-- Hans Scharoun, German architect

Close your eyes and open them again. Ten years have passed. LeBreton Flats is no longer a mountain of grey, melting snow.

Instead, pedestrians stroll down broad, tree-lined streets featuring shops with awnings and terrace cafes. Lushly landscaped rowhouses and apartment buildings showcase ecologically friendly design. Parks, recreation paths and convenient public transit complete the rosy image.

After a 40-year stretch as a snow dump, campground, parking lot and field of dreams, LeBreton Flats -- 65 hectares of riverfront real estate just west of Parliament Hill -- is about to be revived.

"What we're attempting to do is create a rather unusual and unique community," says Peter McCourt, National Capital Commission director of property development and planning.

"We looked at communities with very active street life, dense urban forms, less reliance on the car, and a little more sustainable notions in buildings than we normally employ here."

Project documents teem with the buzzwords of enlightened urban design: density, work/shop/live/play, sustainability, diversity, mixed use, vibrant, pedestrian friendly.

Is it "public relations hoohaw," to quote Jane Jacobs from her 1961 classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities? Or the start of something beautiful?

The first phase of development is to start by June 2006 on a 4.4-hectare site in the southeastern quadrant.

Ultimately, the plan calls for 2,500 houses and apartments, of which 25 per cent are to be designated affordable housing, as well as 1.7 million square feet of offices, 130,000 square feet of shops, and 603,000 square feet for cultural/institutional use. About 40 per cent of the site is designated parkland and open space.

"If it is done right, it may even be a great part of our city," says Ottawa architect Ralph Wiesbrock, who regularly participates in City of Ottawa and NCC discussions about urban design.

LeBreton Flats is bounded by the Ottawa River to the north, Albert Street to the south, the parliamentary precinct and downtown core to the east, and a CP Rail line to the west.

The NCC is seeking a developer to buy the first 4.4-hectare parcel and build 860,000 square feet of residential space (about 800 units) and 26,000 square feet for shops. (Two blocks in this section have been set aside for future office and commercial use; first dibs going to the federal government.)

The federal agency has identified a short list of three developers. They are:

- Alliance Prevel (Montreal), with Montreal architects Le Groupe Cardinal Hardy and Lyse Tremblay.

- Claridge Homes (Ottawa), with Montreal architects Dan Hanganu and Daoust Lestage Inc.

- Minto (Ottawa), with Ottawa architects Barry Hobin & Associates, Hotson Bakker Architects, (Vancouver and Toronto), and Les Architectes Boutros & Pratte (Montreal).

The three finalists will submit conceptual designs and an offer to purchase. In September, the NCC will invite the public to peruse the design proposals, and a final selection will be announced Nov. 4.

"I see LeBreton as a way to kickstart this idea that Ottawa has to repopulate the core of the city," says Larry Beasley, co-director of planning for the City of Vancouver, and chairman of the NCC advisory committee on planning, design and realty.

"Once you illustrate the viability of inner-city housing, a lot of other people will want it. Then it spurs similar developments nearby."

The NCC is spending $99 million to clean up land contaminated from former industrial uses and to build roads, sewers and parkland.

The north end of the Flats, where the $136-million Canadian War Museum is under construction, is devoted to public use. The museum will be fronted by a four-hectare national park and festival venue called the Common, which will be bordered by trees, and has been designed to accommodate events for 20,000 to 40,000 people. Both will be finished in spring 2005.

"The plan seems to be a well-balanced strategy between the desire for a nationally significant landscape and related institutions, and the need for workable, livable communities woven into the city's fabric," says Mr. Wiesbrock.

"It includes the big gestures that recognize the site's national significance and waterfront opportunities," he says.

"At the same time, it connects back to the surrounding neighbourhoods through connected street patterns and open spaces."

But Janine Debanne, a Carleton University architecture professor, says she is disturbed by what she sees.

"When you look at all the words, you get a sense they're trying to satisfy the environmental and social issues, and all these new debates about smart cities," she says. "But ultimately what they're proposing is a very nice residential enclave right next to the seat of power of our democracy. As that first neighbourhood to the west of Parliament Hill and the (Supreme) Court, it should be public in character.

"It should be a festive, open-ended landscape that can be appropriated by the citizens of the city, beyond polite visits to the Common."

Will this be a vital urban neighbourhood, as promised? Not really, says Ms. Debanne.

"This settlement speaks a lot about vitality, but it is a vitality of a certain kind: the clean speedy vitality associated with in-line skating and fit cyclists, or with tourists arriving at the War Museum," she says. "But what about the vitality of a community ice rink on a winter night, a neighbourhood baseball diamond in the summer, or a street vendor along the water in the summer?

"Are we just tourists of the waterfront? What about backgammon playing and conversation in a cafe along the aqueduct near the Fleet Street pumping station?" she says. "That won't happen because the blocks on that edge will be exclusive housing with raised patios shielded by plantings. The only public dimension will be this cycling path."

But Gerald Lajeunesse, NCC chief landscape architect, rhapsodizes about the public spaces. Besides the Common, there will be an eight-hectare riverfront park and recreational pathway that will be ready for use in spring 2005, and a cycling/walking path along the 19th-century aqueduct that skirts the southern edge of LeBreton Flats.

"I think the Common will be perceived as part of the civic realm, in that it will be a space where people will be able to go and do passive activities, throw the Frisbee, let the dog run around, fly the kite," he says. "I think that all adds character to what this space is all about."

Let the dog run around. Does that mean off-leash?

In fact, although about 5,000 people will live on the Flats, there is no provision for an off-leash dog run.

"I don't think they would ever allow an off-leash area in there," says Mr. Lajeunesse. "It will be a highly programmed space."

