Project Description

Alongside phase one of the Ottawa LRT schedule opening in the fall of 2019, Urban Planners and Architects now find themselves “connecting the dots”. Residential developments such as the Overbrook community stand to benefit from new transit-oriented development as a means to celebrate the pedestrian experience. 

Across Highway 417 from the VIA Rail Ottawa station, The Overbrook Social – a series of residential apartments with a stunning view of the St. Laurent Shopping Center, create an intimate moment of public space. In place of Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Park and baseball field, a new cultural community center will be the gateway to a new walkable Overbrook. Guided by biophilic principles, the newly celebrated Rideau River Boardwalk allows for direct pedestrian access to communities north of the site as well as the proximal uOttawa Campus. Modelling nodal “moments” further reinforced the need for quality open space across the site. A unique feature of this intervention is a Mixed-Use Pathway beyond the boardwalk in which excess stormwater is drained into an amplified bioswale. This intermittent river runs along the highway giving the trail its own river in the summer, and linear ice-rink for the Ottawa winter season.