MINTO PARK'S IMAGINARY MAKEOVER

A little over three years ago, the city had plans to improve street furniture with their Integrated Street Furniture Program. I'm not quite sure what happened to that, but I'm assuming these are the types of projects that die in this city with the change of governing bodies. It's unfortunate. Perhaps, it would be better if these types of projects were handled by the councillors of each ward.

I often dream of redesigning various public spaces around town, and the Minto Park in Centertown is one of them. It's a relatively small park nestled between Elgin St and Cartier St. It's in an area near houses and a main street that's relatively busy. I often see people walking their dogs when I'm in the area. There are picnic tables and benches, but the outdoor furniture is quite dated and tired. It could benefit from a little makeover in my opinion.

There are three focal points, consisting of (1) a memorial for women victims of domestic abuse,  (2) a large planter surrounded by grass, and (3) the bust of an Argentinean general. It's a weird combination. They are completely unrelated to one another.


The bust was apparently chosen because it was available in the city's collection. The memorial on the other hand,  was erected after a series of particularly brutal murders of women in Ottawa in 1991. Also, a memorial service is held each year in honor of these women. It would therefore be more meaningful to make it the focal point of the park and eliminate the sculptures that take away from it. This would make for a more coherent design.

If it was up to me, I would move the memorial at the center, add flowers (maybe white tulips) and remove the bust. To complete the design, I would install two modern sculptures like the ones from Antony Gormley. I think the ones named Shrive (on the left) and Gut 1 (on the right), are particularly fitting. They would be facing the memorial.

Then, I would soften the natural color palette of the park by planting lots of cherry blossom and magnolia trees. This would create a breathtaking view for the surrounding residents and visitors, almost like and enchanting forest.  Since pink is a very feminine color, it would tie in well with the memorial. I imagine it would become a great spot for beautiful pictures too!

After that, I would update all the chairs and trash bins which look too severe and dated. Replacing them with lighter and curvier furniture to give it a more feminine look in keeping with the theme. The brown picnic tables, chairs and trash bins would be replaced by bright pink steel tables, benches and light trash bins. 

Finally I would replace the old light posts with these eco-friendly solar lights called Invisible Street.   They seamlessly blend with the natural surroundings. I would make sure there would be enough light so that the park would feel safe at night as well. 

Source : Google Streetview | Wikipedia |Antony Gormley | zebriana | Lucybear | House and Homes | Jessica MP | vilagrasa | casamania | Hong Joo's Design Story |

Why not an ibus stop in Ottawa?

Although Ottawa is most probably far from being ready to adopt this caliber of design in the city (still I keep hoping for a miracle), it would be neat to have bus stops like the new ones that will be installed in Florence, Italy next year. Called EyeStops and designed by the SENSEable City Lab of MIT, this 21st century concept bus stop interacts with passengers the same way an iphone can.


The solar-powered booths will be outfitted with touchscreen displays that will show necessary information such as bus schedules and the shortest route for a certain destination. People will also be able browse the web, check the air quality, see the exact location of their desired bus, interact with a mobile device and use the booth as a community message board to post announcements and ads using the next generation of epaper.



A bus pole version of the EyeStop with similar mapping, info, and communication tools will also be introduced in 2010. But wait, there’s more! It glows brighter as the next bus nears the stop to signal pedestrians from afar. How cool is that?



About 200 bus shelters and 1,000 bus poles are expected to be installed. What I love about these, besides the fact that they are awesome, is that they are really in tune with the times and how people live today in the 21st century. Of course, those opposed to change will not like this, but it's only a matter of time before items such as these become common practice.

photos: SENSEable City Lab of MIT

Great bench options for Ottawa

I'm not sure what's going on with Ottawa's Integrated Street Furniture Program. That section of their website doesn't seem to have been updated for a while. (Perhaps most of the efforts are being concentrated on Lansdowne?) Technically contracts should be awarded by now and the installation should start in July 2011. In the mean time I found some interesting bench options for Ottawa because they really need an update!

Benches along the Rideau River

Imagine having Tititkaka benched (design by by Naoto Fukasawa for B & B Italia) along the Rideau river with a redesigned landscape.

Or a series of Valencia benches (designed by Jose Gandia and Pablo Girones for Gandia Blasco) all along Sparks street. They're a lot sexier than the ones that are there right now. But of course you can't change the benches without changing the whole street (new stores, new façade, new vibe, etc.). It's looking old and tired right now.

Benches on Spark Street

Some portions of Sparks street are the perfect location for Astral benches designed by Per Borre. I love how they wrap around and give more of an opportunity for people to talk which is very fitting for Ottawa people because from my own experience , people are very much into talking to strangers just cause. So why not have furniture that fits the personality of the population.

source : StylePark

Ottawa needs piano stairs!

