Allan Teramura
ateramura.bsky.social
Allan Teramura
@ateramura.bsky.social
200 followers 430 following 25 posts
Architect, conservationist. Ottawa, Canada. wmta.ca 🇨🇦
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If this can be made to work it could help bring about the revival of the 1920s walk-up apartment building – single stair, no parking – which would be a great thing.
From the firefighting perspective this would need to be sorted out. Not that it’s insurmountable, but I haven’t seen this part of the discussion anywhere.
Her response was that it was probably worth studying, but also informed me that in places where single exits are permitted, the response to fire alarms is to shelter-in-place, not evacuate as we have been drilled to do. Integrity of exits is therefore less critical.
Years ago I floated this idea with a fire protection engineer I hoped to enlist in a pilot study for this type of housing solution. Like most architects I wondered why this was possible in Europe but not here.
Reposted by Allan Teramura
Not an original idea, but I used ‘Moving Surfaces’ to frame the Aberdeen Pavillion for the ‘Lansdowne’ photo in Andrew Waldron’s architectural guidebook, ‘Exploring the Capital’. The piece does act as a visual and imaginative anchor for the place.
How it started. Would not be surprising to see towers populating the "Great Lawn" someday.
@bsky.app A few images of Lansdowne 1.0 as depicted by OSEG 15 years ago, and approved by Council. The promised public space was not provided, but is instead large format commercial space. #Ottawa
Reposted by Allan Teramura
I am thrilled to introduce Isabel Teramura to the Somerset Ward team as a policy and planning assistant. Isabel has a Master’s degree in Geography, Planning and Environment and specializes in housing policy.
The Terms of Reference for the architectural competitions that produce these kinds of results are extremely easy to find, even in Canada.
Early mural by my 1st year studio prof Winston Leathers now turning into a ghost sign, posing a #conservation question: let it fade away like many others around it or restore its original 70s pop intensity? #modern #heritage
Finally building that monorail, I hope.
However, we broke it, which means we can fix it. #urbanism
The narrow sidewalks, signage clutter, harsh lighting, traffic signals and of course all the parking infrastructure are retrofitted coping mechanisms to deal with a bad personal transportation solution we've all bought into. #baddesign #carsruincities
We are constantly told streets are designed for cars. While this may be true of areas built after WW2, it's obviously not true of central areas which were planned well before their invention. Easy to forget that downtown streets were optimized for walking, riding #bikes and public #transit #Ottawa
Watson hated the NCC for "micromanaging" city projects. Those of us who work with the NCC in a professional capacity know this practice as "complying with quality standards." Not difficult if you share the committment to good design.
Could it be that regular people, unlike contracting officers, know instinctively that capital costs are dwarfed by operating costs over the life of a building?
The NCC is effectively the municipal government as far as the quality of the public realm is concerned because it has a mandate to actually care about these things
Ottawa seems to be governed as though the area a couple of square kms around City Hall is a kind of DMZ that suburban politicians grudgingly traverse by car and as quickly as possible.
Reposted by Allan Teramura
Jesus Christ.

A standing ovation — from Liberals too — for Charlie Kirk in the Canadian House of Commons.

You can (and should) oppose political violence without doing all this, you know.
That's nice. But I think what the people of Ottawa Centre are wondering is did you give Charlie Kirk a standing ovation today?
No just wait it's going to look like this:
Having served on the city's heritage committee for a while, i always found delegations opposing projects in Rockliffe to be the most entertaining.
Reposted by Allan Teramura
A reminder that if the government can send migrants to a prison camp without any due process, it can send U.S. citizens there, too. I know because this happened to me and my family in 1942.
Reposted by Allan Teramura