He adds: "That river walk is going to be a marvellous asset, being able to stroll right along the water's edge. The opportunity for pedestrian movement and recreational cycling is going to be augmented exponentially."

Back in 1990, Trevor Boddy, a Vancouver-based architectural commentator who taught architecture at Carleton University, expressed concern that the Flats would become "cheaply sterilized with too-often-empty joggers' paths and bikeways."

What about "the indolent, like myself?" he asked, people who want to eat at a waterfront restaurant or sit in a small conveniently located park with a book.

"I go to the park four times a week," agrees Carleton University architecture professor Paul Kariouk.

"What's important are the things that enrich daily life. The institutions provide destinations for tourists and kids' groups. These are important, but where do I walk the dog, where do I go to unwind?

"We don't need another series of promenades along the river with no place to stop and get a drink."

In hopes of bringing more people to LeBreton, the NCC has reserved a 1.5-hectare site next to the War Museum for a future yet-undetermined national institution.

Initial interest came from the newly merged Library and Archives Canada, which has since agreed to shift its operations to Gatineau, and the Canada Science and Technology Museum, which found the site too small.

And while the City of Ottawa is shopping around for a spot to build a new main library, Mr. McCourt says the Flats may not be a central enough location.

"What we're really hoping for is something that would be an immense attraction to the public and work in a complementary way with the War Museum," he says.

The most obvious sign of change so far has been the moving of the section of the Ottawa River Parkway that traverses LeBreton Flats from along the water's edge. The new six-lane road serves the War Museum to the north and residential and commercial sectors to the south.

The outside lanes will be enlarged to allow shared use by bicycles and vehicles, and a lane on either side is reserved for parking. City of Ottawa officials have said they may use the parking lanes in future for traffic, although NCC officials say four lanes is more compatible with a "pedestrian-friendly" area.

"One thing that LeBreton will do is create another Centretown or Glebe," says Mr. Boddy. "I'm sure the starry-eyed visions of the planners is for a leafy, perfect award-winning project that will have urban planners flying to Ottawa like they do to Vancouver."

The first residents of the new residential development could be moving in by 2007. Construction of the first phase is expected to finish by 2011.

The second phase of development will take place between 2010 and 2014 in the portion south of Wellington Street and north of the aqueduct, between Booth and Broad streets.

The third and final phase will take place 2015 to 2020 on the remaining parcels of land.

NCC design guidelines will determine the form and look of the new neighbourhood.

Stacked townhouses and apartments will form a "family of buildings" from four to 12 storeys high. Semi-private landscaped courtyards within the residential blocks will provide children's play areas. Trees, hedges and grade changes will serve as buffers to provide a sense of privacy.

"We've managed to create those tight-knit urban communities that we nostalgically remember from our childhood," says Mr. McCourt.

There will be 110 to 120 housing units per acre, "which for Ottawa is extremely dense," he says.

"In Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, where they brought these kinds of densities and housing patterns, it sold like crazy. It became a community. That's our hope."

Twelve-storey towers will be built on Wellington Street (the new east-west main artery) and on Booth Street, which will be the main shopping street. Buildings on Fleet Street will be six storeys high and four storeys in the core of the neighbourhood.

"I don't think there are many other communities like this, where virtually everyone is within 500 metres or less of a Transitway stop," says Mr. McCourt. "There's no reason not to use the bus now."

Townhouses with ground-level entrances will be designed for the dual purpose of homes with office or studio.

Zoning may also permit ground floors to be used as small galleries or arts-and-crafts studios.

A 2.5-hectare municipal park will be located on the western portion of the site.

"The fact that LeBreton Flats is under the responsible control of a single public agency is a good thing," says Mr. Wiesbrock. "The success of such projects stems from the fundamental coherence and intelligence of the larger urban design vision and the faithfulness of subsequent development to it.

"The NCC has a golden opportunity to set the standard for new development and manage the outcomes," he says.

Ottawa architect Barry Hobin calls the first residents "pioneers" and "homesteaders" brave enough to put down stakes in what will be a construction zone for 15 years.

But Mr. Hobin wonders if there's a market for all these new condos. Ottawa is strewn with examples of multi-phase projects in which only the first phase was built: the Holland Cross development, the Classics apartment buildings on Riverside Drive, and the 1970s housing immediately south of LeBreton Flats.

"What's the guarantee that any of it will happen?" says Mr. Hobin. "The successful proponent will focus on market as being the only issue. Design will be second. If you can't solve the marketability aspect of this project, there will be no project, I don't care how pretty."

The complete remaking of LeBreton Flats is part of a worldwide trend of inner-city revitalization, which aims to make more efficient use of valuable urban land and infrastructure, and to limit costly and environmentally damaging suburban sprawl.

"A growing number of people are embracing urbanism as a way to live their daily lives," says Toronto urban-design consultant George Dark.

"It doesn't scare them to live near a restaurant."

Suddenly, a neglected brownfield, the term used for polluted former industrial sites, is a downtown goose capable of laying golden eggs.

"If you do entice tens of thousands of people back into your city, you will have a more robust and competitive city in the future," says Mr. Beasley.

"Economic performance happens when you can draw creative people and their capital to your city, and a lot of that has to do with reinventing the city as an urbane, urban place."

Next in This Series

- Tomorrow: The vision for transforming LeBreton Flats into a vibrant, mixed-use community began with one man's vision, 15 years ago, of a modern-day Agora in downtown Ottawa.

- Wednesday: A tour of the $136-million Canadian War Museum, under construction, evokes images of bunkers and a cratered battlefield after years of healing.

To read previous stories, visit ottawacitizen.com

The Future of Lebreton Flats: A Special Report. Ran with fact box "Next in this series", which has been appended to the story.

(Source: ArchNewsNow Newsletter, May 17, 2004, www.ArchNewsNow.com)