What is the Real Ottawa?
The Nation’s Capital
Ottawa is a beautiful city perched on the cliffs surrounding the Ottawa river with steep drops making for varrying topography. On one hand the cliffs along the river are an exciting opportunity for unique architecture. On the other hand, the city is definitive buildings centred on individual plots of land set back from the river. For some reason, there’s a gap between the river and the city. Inbetween built and landscape is a large number of empty fields that separate the river from the city.
Though I found it fun to explore the city and see many interesting architectural and landscape projects, I thought it odd how empty things were. The first place I went is the Garden of Provinces and Territories on the edge of downtown. I’d studied this project for one of my classes and was excited to visit. Built in 1962, it is a great modernist example of a terraced park. It has both a formal component organized along the city side and bleeds into a less organized picturesque landscape lawn to the west. There are two notable structures, a scupltural fountain representing the great lakes and the Tree fountain. Unfortunately neither had running water but it was easy to imagine how the water would enhance the space.
I like this park because it is a modern urban space that is well organized for taking a break from the office and connects to nature. I also like that it is terraced with different levels and has small details like the flowers and flags of each province and territory.
The holocaust Monument is a triangle wedged between two highways and an empty field. It’s quite a striking project that evokes emotions. I like the refined concrete finish with pictorial relief on inclined walls and sharp edges in the sunken space. It is, “conceived as an experiential environment comprised of six triangular, concrete volumes configured to create the points of a star. The star remains the visual symbol of the Holocaust — a symbol that millions of Jews were forced to wear by the Nazi’s to identify them as Jews, exclude them from humanity and mark them for extermination.” says the architect Studio Libeskind. I think it’s successful in evoking a strong emotional reaction and I really enjoyed the project. It is probably in the top 10 of of my favourite projects despite the heavy topic.
The war museum is another well constructed concrete monolith across the street from the Holocaust Memorial and even further from the city across a barren landscape. Like a bunker, I immediately recognized the undulating landscape as a reference to the bombed out terrain of a World War 1 No man’s land.
Inside was surprisingly busy. The cold exterior does not reveal the many tourists within. This has to be one of the best museums and certainly one of the best war museums I’ve visited. The narrative and walking path is clear, there was a good variety of text, video, miniature models, and historic artefacts to keep me interested, and they have a very impressive collection of vehicles. Without a doubt, it is more impressive than MM Park which I didn’t expect because that was in France where the wars happened. I didn’t expect so many vehicles here but was pleasantly surprised.
Arround the corner from the War Musuem the Ottawa river cascades over bedrock forming hundreds of waterfalls at Chaudière falls. It was inspiring to imagine an abstraction of the landscape like Ira Keller Park in Portland by Lawrence Halprins where the land bcomes solid blocks for splashing and playing among. I wondered if this is how great designers find their inspiration: by looking out over the landscape and letting their imagination come up with something creative.
Beside the falls are two old stone building. One is boarded up and the other has wire fencing over the windows. Inside is an empty shell that should be a restaurant or artisan shop. The Ottawa river is right there but the city is set back. Why can’t we build on the river? Why can’t we embrace the water and make it part of our lives? There was a new development being constructed but it just looked like a typical condo without shops so it felt more like an investment property than a liveable city.
I was again frustrated to cross an empty field and a highway to get back to the city.
The cool air conditioning in the Canadian Museum of History was a relief from the swealtering heat and I almost felt like home when I touched the cedar planks of the First Nations long houses, recreated in a section on the West Coast First Nations— but then I wondered, is this a feeling of appropriation? It isn’t my culture, but it’s from my home, if I must label a home somewhere on a map. At the time I was reading The Curve of Time by M. Wylie Blanchet, a log of their time boating the coast. It’s culturally insensitive, written by a white person describing the First Nation’s as Indians, but I recgonized that Blanchet and I both share an imposed ownership to the land and waters where we grew up and lived so I can’t fault them anymore than I fault myself.
The Canadian Museum of History was designed by Douglas Cardinal, who I had the honour of meeting virtually at UofT. It is based on a representation of the land as it was when humans first arrived, over 15,000 years ago, and the topographical history of the site. It is a sculptural monument to the distinctive landscape that faced the first people to come to Canada, in the epoch when the Ice Age glaciers were receding (Ref). I could relate to the sedimentary layers and curving lines. Though the granite floor stones now appears dated, I drew appreciation for how the War museum and this museum for having short circulation routes that begin and end at a central node. This makes for manageable chapters in a greater narrative that is easy to follow and marks a “you are here” moment in time and place.
I also went to the Bank of Canada Museum, a free attraction that has some cool stuff but way too many interactive digital displays. Midway though my phone froze so I left for an Apple store and wait an hour for a reset — an easy fix I couldn’t do because I didn’t have internet to look up how to do it. After I walked in the direction of the Rideau canal and appear at an open gate to the Rideau Residence.
I didn’t realize what it was until I went inside and was appreciative to live in Canada where important buildings like the house of the Governor General, who represents the Queen in Canada, is open to the public for free. Moreover, there is a staff member in each room overly eager to talk to me about each room and answer questions about the artwork. How nice is it to live in a country that doesn’t commodify tourist attractions (I’m looking at you Vienna).
Late in the second day I was able to visit the National Gallery just before it closed and feel patriotic seeing some west coast Indigenous art and the group of seven paintings. Their landscapes attract me in a way that classical portraits all over Europe bore me. Maybe it’s because I connect with the land being portrayed or maybe because a landscape means more to me than a face I don’t recognize. In any case, I was impressed by the size of the National Gallery and how much artwork there is. This was much more interesting than seeing the construction around Parliment hill, though I did get to see the Rideau canal locks in action.
What is the real Ottawa? For a city built for parliament and government, I was surprised by the lack of people. Though one is never far from a great government building with names like Protage IV or named after a historical figure like the John G. Deifenbaker Building with its weird glass spire in a stone box, there are very few people out on the streets or at many of the attractions I visited. This is kinda nice since I didn’t need to fight any crowds but also surprising. It wasn’t that the city was empty, just that there were less people than I expected. Maybe everyone’s too eager to travel overseas to see their own country.
My friend says that Ottawa is a university town and I am here in the summer. I think it’s a city that killed its town town by building suburbs. Looking at a satelite map of the city, it’s pretty evident that the majority of the city is suburbs and even clearer how much of the natural landscape, ie. the rivers, have been excluded from the urban planning as if they were more of a hinderance than an asset. Though parkland exists along the river, I wish it were better intergrated with the city and that the two coexisted together rather than as abutting forces in collision. That’s a place where I think architecture and landscape would flourish.
