Tower Bridge in the background, construction in the foreground
Commercial buildings in the background, construction in the foreground
Sometimes our working days gift us the most amazing views. Today was one of those days. A beautiful morning, and a beautiful backdrop on our (soon to be) beautiful transformation of a site in the heart of #London. Exciting stuff. #placemaking #landscapearchitecture #bettercity #LDADesign
Find out more about our work with #Howells architects to better connect Novi Sad in Serbia to the River Danube, opening up access to make the river part of the everyday. Interview with #LDADesign director, Benjamin Walker: shorturl.at/g3ZeI #placemaking #bettercity
Let me clarify: Comments heard by councillors, planners and architects. The last is a suggested reply to some of these comments. #BetterCity
A discussion after a question from a Ottawa councillor about homelessness:
"You have to design and plan for use after opening."
"Who cleans it?"
"Who funds the cleaning?"
"Does the place get owned by people or policed after problems?"
#BetterCity
Other comments from various people:
"We don't want community housing that looks like a cheap hotel."
"You can't tell it is a community housing!"
"It looks too good to be community housing."
"Well, do you want your city to look like crap?"
#BetterCity
A tale from the trenches from an architect : I was asked to make a building look less expensive. It wasn't more expensive but the perception was public buildings can't look expensive. #BetterCity
If I caught that right,Toronto is / has developed Design Quality Standard guidelines as part of their procurement process at the design review stage. #BetterCity
See #BetterCity for my live posts. (And those of others.)
We are moving into audience Q&A. Live tweeting experience tells me this section does not live post well. I'll summarize later when I add my own reflections. #BetterCity
He also highlights the need for trust with your council and building a culture focussed on design excellence. #BetterCity.
They have a process on less sexy projects for Emerging Firms. It helps them survive and exposes them to the realities of working with a city. #BetterCity
The #Edmonton speaker is showing a bunch of recent public projects. He also offers tours to those who visit.
Part of change has been a desire to get aware from Deadmonton nickname. #BetterCity
On fees, they look at fee guideline from industry. You lose points on bid if you underpay.
ie you can't buy the job by low bidding. #BetterCity
So Edmonton had to redesign procurement process. They review participants' process as well as their prior work. The shortlist 5 firms then they talk big vision with each firm. #BetterCity
#Edmonton speaker starts by identifying as an infrastructure team of 5 architects and 1 tech.
All their city projects have to go through public design review. Western province free trade process forced transparency onto their procurement process.
#BetterCity
Laughter from the room when she mentions how many design awards we give ourselves. #BetterCity #Ottawa
How does City of Ottawa deal with brutalist buildings in redevelopment and heritage goals? How do we recognize embassies across the city? Integrate our many heritage zones as a rural/urban city of many communities? #BetterCity
Looking at recent municipal buildings, often decisions have been made during procurement about cost. Some of this is local facilities may not be in a design priority area. Only Adisoka gets a shout-out as in a design priority area. #BetterCity
A key part of #Ottawa planning is shared jurisdiction work. Many of our prime corridors overlap with the federal government, NCC, Gatineau and two provinces. We have the policy building blocks. But it comes down to process and budget. #BetterCity
#Ottawa speaker is throwing back to the 5 Big Moves document which was a foundation to the discussion at the start of the new City Master Plan process. #BetterCity
Ottawa speaker is also talking about how #Ottawa is also rural. She also highlights the dynamic relationship with Gatineau and Quebec. The NCC also got a shoutout for doing a lot of the heavy lifting in recent #placemaking. #BetterCity
ED: I love that she referred to the Canadian city overlay map as kitchy. #BetterCity
Yes, she is a new resident coming from Western Canada via a career in GTA. She mentions Ashinabeq impacts in this place. Plus the good bones built over the last 100 years as we grew to 1M people. #BetterCity
Next is #Ottawa's new city planner (only 4 months in the role). She is thanking her team first. She highlights the broadness of skills required. And the need to integrate with experts in other departments. #BetterCity
Beauty is of value. Lowest bidder wins tends to remove that magic element of beauty that makes parks beloved. #BetterCity
It isn't perfect. Some parks under the former approach are still in the pipeline. It is important to retain enough flexibility / control after procurement to apply lessons as you learn them on other projects. #BetterCity
Switching to a piazzo approach has created Instagrammable spaces. They are places people want to come to see.
#BetterCity
Another Toronto winning project is Love Park. They had to change procurement rules to achieve it. Its success has permanently changed how City of Toronto approaches designing parks. #BetterCity
Sidebar: great art, beloved art and kitchy art. (All are important.)
This park is loved because it has seating and it is a gathering spot and it is a landmark. All those elements work together to make a people place. #BetterCity
