side, there were messages of solidarity, hashtag mobilization, and temporary profile filters of the national flag; media outlets covered each detail with precision. The outpouring of grief was palpable.  The other side came down swiftly, highlighting the disparity in response to bombings in Beirut and Baghdad which took place days earlier.  At its core, the question posed was whose lives are worth mourning? Responses ranged from accusations of latent racism and shaming over the expression of selective grief, to attention hijacking, in which the struggle for social justice interrupted the sensitive process of mourning.

Those of us in the middle, observers and referees, submit to the complication of the matter by recognizing the validity of both sides. Yes, the personal is political, but it is also intensely local. We tend not to be grief-stricken over the distant or the unknown; we mourn for the familiar. And arguably, there are few places more familiar than The City of Light. This is neither to discredit the priority we give to certain bodies and places over others, nor is it to dismiss the increase in reported hate-crimes or the restriction of liberties and increased securitization enacted by the state in the heat of grief. Polarized conversations emerging from international tragedies threaten to undo critical global and local strides towards creating just, safe, and connected communities. How can we have better conversations about Paris?

Shaming is not a strategy for achieving social justice

Shaming is a tactic some use to denounce the unjust practices of governments, corporations, and high profile leaders. Although momentarily effective, it destroys the potential for trust building required for sustainable transformation. So while it is inarguable that there is a social hierarchy of places and people, shame cannot be used as an anecdote for a lack of critical thinking or empathy. Effective social change conversations are underpinned by rallying people around a shared vision. This is exhausting and sometimes frustrating work but facilitating shame-free conversations creates the conditions for achieving greater solidarity.

Broadcasting is not conversation

Social media is an excellent platform for amplifying important messages. However, it has created what social movement scholars refer to as an “attention space,” which only has room for select participants whose messages create a moral density or select critical mass. The problem with this approach is that broadcasting, while somewhat effective, is not conversation. Conversation is far more flexible and democratic. It not only tolerates, but is predicated on two-way exchange. The people on the other end of the message are granted the respect of being a participant rather than a recipient of the “message” or audience. The focal point is then placed on participants exchanging ideas rather than the purity of a single message or perspective.

Consider turning statements into questions

It is natural to have strong feelings and positions about global tragedies. However, when engaging with others with equally strong feelings and positions, asking questions is a good way to avoid shutting down discussion. Consciously practice turning statements into questions or conclude a statement with a question. Questions force us to acknowledge the gaps in our knowledge and open us up to perspectives and angles we may not have considered. They are also a strategy for communicating strong opinions in a tactful way.

Prioritize alternative sources

If you didn’t hear about Beirut or Baghdad before Paris, and rarely hear about global tragedies involving people who don’t look like you, it may be a good idea to expand your media sources. In addition to being a strategy for improving media literacy and cross-checking facts, this will help you to avoid getting caught in a political echo chamber. Consider subscribing to international news sources as well as humanitarian organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. If you encounter an individual with perspectives that challenge or expand your world view, you can also add them to your feed by following their profile.

Kick it old school and actually chat with people offline

We’ve heard a million times that social media doesn’t facilitate the most transparent and respectful conversations. Between trolls and cowards more invested in controversy than meaningful connection, online platforms can be a dangerous forum for discussing international tragedies. Besides, some things are simply too complicated for Likes, Tweets, and Shares. The act of gathering on the local level is indeed revolutionary as it reinforces the power of community, relieves anxiety (this stuff is overwhelming), and enables is to encounter our mutual humanity.

Finally, we no longer live in a world where politics and religion are off the table. Conversations previously considered taboo are common place. When linked to tragedy, it is important to remember that central to all conflict-laden conversations is the existence of pain. Conversation is not meant to immediately resolve that pain or facilitate comfort (growth is inherently uncomfortable), but it should consider the ways we are mutually, albeit differently, hurting. Sometimes the hurt is immediate, such as worrying about friends and family members in a once safe urban enclave. Other times the hurt is tied to historical struggles for justice. Comparing our pain is futile and diminishes the pain of others. What’s key is having conversations inclusive of deep listening, empathy, knowledge exchange, and regard for our shared humanity.

