Construction is now underway on the new Grande Allée Park with complete target for late fall. Photo by John Dance
John Dance
After consultation that began more than seven years ago, construction on the Grande Allée Park began in early July with expected completion in late fall of this year, subject to possible weather and supply chain or delivery schedule delays.
The park will run east from Main Street to the adjoining planned Forecourt Park in front of the Deschâtelets Building and it will provide a tailored home for the Old Ottawa East Farmers’ Market. The Allée itself is flanked by two rows of tall heritage maples and, where there are gaps, a total of three new trees will be planted.
The entrance features at Main Street will, according to a City email, “reference the stain-glass windows of the [now demolished] Deschâtelets Building Chapel.” The features will be fabricated with acrylic panels, metal frames on a wood and concrete base. Several residents opined that the actual windows from the chapel should be used but the City decided against this because the facsimile windows will be durable.
Only pedestrians, cyclists and park maintenance and market vehicles will be allowed to use the Allée. Benches with surrounding paved areas, waste bins, and bollards will be added along with some landscaping.
“The capital investment from the City and the partnership for the project have made it possible for the design vision, which started in 2015 and was refined in 2021, to be realized with only minor modifications to reduce potential impact on the critical root zones of existing trees,” says Kevin Wherry, the City’s General Manager of Parks and Facilities Planning. “The construction costs are budgeted at $1.2 million.”
“We are pleased to see construction starting on the Grande Allée Park,” notes Capital Ward Councillor Shawn Menard. “These plans have been in the works for a long time now, and the park should offer a place of respite and recreation for residents in the Old Ottawa East Community and the expanding Greystone development.”
One issue raised by the community association is whether additional trees could be planted to ensure the larger gaps at the Main Street end of the Allée are better filled and to provide “succession” trees for several of the deteriorating trees closer to the Deschâtelets Building.
“There are no current plans to add more trees during the implementation phase of Grand Allée Park,” says Wherry. But he went on to say, “After the park is completed and taken over by the City, we are open to working with the community on planting additional trees.”
No date has been set for further consultation on the adjoining Forecourt Park and its relationship with the under construction Au Coeur d’Ottawa school in the Deschâtelets Building and the semi-circle of new dwellings that have yet to be designed to border Forecourt Park.
