{"id":1676,"date":"2010-01-21T09:36:49","date_gmt":"2010-01-21T14:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingottawa.ca\/?p=1676"},"modified":"2013-01-21T09:15:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T14:15:00","slug":"a-daytime-date-with-mr-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/ottawa\/2010\/01\/21\/a-daytime-date-with-mr-dark\/","title":{"rendered":"A daytime date with Mr. Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Courtyard
Courtyard behind Sussex Drive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When you’re getting to know someone you think might have prospects it often a good idea to spend some sunshine hours with them before moving on to dinner and a movie and whatever might come next. Going for a walk can be a great strategy. Let them choose the route, maybe end up somewhere for a coffee, and spend a while with them where you can get a sense of who they are before there are any expectations.<\/p>\n

One person we thought Ottawa needs to go on a daytime stroll with and get to know of a little better is George Dark, chair of the Strategic Design Review and Advisory Panel. That’s the panel charged with making sure the design of the new Lansdowne will do Ottawa proud. How important is that? Well, some argue that Lansdowne Live might be the biggest city-building project<\/a> we’ve seen in decades. So this thing we’ve started with George might be very serious, indeed. But beyond getting paid for it, we wondered — why should a Toronto landscape architect care what a long-neglected site 400 kilometers away from his office really ends up looking like? Why should we trust him to care about us?<\/p>\n

Well, George was in town exactly one week ago to be introduced to the local media along with his co-panelists<\/a>, and given that he’ll likely be spending a lot of time in committee rooms over the next few months poring over documents and diagrams, we wanted to get in that afternoon stroll sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

So we asked him to describe for us what he likes about Ottawa right now. Favourite places, favourite spaces; you can tell a lot about a person that way. It can be a trust-building exercise.<\/p>\n

With no further ado then, selections from Mr. Dark’s commentary on his Ottawa “happy places”:<\/p>\n

George\u00a0 likes:<\/p>\n