photo by Kazuky Akayashi

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Shaping Portland Street: Downtown Dartmouth’s Draft Design Manual

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Dartmouth – What started as a response to the lack of guidance about what height was appropriate in Downtown Dartmouth has evolved into a full plan update and the creation of a Design Manual. The Manual is very important for the future of Downtown Dartmouth, particularly Portland Street. Portland Street has a beautiful rhythm of […]

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Book Review – 100 Diagrams That Changed the World

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It all begins with a diagram. In architecture, it is the grand design of the floor plan; in mathematics, it is the graphic representation of an algebraic or geometric relationship; in physics, diagrams serve as the tool to aid the scientist in making enormously complex calculations. 100 Diagrams That Changed the World is a fascinating collection of the most significant plans, sketches, and illustrations that have influenced and shaped the way we think. Arranged chronologically, each diagram is accompanied by informative text that makes even the most scientific breakthroughs accessible to all.

  • From the book’s Introduction

Author: Scott Christianson (Plume Publishing, 2012)

With all the information in the world now at our fingertips, those old precursors to the smart device, otherwise known as books, are going to have to prove themselves as more than just storehouses of information, drawing out the connections between seemingly disparate ideas in a way that an internet search cannot. Such is the case here, as Scott Christianson, author of this useful Penguin anthology, has clearly attempted to do. Perhaps more a primer than an exhaustive compendium, 100 Diagrams That Changed the World is modest in its realization that there are large omissions, but indeed if there could be a framework in which such a lofty ambition could be commenced, surely this book is off on the right foot, with its heart very much in the right place.

For here as one would expect, the author has presented diagrams of the obvious – the steam engine and locomotive, the bicycle, the lightbulb, the clock, the car, the plane, the television, and the computer. But even more compelling, Christianson provides visual reproductions of the patents for each of these items, tacitly observing that Western civilization’s obsession with invention has always been closely accompanied by the notion of copyright, something the author most surely would’ve observed himself as he got the rights to reproduce these patents.

That these inventions are in this book speaks not only to their importance as milestones in the development of what we now call the modern world—many contributing to the rise of the Industrial Revolution—but that, as ideas, they were first drawings in plan, elevation, and cross-section. It is then this book’s great achievement to put them side by side with other such ideas that couldn’t be more different, such as Kepler’s Law of Planetary Motion, the Orders of Architecture, the Virtuvian Man, and a diagram of Chinese Acupuncture Points. There is a playfulness in what the author has chosen to include, as much as there is a seriousness in what he has elected to leave out.

Beginning with the Chauvet Cave Drawings from 30,000 BC (and as he points out, twice as old as the Lascaux cave paintings), the book ends with the iPod. An interesting trajectory to say the least, as it would appear that at the beginning of time we were communicating with each other (and across the ages as it would turn out), while the iPod, from a cultural standpoint, represents the polar opposite, where individual choice is focused on the present needs of the self. As expected then, much of the book is made up of modes of communication, like the cave paintings above, but also including the Phaistos Disc, the Rosetta StoneMorse Code, the Plaque that went out with the Pioneer space probe in 1972, and the World Wide Web.

While the author is not intent on suggesting there is a moral consequence to some of these diagrams, merely by placing certain ones side by side in the book one cannot help but see the larger writing on the wall. Perhaps no better example of this is the diagram of the Brookes Slave Ship from 1788, showing African Americans stored below deck like so much human cargo, only to turn the page to see the patent for Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin.

Perhaps the author had to decide early on to strategically edit out the darker moments of human history, and how technology and invention have occasionally been used as the vehicle for human suffering (with the darkest moment here represented by a diagram of the Chernobyl Radioactive Fallout Map). Such is the case with one of the book’s opening diagrams for the battering ram, a testament of humanity’s long obsession with warfare as first documented by the Assyrians in 865 BC, and later in the book with the inclusion of the patents for the machine gun and V2 rocket.

There is, however, just as much light as there is dark in human invention, with moments of sheer whimsy here including instructions for building a piece of IKEA furniture, the first documented sheet music dating back to 1400 BC , and Micrographia – incredibly detailed 17th century drawings of the world as seen through a microscope.

