Ottawa committee votes in favour of new plan for Somerset House
Ottawa committee votes in favour of new plan for Somerset House
Ottawa's built heritage committee has voted in favour of a new plan to restore the historic Somerset House in Centretown.
"The proposed development committee voted to approve includes the restoration and stabilization of the building and the construction of a three-storey addition at the back, with 14 residential units. There are no parking spaces proposed for the site.
The plan is subject to several conditions, including the implementation of a conservation plan. It also requires that a construction schedule be submitted that outlines anticipated timing of key milestones for the project."
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The heritage committee in this town is out of control. This building has been in this state for two decades because of their nonsense. Old buildings are super inefficient and the city should not stand in the way of replacing them with modern energy efficient ones. I can get behind the odd building here or there that has an exceptional heritage, but that designation should also come with funding to cover the cost of renovating to improve the energy efficiency.
Just up the road at Bank and Gladstone, heritage forced them to keep the brick facade of the old metropolitan bible church, it looks really stupid attached to a modern apartment building.
Agreed. The threshold for what is considered worthy of maintaining needs to be increased for sure. Especially given the housing crisis we're in! People living on the streets is more important than some old façade that some find appealing.
There's a saying that if you learn that your building is about to be designated for protection, you'd better demolish it immediately. The committees are trying to do the right thing, but most often the result is just decay and reversed incentives.