Month: March 2016

Wednesday, April 6, 2016 | 7 pm

Champlain Room, Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Ave. West

Speaker:  Mark Sterling, OAA, MCIP, RPP

Download the poster here

In this talk architect, urban designer and planner Mark Sterling will contrast two approaches to urban planning: the “City as a Work of Art”, a top-down Master Planning approach formulated in the late 19th century which continues to inform practice today; and the “Open Source Metropolis”, an emerging bottom-up urban planning approach which provides for varied participants to influence the planning process and create planning policy.

Using his own work and professional experience as examples, Mark will argue that both of these two planning modes should operate in the contemporary city. Mark asserts the importance of acknowledging which mode is appropriate to a particular situation and using that planning approach accordingly. Please join us for a discussion of the paradox of how two seemingly conflicting methodologies can in fact co-exist to yield the best results in city building.

About Mark

Mark Sterling is the Principal of Acronym Urban Design and Planning in Toronto. He is the former Director of Architecture and Urban Design for the City of Toronto and has been a member of the City of Mississauga’s Urban Design Advisory Panel since 2007 and the City of Ottawa’s Design Review Panel since 2013.

Event of Interest

Streetfight:  New York’s Urban Revolution

An evening with Janette Sadik-Khan

Wednesday, April 27, 2016
6:00 to 7:00 p.m. (Reception); 7:00-8:30 p.m. (Presentation)
Horticulture Building, Landsdowne Park
1525 Princess Patricia Way, Ottawa

RSVP is required. RSVP here to save your seat.

This event of interest is presented by Ecology Ottawa along with a range of community cosponsors including Urban Forum.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016 | 7 pm

Champlain Room, Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Ave. West

Speaker:  Mark Sterling, OAA, MCIP, RPP

In this talk architect, urban designer and planner Mark Sterling will contrast two approaches to urban planning: the “City as a Work of Art”, a top-down Master Planning approach formulated in the late 19th century which continues to inform practice today; and the “Open Source Metropolis”, an emerging bottom-up urban planning approach which provides for varied participants to influence the planning process and create planning policy.

Using his own work and professional experience as examples, Mark will argue that both of these two planning modes should operate in the contemporary city. Mark asserts the importance of acknowledging which mode is appropriate to a particular situation and using that planning approach accordingly. Please join us for a discussion of the paradox of how two seemingly conflicting methodologies can in fact co-exist to yield the best results in city building.

About Mark

Mark Sterling is the Principal of Acronym Urban Design and Planning in Toronto. He is the former Director of Architecture and Urban Design for the City of Toronto and has been a member of the City of Mississauga’s Urban Design Advisory Panel since 2007 and the City of Ottawa’s Design Review Panel since 2013.

Event of Interest

Wednesday, March 16, 2016 | 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. | 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa

At long last, our friend David Gordon has completed his most recent book entitled Town and Crown:  An Illustrated History of Canada’s Capital.

To mark this milestone, the Library and Archives Canada, in collaboration with the University of Ottawa and the Centre on Governance are presenting the Ottawa book launch along with a presentation by Mr. Gordon.  The event will include an introduction by Dr. Guy Berthiaume, Librarian and Archivist of Canada and will be moderated by Dr. Caroline Andrew, Director, Centre on Governance, University of Ottawa.

Please register by email at ceg-cog@uOttawa.ca

About the Book:  Town and Crown is an illustrated history of the planning and development of Canada’s capital city. It is the story of the transformation of the region from a sub-arctic wilderness portage to an attractive modern metropolis with a high quality of life. The book examines the period from 1800–2011, and is the first major study that covers both sides of the Ottawa River, addressing the settlement history of Aboriginal, French and English peoples.

March 2016

Presented at the Mayfair Theatre

Urban Forum was pleased to present its second Urban Film night at the Mayfair.  The aim of the Urban Film Series is present films that focus on the mutually impactful relationship between urban design, planning, architecture and people.  This year’s selections included “The Priutt Igoe Myth” as the feature, preceded by the National Film Board of Canada’s Farewell to Oak Street as a single program.