Moments that saw tectonic paradigm shifts are also here, including the Ptolemaic diagram of the solar system from 150 AD, along with Copernicus’ Heliocentric Universe from 1543. Galileo’s diagram for the first telescope is here, along with his magnificent drawings of the moon which were made possible by what he was able to see peering through his invention. In addition, the Pythagorean Theorem appears in the book’s opening pages, though Christianson points out that the diagram may be much older than the ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician for whom it is named, with historic evidence suggesting that it was actually first used by the Babylonians in 1900 BC.

There are understandably here many diagrams concerned with humankind’s place in the cosmos, represented by the Egyptian book of the Dead, Dante’s Divine Comedy, the Aztec Calendar, and even Freud’s notions of the Id, Ego and Super Ego.

As has been often the case for human history, there have been revolutionary ideas that have occurred quietly behind the scenes, falling into place with such ease in our understanding of the world that we are often hard pressed to imagine our world without them. These notions include the periodic table of elements, colour theory, Darwin’s theory of evolution, the discovery of bacteria, and even graded sewing patterns. All seem rather unremarkable at first glance, but upon further reflection they are as important to our modern world as the more usual suspects noted above.

A most thoroughly satisfying read, as well as an indispensable addition to one’s library, 100 Diagrams That Changed the World is meant to be read and reread – an invaluable resource of understanding our world and how human volition has rendered it through simple line diagrams. While such notable absences from the book include the Chinese Abacus, the Arabic number zero and the Roman alphabet, Christianson’s anthology represents a thoughtful cross-section of human endeavour dating back to a time before the first cities appeared on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

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Sean Ruthen is a Metro Vancouver-based architect and writer.

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Events Guide: Walking the Debris Field: A Natural History

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HALIFAX – The Narratives in Space and Time Society (NiS+TS) is having a public art walking event this Sunday (December 6) starting at noon. This marks 98 years since the Halifax Explosion. The event is free and all are welcome. Where: Community Garden behind the Devonshire Arena When: Sunday (December 6th) at noon Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1903021659924057/ […]

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A Plea for Clear and Reasonable Rules for Cyclists

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HALIFAX – Every morning I put on my helmet, get on my bike, and enter a world of legal anarchy. Trying to follow the rules is sometimes scarier than some of the riskier things I got dared to do in high school. Consider intersections where cyclists are supposed to merge into the centre lane just to […]

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Book Review – The Disaster Profiteers

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Author:  John C. Mutter (St. Martin’s Press, 2015)

The Disaster Profiteers: How Natural Disasters Make the Rich Richer and the Poor Even Poorer is an analysis of what makes a natural disaster a disaster, and explores the pre-existing conditions that exacerbate extreme natural events. Mutter is a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences and International and Public affairs at Columbia University in New York. His book arrives at some unsettling conclusions about how we have set up our societies and ties in how those decisions can impact the severity of natural disasters.

On first reading of the title, one expects that maybe this is an exposé on how relief money is potentially misspent after a disaster occurs: this is not the case.  This book goes deeper and looks at the decisions that take place long before a disaster strikes that influence things like where poorer neighbourhoods are located within a community, or if there are building codes or not.

The book focuses itself by looking at how the same types of disaster affect different places.  For earthquakes, it compares the 2010 8.8 magnitude Chilean earthquake with the 2010 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti. For hurricanes, it compares the disasters of Hurricane Nargis in 2008 in Myanmar and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that affected New Orleans. These examples compare events of comparable magnitude where the outcomes were different due to the social circumstances and the community structure that was in place before the disasters struck.

In comparing the Haiti quake with the Chilean, we see that there was a much higher death toll and much more infrastructure damage in Haiti. In Haiti, there has been a history of dysfunctional and corrupt government that has resulted in an appalling gap between rich and poor segments of the population. At the time of the quake, the government was so ineffectual it may as well have not existed at all.  There were no building codes or enforcement to speak of, and any security forces or organizations on the ground were there to serve the most affluent first, while leaving everyone else to fend for their selves.  While wealthy people could pay to have their houses constructed soundly to withstand the hurricanes that routinely affect the region, poorer people could not afford such preparations.