I recently came across this really neat video about a project in Stockholm where public stairs were retrofitted to sound like the keys from a piano as people walk on them. It's a fun way to get people to use the stairs more often. It seems to also brighten the day of people who got to experience it.

The same group also introduced a sound effect to a public trash bin in order to give the impression that the bin was very deep. I think Ottawa could use a bit of fun like that in the city.

Outdoor gym - lessons from Ibiza

One of the first things I noticed when I came to Ottawa is that it seems like a lot of people take care of themselves: They jog, walk, cycle, roller skate, etc. I was walking along a bike path next to the Ottawa river a while back and I saw soo many people doing their exercise. I though that was neat.

It seems like staying in shape is something the locals in Ibiza have in common with the locals in Ottawa. While there, I noticed that there was a training circuit,"Circuito en forma", designed near the houses and condos of the town to get people in shape , with 20something stations describing various exercises to do at that station.

There was also an outdoor gym, which I though was a great idea for Ottawa. Of course here in Ottawa, we would not be able to use it the whole year because of winter, but how is that different than kids' playground anyway? There was all sorts of machines with instructions on how to use each of them. People used the machine at various time of the day and night. I think something like this would be a nice and original (at least in Canada) addition to the street furniture in Ottawa.

Street Recycling Bins - Lessons from Ibiza

While away on vacation I noticed that the design of the recycling bins in Ibiza were very well thought out and we could probably take a few pointers from them. Like in many Canadian cities, Ottawa's public recycling bins could use a bit of a redesign. I'm sorry but they are nasty at times: overflowing with garbage juice leaking from the opening and jammed packed with a bit of everything (Ewww). I barely want to use them! Those little doors are so annoying and the bins are not visually appealing. I also think that we could use more of them (at least in the Byward Market).

Photo : Talkgreen

Here's what I saw in Ibiza's old town :


Don't they look much better? Each bin is assigned to a particular category of recyclable items and can be opened wide to fit items of various sizes (no jamming necessary). Each have a few images of icons showing people what goes inside, in case they don't understand or can't read the labels. Also, because of the way the handles are placed, you have to lift them and are more likely to see the icons on the bin, less likely to put an item in the wrong bin (smart design).

What's really neat about their design is that the bins are very deep (approx. 4-6 ft ) below ground so they can take on a lot more recycling and stay clean on the surface. (Unfortunately it's hard to see how deep it was on the photo)


If you look closely at the second picture you see a rectangle line on the ground around the four bins. That's a trap door that opens up, we assume to pick up the recycling. It also looks like the bin themselves could be detached from the ground to pick up the items underneaths. I thought that was pretty clever.

Ottawa's street furniture Design

There is no question that Ottawa's street furniture needs a complete redesign. They look like they're from the 70s: Old, brown and bulky. They're not fun. They have no personality. So much so that the city developed an Integrated Street Furniture Program (ISFP) "to improve community streetscape and design, reduce advertising clutter, and provide an increase in service while simultaneously generating additional revenue." According to Designing Ottawa, "the idea is to give a contract to a private company that will supply the furniture at little or no cost to the city in exchange for advertising rights on the furniture".

It's too bad only one private company will take over this project. I would have made it a contest and had the citizens vote on their favorite design. Anyway, hopefully it will be a creative company that will propose something original, unique and fun. I personally think that it would be fun to change the design according to the neighborhood so each would have it's own personal street furniture style. You would be able to recognize the location based on the design. I think it's a good way to give the neighborhoods a bit of personality and also encourage residents who live there to take more pride into their environment and take care of it.

Another interesting thing would be to integrate technology in bus stops, a bit like the interactive bus stop proposed for the city of Zaragoza, Spain. "The Adaptable Bus Stop, incorporates several types of digital technologies in order to offer new services to the public, allow for cost-effective manufacturing, and [generate] advertising revenue".

A parametric design model determines a unique design for each stop providing optimal sheltering at minimal cost. Bus riders can plan their trip on a interactive map, exchange community relevant information on a digital message board, surf the web, and use the media on the bus shelter as an interface to their mobile devices.

Wouldn't it be neat to have bus shelters with integrated surface computing as well? That would definitely put Ottawa on the international map. There are so many creative and intelligent designs out there, it would be a shame to repeat the same old thing (square bus shelters with aluminum frames) instead of pushing the envelope like it's been done in other cities, as shown below.

Whimsical street furniture in Tokyo, Japan

(via Flickr)

City Lounge in St. Gallen, Switzerland

(via coolboom)

The Red Ribbon Project in Qinhuangdao, China.

(via coolboom)

I hope whoever gets the contract makes it fun as well. We'll see. The change is scheduled for 2011.