Canada: Designers of new urban park in Ottawa challenged to maintain historic character
Five teams competing to design the new urban park in the Lansdowne development have the weight of preserving history and creating a "must place," according to city, NCC and Parks Canada officials.
In the first leg of two days of briefings and consultations with the five shortlisted design teams vying to revamp Lansdowne's public space along the Rideau Canal, representatives from the design firms got a tour of the Bank St. park yesterday -- and a two-hour history lesson from local officials.
"It needs to be reinvigorated as a dynamic and unique place within a place -- that's the challenge
before you," said John Smit, City of Ottawa project manager for the Lansdowne Partnership Plan.
Using countless historical aerial shots of Lansdowne in its heyday and a celebratory Parks Canada video championing the Rideau Canal as the continent's most important canal system, local officials told the design teams the burden of revamping a derelict historic site rests with them.