By comparison, Chili—while having problems of its own—had a much more government structure in place and due to its location had more experience dealing with this type of disaster.  The impact of the earthquake was significant, but the population and government were able to deal with it more effectively.

With respect to the hurricanes, there were some unsettling similarities of how the events were handled in both circumstances. In Myanmar, which was being ruled by a military dictator, those in charge largely ignored and denied that there even had been a hurricane for days and weeks after it happened. In this same way, they refused to even acknowledge that there was anyone who needed help.  The controlling military elites lived mainly in the newly minted capital of Naypyidaw (established 2005), and were largely unaffected by the hurricane and resulting inundation that was experienced on the coast.

On the other hand, much poorer people living in the low lying agricultural regions had their homes and livelihoods destroyed by the hurricane. Given that members of the military elite remained unaffected by the event, in their minds there was no problem, explaining the refusal to acknowledge there was even a problem for days. The lives of the people who had been affected by Hurricane Nargis did not matter to the military elite.

Hurricane Katrina saw this same delay in action by the government.  The reason for the delay was again directly related to the perception of the people affected by the disaster held by those in power. In this case, the poorer, mostly African American, community was in some ways blamed for the horrible situation on the ground.  The long history of racism and segregation had pushed impoverished African Americans to neighbourhoods that were more at risk to flooding and disaster. So when the hurricane hit, it was those communities that were disproportionately affected. The inherent media bias towards this group also tried to argue to some degree that maybe these people were not worth helping. At the time, directly after the hurricane, a white man taking from a grocery store was framed as “survival provisioning”; while a black man doing the same would have been reported simply as looting.

Overall, The Disaster Profiteers is an intense look at how existing social stratification can exacerbate problems during a natural disaster. Mutter argues that a hurricane or an earthquake is not simply a hurricane or an earthquake; it is a series of cascading decisions that set up how well a community is able to face extreme natural events, as a whole.  Systematic oppression and vast social inequality set up communities for disaster. Preparing for disasters is not as simple as assembling your emergency kit.  It is a societal and governmental choice to ensures that the entire system is braced for impact and ready to respond. Setting up the right institutions to educate, mitigate, study and prepare for extreme natural events can be the difference between a hurricane and just another storm.

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For more information on The Disaster Profiteer, visit the website.

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Andrew Cuthbert works as a planner and has a love for everything to do with spatial data. When not working Andrew can most likely be found on his bike taking in the sights and fresh air.

The post Book Review – The Disaster Profiteers appeared first on Spacing National.

Tearing Off the Water Street “Refresh” Bandaid

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St. John’s, NL – Lately there’s been a lot of discussion surrounding the benefits of delaying St. John’s aptly named Water Street “Refresh” project. As a landlord and retail professional, the uncertainty this project has already created has without question deterred regional and international retailers from opening in the downtown. Council’s decision to delay the project only further exacerbates […]

The post Tearing Off the Water Street “Refresh” Bandaid appeared first on Spacing Atlantic.

Proceed with caution on federal infrastructure plans

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photo by Timoty Neesam

During the federal election campaign, Justin Trudeau promised major funding for infrastructure projects. There is no question that such projects are sorely needed.

But how exactly will our billions be spent?

Given the close links between federal and Ontario Liberals, it is quite likely that Infrastructure Ontario (IO), a powerful agency that has orchestrated 75 semi-privatized projects since the early 2000s, will be seen as the model for the country at large. The agency works with consortia of private firms to finance, design, build and in some cases operate a wide range of public projects, from transit lines to college buildings. British Columbia uses a similar approach, through an agency called Partnerships BC. The Ontario government calls IO’s approach alternative financing and procurement (AFP). Critics say it is merely a more palatable name for public-private partnerships. Either way, Canadian capital markets will be very happy indeed if the feds now start committing billions to projects that will be underwritten by private finance.

