Mind the Gap — Block 261

In addition to debate about how to revive the Sparks Street Mall (and no, I don't think special events or a zip-line are the answer), Albert and Slater Streets have been getting their names in the news of late. These latter two are presently choked with bus traffic which will, we are told, will largely disappear when the Confederation Line of our new LRT starts to run. That launch date, as you've likely heard, has been moved back — from Victoria Day 2018 to the end of November, which is to say December, which is to say early in 2019 — which is to say in the dead of next winter.

Conversation about making the Albert/Slater corridor safer, less polluting and more inviting has thus-far focused on the Mackenzie Bridge to the east and the descent toward Lebreton Flats in the west (between the Nanny Goat and Cathedral Hills). For example, see Jon Willing here.

There is a third part of this corridor that may or may not warrant attention as part of what is a significant piece of planning for the future of the city core. In keeping with the time I spend with my nose buried in Charles Goad's insurance maps, may I present block 261, as featured on Goad's map 44...

Looking south across block 261—  the two grey-roofed buildings are no longer standing.

Goad applied a system of map and block numbers to his volumes. In neither case are those numbers fraught with any great meaning — rather, their value lies in the fact that he assigned them consistently over the years. Block 261 in 1878 was the same patch of ground so-designated in 1912. This helps makes his oeuvre a damned bloody joy to work with.

Block 261, as portrayed above in an already dated image adapted from Google's Street View, was and is bounded by Albert and Slater on the north and south, and Lyon and Bay on the east and west. Set in a bit of a valley between Old Upper Town / Cathedral Hill and Centretown/ Nanny Goat Hill, block 261 represents a transition from Upper Town commerce and poshness to a mix of white and blue-collar residences. Or rather it did. Only one house of Victorian-era provenance remains of the block — the gambrel-roofed house at 388 Albert which I've already mentioned here. The twin walk-ups at 408 and 414 Albert (corner of Bay) date from either the late 1920s or early '30s and were preceded by a commodious brick house and its side yard, the one clearly "posh" house ever built on the block.

Goad 1878 shows block 261 with its eastern half largely built up with modest houses and its western half vacant. By 1912, the rest of #261 had been filled in by a couple of brick-on-wood singles, a 4-row and a five row.

A handful of aerial photos at geoOttawa help us understand #261's development through the 20th century. A grainy image from 1928 show us a block largely identical to that portrayed by Goad sixteen years previous. With some squinting and imagination one can even see the old house at the corner of Albert and Bay. Sadly, 261 is not included in the imagery for 1958. By 1965, the houses between 388 and 408 had been razed and their lots were biding time as a car-park. Also by that year, a low-slung concrete office building had taken over the south-west quarter of the block, again displacing several homes.

By 1976, most of the houses on the east end of the block had been replaced by parking, while the relatively new office building had been rear-adjoined to a similar structure filling in the 388-408 Albert gap, as it appears in the photo above. 261 would remain thus-configured, at least until 2015. Then, at some time between 2015 and 2017, the two low-slung office buildings were demolished, leaving the block as we see it today, three-quarters vacant.

Two snapshots — aerial photos of block #261 from 1965 and 2017...

More than half of the present vacant space is designated as "400 Albert" (per geoOttawa), suggesting a single owner, which in turn presages development, sooner or later. At the time of writing I don't who plans to do what — we'll all find out soon enough, and my approval or lack thereof won't do much (anything, let' face it) to temper that course of events. I do however think that as we discuss the eastern and western gateways to the Albert/Slater corridor, we should devote some time and attention to the gaping question-mark in its middle.

Later...

The latest information I can find on the proposed development of this block cites Broccolini Construction as the developer and a 27-storey apartment tower as the intended project. Folks facing the site (Centretown Place at 400 Slater) will be watching the space with interest dread.
See an Ottawa Citizen article from the fall of 2015 here.

As of late 2017 the project was still being described as "in preconstruction". I wonder if the upcoming tunneling of the E-W limb of the CSST sewer project along Slater Street is in any way affecting Broccolini's construction schedule.

Let us know what you...