Exclusive to OSCA by Leo B. Doyle, with files and support from Kathy Krywicki and the Ottawa South History Project.
Editor's note: If you are continuing reading from the OSCAR, please go to the full article here.
Summary:
The failure of Lansdowne Park as the site of a multipurpose arena and large outdoor stadium has its roots in bad urban planning decisions that were taken in the mid 1960s. In June 2010, as Ottawa considers the fate of Lansdowne and the prospect of hundreds of millions of dollars of public land and new public investment, we should at least understand what went wrong. What circumstances brought about the failed stadium and park we’re now trying to fix?
In 1965, City of Ottawa planners knew that the Lansdowne Park site was too small for the proposed new Civic Centre, stadium, Olympic sized swimming pool and 5000 parking spaces they proposed to build as part of the Capital’s Centennial celebrations.
To accommodate the big new 28,000 seat stadium, 10,000 seat Civic Centre and multi-tiered parking garages needed to support it, City of Ottawa planners recommended the expropriation of 3.3 acres of land in the Glebe, stretching from Holmwood (east of Bank) north to Fifth Avenue.
But in 1965, with just 2 years until the Centennial, there wasn't enough time to proceed with the expropriation, nor were there enough construction workers available to do the job. Many of the biggest firms and their workers were already busy building other Centennial projects and the new pavilions and sites for the 1967 Expo in Montreal.
City of Ottawa planners had long been calling for expanded east-west road networks through the Glebe and central Ottawa, and a wider Carling Avenue arterial would support access to places such as Lansdowne and the new No. 10 Fire Station to be constructed. But in 1967 in the face of Glebe opposition, after the Civic Centre and stadium were built at Lansdowne, the plans for the major new road – Carling Avenue through Glebe - were cancelled.
As we can see today, Carling was never extended through the Glebe and over the Canal as planned in 1965. Carling comes to an end at Bronson Avenue and the narrow street that runs into the neighbourhood was re-named Glebe Avenue (they wanted no part of Carling!)
Other streets that could have connected Lansdowne to the Queensway, such as O'Connor Avenue, were closed off.
Meanwhile, between 1961 and 1975, Lansdowne's stadium seating capacity grew by 233%, from 15,000 in 1961 to 35,000 in 1975.
The first seating increase, in 1961, brought it from 15,000 to 22,650 (a 49% increase). In 1967, it was increased to 28,000, expandable to 32,000.
In 1974, Glebe, Ottawa South and Ottawa East took the City to the OMB over the expansion of seating (7,800 to be added, but end zone seats to removed for net increase of 3000) The City won at the OMB and in 1975, Lansdowne was increased to 35,0000. That's when the traffic and parking problems really got bad.
To make the Lansdowne site work, because expropriation of surrounding lands for parking etc. had been rejected, the City was forced to start paving over Landsdowne green space because it needed the and Civic Centre to function and it needed parking revenues. Instead of expanding out to get parking, the Lansdowne site cannibalized itself.
But Lansdowne stadium remained a difficult place to access for an Ottawa area population that increasingly lived further and further away, in the suburbs of Kanata, Nepean, Gloucester, Orleans and west Quebec.
In the 43 years that have passed since the Lansdowne Stadium was “super-sized” in 1967, it has been a failure for at least 25 of them. Since 1985, football teams at Lansdowne have struggled to attract the capacity crowds needed to succeed because you can't get there easily and there is no where to park when you arrive.
We can only conclude that building Frank Clair Stadium at Lansdowne was a planning mistake that was made in the context of the excitement leading up to the national Centennial and Expo 67. It is a planning mistake like the Ottawa Congress Centre, King Edward Avenue, the Expropriation of LeBreton Flats, Kanata Centrum and the location of Scotiabank Place on the western edge of the City.
Now that we have the chance to do it right, why would we repeat this mistake from the past by re-building Lansdowne, as a stadium devoid of rapid transit and choked-off from access?
In the 15 years that have passed since the Riders struggled to draw crowds at Lansdowne, the traffic and transportation challenges in the Glebe have only gotten worse. And the transportation plan for Lansdowne Live is completely unrealistic and unworkable.
To read the complete article, click here.
Leo B. Doyle, B.A. (Hons), M.A. is a federal public servant with experience from Parks Canada, Canadian Heritage and the National Film Board. In his spare time, he coaches basketball and soccer and conducts free walking tours of Old Ottawa South for Heritage Ottawa, Carleton University and Jane's Walk. His Jane's Walk Tour of Old Ottawa South will be featured in an upcoming edition of Canadian Geographic.