Reaching for the sky
Claridge launches Ottawa's tallest building, the 45-storey Icon at Carling and Preston
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Ottawa's condo market hops the express elevator skyward when Claridge launches its much-anticipated Icon Saturday. Slated for the corner of Preston Street and Carling Avenue at the entrance to Little Italy across from Dow's Lake, the building will stretch 45 storeys high. That will make it, at 143 metres, the tallest building in the National Capital Region, outstripping both the highest existing condo structure, Minto's The Metropole in Westboro at 109 metres, and the tallest office building, Terrasses de la Chaudière Tower 1 in Gatineau at 124 metres.Size, of course, does matter, and Claridge is promoting everything from Icon's panoramic views to the building's lighthearted design.
"The city's design plan calls for intensification, so this our opportunity," says Claridge vice-president Shawn Malhotra. "We've always said, 'If you give us height, we can give you architecture.' The more square footage we can sell, the more effort and time and money we can put into the design."
While Icon's height spells serious business, its curved balconies, almost frilly on one side and irregularly stacked in some areas, add an element of whimsy.
The podium, with retail space at ground level and a couple of floors of offices above, is designed to be street friendly, says Malhotra. There will be "nice sidewalks with trees," and the tower steps back from the podium to reduce the sense of a monolithic structure overhead.
The podium itself has irregular massing and lots of glazing. In the architectural renderings, it appears interesting and visually accessible.
Shooting into the wild blue yonder above that podium will be 252 one-, two- and three-bedroom condo units.
They start at $310,000 for 615 square feet and spiral up to the 45th-floor penthouse with 5,450 square feet of indoor space, a 1,000-square-foot outdoor terrace, and a price tag of $3.999 million. There are no studio units and the condos on the top five floors are all penthouses, increasing in size the higher you go.
"We feel we'll get end-users instead of investors buying," says Malhotra. "The one- and two-bedrooms are a bit bigger than most of what's on the market."
Features include euro-style kitchens with soft-close cabinet doors and drawers and granite countertops. Building amenities range from an indoor pool and sauna to a yoga studio and private theatre. Outside, Preston Street's restaurants and bars, Dow's Lake, and the nearby Dominion Arboretum rank among the attractions. The building will also be close to the O-Train.
The project, like most condos in Ottawa, has incited community concern about everything from increased traffic in the area to shadows that this and other proposed buildings will cast over residential and public spaces. Community displeasure doesn't stop developers from plunging ahead, and Claridge is no different.
"Every site we have, height ends up being a point of contention," says Malhotra. He's confident that the building's architecture is both sufficiently arresting and street-friendly to make it a good fit for the popular Preston Street area.
Architecture critic Rhys Phillips is less than impressed with the building. He calls its exterior a "decorated stick" and says that such towers are inefficient energy users because they are so exposed to the elements.
Architecture is a subjective thing, responds Malhotra. "Everyone else is delighted and we're extremely proud and consider it our flagship building." As to energy efficiency, Malhotra says Phillips "is not necessarily wrong, but we do the best we can … our buildings are well designed and built."
Occupancy at Icon isn't expected until the summer of 2017 at the earliest. Although the project will be built near public transit, the builder still plans to bore deep underground for a nine-storey parking lot. Add that to the above-grade structure and Claridge is actually building 54 stories. That long construction process, along with the time required to sell the units, is one reason that the unit prices are higher than what Claridge normally sells, says Malhotra. "We have to price it for four or five years of inflation alone."
Icon won't be the last tall condo in Ottawa. Richcraft has been making noises about a couple of 48-storey towers nearby. And Mastercraft Starwood, which last year reduced its SoHo Italia, also in Little Italy, from 35 to 30 storeys in line with the city's wishes, is seeking approval to ramp the building back up to its original 35 floors.
We're still small fry in the tall tower universe, though. There are plans for condo skyscrapers in Toronto that top out at 75 storeys. Dubai in the United Arab Emirates holds the record for tall residential buildings: The Princess Tower in that city is 101 storeys and a vertigo-inducing 1,355 metres tall.
Still, Icon is a clear indicator of the direction Ottawa is headed: up.
What: 45-storey, 252-unit condominium development at Preston and Carling
Builder: Claridge
Prices: Starting at $310,000 for 615 square feet; parking $35,000; condo fees 39 cents a square foot per month
Sales office: 505 Preston St.
Hours: Monday to Thursday, noon to 7 p.m.; weekends and holidays, noon to 5 p.m. Closed Friday.
Information: Call 613-695-1441 or visit claridgeicon.com
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