that view, though, isn’t the only thing that reminds me i’m home. there are numerous other landmarks and mainstays throughout the city that speak specifically to ottawa. they’re not necessarily the obvious ones that bring visitors to the capital, like the tulip beds, the peace tower or skating on the canal. rather, they’re things that we ottawans recognize as uniquely ours, little easter eggs hidden thought the city. some are officially pieces of “public art,” although all of them (even, i would argue, shawarmas) could at least be unofficially classified as such. and many are so ubiquitous and commonplace that we routinely overlook them as we go about our business, only remarking on them when, like big bud’s discount store and the super ex , they’re gone.
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or, if you’re on the side from which i enjoy watching people act up/out there, the awatto sign.
actually, there have been two ottawa signs: the original red-and-white wooden letters, and a second set, currently in use and with programmable lighting, that the city erected in december 2019. the original sign was in the news recently , after metcalfe resident randy ryan put it up on his property alongside hwy. 31. that prompted a visit from ottawa by-law, who, according to ryan, described it as junk. this, too, seems very ottawa.
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the red-and-white “pencil posts” that delineate the experimental farm’s fields aren’t unique to ottawa, but they are almost instantly recognizable to passersby as belonging to the farm, which has been a national historic site for the past 25 years and an iconic part of the city for far longer.
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you might not know them by name, but you likely recognize these sci-fi-esque downtown adornments. the two orange painted cast aluminum medallions, each measuring eight feet in diameter and six inches deep and weighing just over 200 kg, greet visitors to and passersby at the ottawa public library’s main branch. they’ve been there for 50 years.
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when i was a youngster in the 1960s, our family had friends who lived in kanata, developer and urban planner bill teron’s newly minted model satellite community west of ottawa. when we visited their home in beaverbrook, i was always taken by the neighbourhood’s backlit plexiglass street signs. i had never seen anything like them before in all my half dozen or so years. they looked exotic and thoroughly modern. space age, even.
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wind from the east is bad for man and beast
wind from the south is too hot for both
wind from the north is of very little worth
wind from the west is the softest and best
lighthearted though it is, the 1994 sculpture — also a working weathervane — also holds ties to the city’s past. included in the plan to save the heritage building from the wrecking ball back in 1991, the sculpture is a nod to the building’s former use as an agricultural exhibition hall.
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the bytowne’s is the last of the gorgeous old-time theatre marquees in ottawa, from the post-war days when hollywood’s opulence beckoned customers not just from the silver screens, but from the sidewalks outside theatres, in this case with 185 10-watt lights (now low-wattage leds) raining light on the rideau street nightscape.
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“we wanted to change the marquee from the nelson to the bytowne. but at the time, the city of ottawa was trying to do away with overhanging signs. they had a regulation that if you already had a marquee or an overhanging sign, like mellos diner on dalhousie , you were ok. you didn’t have to do anything. but if you wanted to substantially alter it, you couldn’t; it would have to come down.
when i saw them for the very first time, as i drove north on bronson avenue at dusk one day, they very nearly scared the bejeezus out of me. what, i wondered, is this trio of large owls doing there? are they stone scarecrows to ward off some unknown predator?
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i’m not sure that many ottawans even know of this one, as it’s a little off the beaten path. but whenever i’m in the beacon hill/cyrville area, i try to slow my travels to search out and appreciate the 12-foot silver ball outside the national research council’s main administration building on montreal road.
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no, not the canal locks that allow boats to navigate the rideau canal between ottawa and kingston. everyone knows about those.
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