Favourite journey: travel here by train from Parkin's Ottawa Train Sration

There will only be one viable option: more intense commercial development, whatever that looks like then.

Lansdowne 3.0 happens when the waterproofing under the roads protecting the parking structure fails and we’re told the structure cannot be saved. Likewise the retail will be “at the end of its service life.” By then no-one will be sorry to see the deteriorating, unloved box stores go.

At least the costly promised-but-never-built timber screens on the north side stand do not have to be demolished to make way for more condos in 2.0.

If this can be made to work it could help bring about the revival of the 1920s walk-up apartment building – single stair, no parking – which would be a great thing.

From the firefighting perspective this would need to be sorted out. Not that it’s insurmountable, but I haven’t seen this part of the discussion anywhere.

Her response was that it was probably worth studying, but also informed me that in places where single exits are permitted, the response to fire alarms is to shelter-in-place, not evacuate as we have been drilled to do. Integrity of exits is therefore less critical.

Years ago I floated this idea with a fire protection engineer I hoped to enlist in a pilot study for this type of housing solution. Like most architects I wondered why this was possible in Europe but not here.

How it started. Would not be surprising to see towers populating the "Great Lawn" someday.

The Terms of Reference for the architectural competitions that produce these kinds of results are extremely easy to find, even in Canada.

Finally building that monorail, I hope.

However, we broke it, which means we can fix it. #urbanism

The narrow sidewalks, signage clutter, harsh lighting, traffic signals and of course all the parking infrastructure are retrofitted coping mechanisms to deal with a bad personal transportation solution we've all bought into. #baddesign #carsruincities

Watson hated the NCC for "micromanaging" city projects. Those of us who work with the NCC in a professional capacity know this practice as "complying with quality standards." Not difficult if you share the committment to good design.

Could it be that regular people, unlike contracting officers, know instinctively that capital costs are dwarfed by operating costs over the life of a building?

The NCC is effectively the municipal government as far as the quality of the public realm is concerned because it has a mandate to actually care about these things

Ottawa seems to be governed as though the area a couple of square kms around City Hall is a kind of DMZ that suburban politicians grudgingly traverse by car and as quickly as possible.

That's nice. But I think what the people of Ottawa Centre are wondering is did you give Charlie Kirk a standing ovation today?