SUSTAINABILITY & STORM WATER MANAGEMENT

FLOOD CONTROL

MARSH

PERMANENT POOL

Example of a wetland in Jeifang park, Wuhan, China. Typical section of an extended detention wetland.

The canal once penetrated into the site and the proposed wetland is created as a trace of this past. Wetlands are a man- made natural filtration system that can manage the surface water of a site. The water is sufficiently purified for healthy fish species and people can fish out of its final basin. Wetlands are known for their very diverse ecologies and can be used as a very effective educational tool as well as an integral element of the park experience.

PHASING LIVING MACHINE Wastewater can be processed within a greenhouse Lansdowne park can be constructed over three main phases, each spaced apart in order to structure with vegetative technologies known as ‘Living secure financing over time. The park functions very well after Phase I and if the other phases Machines’ . The Living Machine would serve as a great were not to be constructed, it would still be a complete and successful project. option for the urban mixed use area north of the sta- dium. These systems mimic natural treatment processes, Phase I recreating a functional ecology within a system of plant- - The immediate need for Lansdowne’s Front-Lawn is to transform it from a parking lot to ed water tanks. Due to their visibility and the integra- a fully functional park. A clear continuity from the , through the Parks Canada tion of various plant, crustacean and even fish species and NCC lands is achieved even without moving the Queen Elizabeth Driveway and con- into the treatment chain, the demonstration potential of structing the bridge. If the bridge was never to be constructed, the Ribbon foot-path can be these living technologies is very high. continued along the south side of the Stadium ending at bridge. All treated effluent (wastewater, greywater, stormwater) Phase II can be recycled for use as non-potable water, within -By moving the Queen Elizabeth Driveway away from the canal edge and adding a pedes- buildings for toilet flush and outdoors for site irrigation. trian path and planted strip the canal-side experience is greatly improved. This phase’s main These options can serve to dramatically reduce the po- goal is to improve the Rideau Canal’s image as a UNESCO world heritage site and to trans- table water requirement on site. form the Queen Elizabeth Driveway into a true experience. Planting improvements can be made during this phase to Sylvia Holden Park and the NCC lands along the Canal.

Phase III -Finally, to truly tie Lansdowne to all the neighbourhoods around it, a pedestrian bridge can be added across the canal, ending in South.

THE OTHER PERSPECTIVE In the Request For Proposals the area North of Aberdeen was presented as an Overlap Area which was to be worked on by the landscape teams as well as the OSEG urban mixed use area team. This area could have been part of the park or a more heavily constructed area. The Horticulture building was either to remain in situ or moved.

Our understanding about the Overlap Area now is that the current OSEG-HBC pro- posal to construct within it and move the Horticulture pavilion east of Aberdeen is looked upon very positively by the City of Ottawa and the Design Review Panel. We also understand that there is a ground floor commercial square footage requirement that the OSEG-HBC team finds too large to include solely within the OSEG terrain, thus making it mandatory for the overlap area to include much of that construction. We had therefore concluded that it was best to focus our energies on the Front-Lawn component of the site with some foresight provided as to how the public space and squares around Aberdeen within the Overlap Area can be treated. This is to be devel- oped in collaboration with the OSEG-HBC team during the integration phase, post- competition.

However, if moving the Horticulture building and constructing the overlap area were not so heavily endorsed by the City of Ottawa and the Design Review Panel, we would retain the building in situ and place the outdoor market on the Northern side of Aber- deen. The area east of Aberdeen would then be left as a flat, soft landscape providing people with a much more appropriately scaled open green space that continues the language and services of the Sylvia Holden Community Park to its North.

An alternative design option for Lansdowne Park.

A VISION FOR LANSDOWNE DESIGN COMPETITION FOR AN URBAN PARK MAY 2010 7