The redevelopment of the park, with the “Stadium in the Park” design concept, is an exciting urban design effort that encompasses a renovated stadium and arena, development of 300,000 sf of retail, renovation of heritage buildings, and an urban park for the people of Ottawa. Designed by Cannon Design, the project enhances both the history and the identity of the park by taking advantage of its location on the Rideau Canal. The result is a stadium in the park. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Lansdowne Park has a rich history and a strong identity. This concept is important and innovative in that it departs from the traditional notion of a stadium as an inert building and instead takes a position that architecture is a temporal and dynamic, event-based art in which people and built form intersect. This is expressed with a public space/park concourse that encircles the stadium, providing the public with opportunities to flow through the stadium structure while still in the park. This creates an entirely new paradigm for how modern, urban stadiums are designed and constructed. No longer must stadiums be confined with parking structures and paved roadways.