About The Priutt-Igoe Myth

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth tells the story of the wholesale changes that took place in the American city in the decades after World War II, through the lens of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing development in St. Louis. At the film’s historical center is an analysis of the massive impact of the 1949 Housing Act, which built Pruitt-Igoe and other high-rise public housing of the Fifties and Sixties. This critical piece of legislation also initiated the so-called urban renewal program and prompted the process of mass suburbanization, which emptied American cities of their residents, business and industry. Those that were left behind faced a destitute, rapidly de-industrializing St. Louis, parceled out to downtown interests and increasingly segregated by class and race. The residents of Pruitt-Igoe were among the hardest-hit. Their gripping stories of survival, adaptation and success are at the emotional heart of the film. The domestic turmoil wrought by punitive public welfare policies, the frustrating interactions with a paternalistic and cash-strapped Housing Authority, and the downward spiral of vacancy, vandalism and crime, led to resident protest and action during the 1969 Rent Strike, the first in the history of public housing. And yet, despite this complex history, Pruitt-Igoe has often been stereotyped, with help from a world-famous image of its implosion, and used as an argument against Modernist architecture or public assistance programs. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth seeks to set the historical record straight, to examine the interests in Pruitt-Igoe’s creation, to re-evaluate the rumors and the stigma, to implode the myth.

For the trailer click here

For an Interview with Chad Freidrichs (the film maker) click here

About Farewell to Oak Street

This documentary presents a before-and-after picture of people in a large-scale public housing project in Toronto. Due to a housing shortage, they were forced to live in squalid, dingy flats and ramshackle dwellings on a crowded street in Regent Park North; now they have access to new, modern housing developments designed to offer them privacy, light and space.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016,  6:30pm (Doors Open at 6:00pm)

Special Location: Mayfair Theatre, 1074 Bank Street, Ottawa

Download the Poster

Urban Forum is pleased to present its second Urban Film night at the Mayfair.  The aim of the Urban Film Series is present films that focus on the mutually impactful relationship between urban design, planning, architecture and people.  This year’s selections include “The Priutt Igoe Myth” as the feature, preceded by the National Film Board of Canada’s Farewell to Oak Street as a single program.

Admission is free and on a first come first served basis.  Doors open at 6:00pm.  Last Urban Forum movie night reached capacity 15 minutes before start- plan to get there early.

About The Priutt-Igoe Myth

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth tells the story of the wholesale changes that took place in the American city in the decades after World War II, through the lens of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing development in St. Louis. At the film’s historical center is an analysis of the massive impact of the 1949 Housing Act, which built Pruitt-Igoe and other high-rise public housing of the Fifties and Sixties. This critical piece of legislation also initiated the so-called urban renewal program and prompted the process of mass suburbanization, which emptied American cities of their residents, business and industry. Those that were left behind faced a destitute, rapidly de-industrializing St. Louis, parceled out to downtown interests and increasingly segregated by class and race. The residents of Pruitt-Igoe were among the hardest-hit. Their gripping stories of survival, adaptation and success are at the emotional heart of the film. The domestic turmoil wrought by punitive public welfare policies, the frustrating interactions with a paternalistic and cash-strapped Housing Authority, and the downward spiral of vacancy, vandalism and crime, led to resident protest and action during the 1969 Rent Strike, the first in the history of public housing. And yet, despite this complex history, Pruitt-Igoe has often been stereotyped, with help from a world-famous image of its implosion, and used as an argument against Modernist architecture or public assistance programs. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth seeks to set the historical record straight, to examine the interests in Pruitt-Igoe’s creation, to re-evaluate the rumors and the stigma, to implode the myth.

For the trailer click here

For an Interview with Chad Freidrichs (the film maker) click here

About Farewell to Oak Street

This documentary presents a before-and-after picture of people in a large-scale public housing project in Toronto. Due to a housing shortage, they were forced to live in squalid, dingy flats and ramshackle dwellings on a crowded street in Regent Park North; now they have access to new, modern housing developments designed to offer them privacy, light and space.

Mark your calendars

Next Urban Forum lecture: April 6, 2016

Speaker: Mark Sterling, OAA, MCIP, RPP

Principal of Acronym Urban Design and Planning / Mark Sterling Consulting Inc., Toronto, and member of the Ottawa Urban Design Review Panel