An overly grand design for the light-rail station that’s to serve Parliament Hill risks crowding neighbouring buildings and the space in front of it on Queen Street, the city’s own panel of design experts warns.
The group of architects and urban designers goes over the plans for major projects, including the city government’s own, to give advice on esthetics and function. It studied the city’s plans to rebuild Queen into a “showcase street” centred on the LRT stations that are supposed to open in 2018.
Overall, the panel found, it’s high-quality work. But the group had some reservations, particularly with the entrances to the stations.
“The Panel feels that the LRT station designs and entrances do not adequately capitalize on the opportunity of creating gateways to the popular tourist destinations, close to the study area,” says a summary of the panel’s recommendations posted on its website.
“The Panel expressed major concern with the design of the Parliament Station in particular, and the very tight surrounding spaces it creates with adjacent buildings and with the public realm,” the report goes on. “The Panel questions whether such a large entrance structure to the station is needed, vis-à-vis anticipated ridership levels at peak hours. Many subway stations in larger cities around the world function well with narrower staircases that take up less space in the public realm, despite higher volumes of users.”
The current plan for the station also has a prominent ventilation stack, the designers observed, which should either be moved or disguised, maybe with a piece of art.
Speaking of art, sculptures and similar pieces are a big part of the plan, thanks to a city policy of spending one per cent of a major project’s budget on them — in the $2.1-billion rail plan, that means $21 million. The city might be planning to spend a bit too much of that on Queen in particular.
“Given the number of opportunities for public art in other locations close to the study area, such as on Sparks Street and on Confederation Boulevard, the Panel feels that public art should not be as high a priority of the project as its other objectives,” the report says.
In mild language, the architects also pointed out that Queen Street will probably be very busy at rush hours but if it’s going to be occupied at other times, “more people will need to be living in the area.”
The panel often goes over plans twice or more before they go ahead, with the builders making changes to try to get the group’s approval. Securing that sign-off isn’t mandatory but it would be embarrassing for the city government to steamroll the advice of its own experts.
dreevely@ottawacitizen.com
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