Ottawa Magazine Interiors 2022

There’s a funny story about how we found the cover shot for this year’s Interiors edition. It wasn’t included in the original portfolio of photographs by Kevin Belanger that we received for the project; I first saw the image pasted into a Google doc. Immediately I knew it was special, but more significant is the truth its discovery reveals: When design education happens, great things follow. After Hattie Klotz toured the Westboro house with Alexandra Corriveau and Andrew Decristoforo — who are owners, builders, and designers of the home featured in Cozy Minimalism, page 44 — and submitted the article, art director Jeff Eustace chose the photograph and I edited the copy. That editing includes a fairly vigorous fact-checking process, and while I didn’t go to England to find the…

AFTER THREE YEARS IN THE MAKING, there’s a new Scandinavian-style retreat in town: it’s called Huma, and it’s located just across the Ottawa River in Gatineau. With a focus on relaxation and aromatherapy, Huma has taken its spa in a more traditional European direction. There’s no sipping of sangria in the pool here; no alcohol is served. Instead, healthy snacks, smoothies, and complimentary fruit are available. Huma aims to make self-care more accessible for those with little time. It starts with the booking — stay three hours, or five, or all day. All reservations include access to the rooftop baths, as well as the steam rooms and saunas. You can pay extra to try a NeuroSpa zero-gravity chair, which offers a sense of weightlessness that leads to deep relaxation. Or…

How would you rate Ottawa architecturally? There are some incredibly beautiful heritage buildings, but most of them are federal. The Canadian War Museum, the Canadian Museum of Nature, Rideau Hall. As a city, when we take those pieces out of the equation, there are some snapshots of some really wonderful pieces of architecture. But there’s an awful lot of our city that is kind of boring. It’s very low-risk. And we don’t embrace the kind of creativity that I think we could as a city. How can we change that? We need to reform our procurement strategies. And one of the ways we can do that is through hosting design competitions. A really good example is the LRT. We could have said, “Here’s a dozen stations. We’re going to host…

ADISOKE Contract awarded: 2018 Opening: 2026 Architecture firm: Diamond Schmitt (Canada) Size: 216,000 square feet Cost: $306 million (as of January 2022) When Ottawa finally opens its new, $306-million central library — an œuvre named Adisoke, meant as a step toward reconciliation with the region’s Algonquin and Anishinaabe communities — one word will dance on the lips of all who glimpse it: adequate. Mockups for the building, named for the Anishinaabemowin word for “storytelling,” reveal what looks like an IKEA store on steroids, a melamine monument to a broken procurement process where the lowest price is the law. Never mind a design competition, or the thought of prioritizing aesthetics over cost. This building, destined for the edge of a field along a traffic thoroughfare, seven minutes away on foot from…

The iconic boathouse near Rockcliffe Point, completed in 1925, was designed by architect C.P. Meredith for the Ottawa New Edinburgh Club (ONEC). In 2010, it was recognized as a Federal Heritage Building, in part because it is a rare example of 19th-century boathouse design — there are only four such buildings across Canada. Located in a natural harbour, its steel frame is supported by concrete pylons sunk deep into the riverbed below. As ONEC’s headquarters, it has been an important hub for watersports and tennis in the city for close to 100 years. All decked out in the red, white, and black of Ottawa’s sports teams, it’s a lovely and unique multi-purpose pavilion — and an epic venue for a wedding, an anniversary, or even a funeral. There’s a massive…

A work crew is installing hewed logs outside the Carlington Community Health Centre entryway. They form long benches around foliage and groupings of rocks. Next year, there will be a rubber tricycle track added to the area, forming a loop around the garden. It’s easy to imagine the block teeming with life. Just behind the garden is a former school building, which has been refurbished as a community hub. It now offers programs for preschoolers, as well as a prayer room and a community kitchen. That building links to the impressive new 42-unit Ottawa Community Housing complex for seniors, which includes a medical clinic on the ground floor. Together, these spaces make up the Carlington Hub. You may have passed the complex on Merivale Road near Coldrey. Its exterior siding…