But it’s not too late to pause and think twice about unnecessarily pouring billions into the coffers of large financial institutions, and millions of consulting fee income into the pockets of accounting giants like KPMG and Deloitte. Last December, Ontario auditor general Bonnie Lysyk released a report that sharply criticized IO and specifically Ontario’s use of public-private partnerships for infrastructure. A key finding was that in the previous nine years Ontarians had spent $8 billion more on IO’s AFP model than if conventional public financing had been used.

Unfortunately, her findings, released when Pan Am Games mania was taking hold in the Greater Toronto Area, were largely ignored. Few Ontarians know that for the 2015 Games, Ontarians spent over $4 billion on new high-performance sports venues, with at least one (the Scarborough aquatic centre) being an expensive white elephant with eye-watering operating costs ($12 million per year). To reassure taxpayers, the Pan Am building spree, overseen by IO, was described in press releases as “under budget,” with journalists dutifully repeating the claim – although, as Lysyk pointed out, if budgets are inflated in the first place, as IO does, it’s easy to crow that they came in ‘under budget’.

Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government always says IO does not privatize public assets. That is true: unlike Hydro One, IO does not sell off public assets. But what does the government really mean when it says that huge projects (including two mega projects, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT and the 407 East toll highway) are being built using AFP deals?

One key feature of the IO model is that Ontario relies on private financing rather than government bonds. Two Canadian scholars who study project financing, Anthony Boardman and Aidan Vining, explain that this means government is “renting money” – at a cost, of course.

Why is renting money from capital markets (including pension funds) more expensive than issuing government bonds? First, private investors, such as pension funds and foreign banks, don’t usually have enough in their piggy banks to provide the equity, so they borrow the capital, paying significantly higher rates than governments would.

Second, an arbitrary and very high price is assigned to the risks that the government is supposedly passing on to the private sector – so that IO can then claim that overall private financing makes financial sense. Shockingly, Lysyk found that there are no actual calculations to support that risk pricing – and having pored over several of the Bible-sized project agreements IO posts online, I can confirm this. (You can try this at home, searching the IO website for “Value for Money assessment” plus the name of whatever project you’re interested in. More generally, see Matti Siemiatycki and Naeem Farooqi, “Value for Money and Risk in Public-Private Partnerships”, Journal of the American Planning Association 2012.)

Finally, Lysyk reported, in keeping with scholarly research, that IO’s public-private parntership approach means that each venture is a bonanza for consultants and Bay street lawyers. And the firms hired do not carry out an independent evaluation, but merely certify that the process was “in accordance with Infrastructure Ontario’s own methodology.”

So why are infrastructure public-private partnerships still so popular?

One reason is a major cultural shift that has made many people believe that innovation and efficiency have to come from either the private sector or public sector organizations, like IO, that hire private sector executives and use market methods. The 2008 financial crisis seems to not have caused lasting damage to the myth that financiers staying up late to sign ‘deals’ should be role models for boring public servants. One cannot imagine a Hollywood script featuring public servants cleverly reforming public procurement rules to save taxpayers money – that plot wouldn’t rate even as a CBC documentary.

Apart from the cultural mystique of ‘the deal’, public-private partnerships are still popular despite evidence to the contrary because institutional investors like OMERS and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan like them. The long-term nature of P3 projects (30 years, usually) fits with the time frame of insurance companies and pension funds’ payment schedules. Sadly, using private funding from public pension funds to fund infrastructure undermines the very public sector that employed fund members before they retired.

And what have the feds been doing? A federal Public-Private Partnerships agency exists because Stephen Harper’s government created it, but it has never had much money. The agency’s main role has been to preach the gospel of private financing and procurement in provinces that unlike Ontario and BC have not yet seen the light.

So I am willing to bet that as you read this, someone in Ottawa is calling someone at Queen’s Park to recruit AFP experts to come to Ottawa to begin drawing up mega-contracts that will have Canadians paying billions more than we need for infrastructure, with consultants and financiers and private-sector project managers laughing all the way to the bank.

Mariana Valverde is a U of T professor who studies urban governance and is currently researching the governance of infrastructure projects in Ontario. Follow her on Twitter: @mvalverdeurban

photo by Tim Neesam

The post Proceed with caution on federal infrastructure plans appeared first on Spacing National.

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