City Daily Photo Theme Day: Teach

The first day of each month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo, and for September, that theme is Teach. You can see how others are interpreting the theme right here.

For this theme, I thought I would focus mostly on university campuses and architecture here in Ottawa, as we have several in the city. I'm starting with the University of Ottawa, which lies downtown in the Sandy Hill area. The university dates back to 1848, established first as a college by Joseph-Bruno Guigues, the Catholic bishop at the time, and rising to university status by 1866. It is the largest English-French bilingual university in the world.

I took a shot of this set of buildings in February while walking on the ice of the Rideau Canal, passing the campus. This is the STEM complex; it was still under final construction when I took this shot, but is due to open for the fall term. This is a centre for interdisciplinary studies in the faculties of science, technology, engineering, and math, hence the title.

Taken in March, this is Tabaret Hall, dating back to 1905, strongly contrasting with one of the newer campus buildings behind it, built just a few years ago.

This was taken one weekend in June. A large domed shelter structure has been erected in this area between academic buildings and the university centre.

Moving on to another institution, I took this in the latter part of April, in the Chinatown area. Dominican University College dates back to 1900 as a convent, then as a study centre for Canadian Dominican graduate students. Since 1967 it has had a civil university charter, and offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral studies in the fields of philosophy and theology, with members of the priory serving as faculty. It has been associated with Carleton University since 2012, and includes a church within its walls. For a look inside, click here for my Doors Open visit this year.

On the last Sunday in April, I found myself up in the Rockcliffe Park neighbourhood. By chance my route took me past this campus. Ashbury College is an elite private school here in Ottawa, and this is its central building. Ashbury dates back to 1891, and has been here in Rockcliffe Park since 1910. Its students range from grades four to twelve.

St. Paul University stands in the Old Ottawa East neighbourhood, and is associated with the University of Ottawa. In 1965 when the latter institution was reorganized as a civil and secular organization independent of its Vatican origins, St. Paul was renamed, retaining the pontifical charter of its roots. A smaller university with around a thousand students, it offers undergraduate and graduate studies in subjects such as theology, counselling, philosophy, canon law, and social communications. I stopped by a few days ago. This view outside Guigues Hall includes a sculpture put up last year, part of the city's public art program that is included when a major street has its infrastructure massively overhauled- such as the case with Main Street, which this university is on, and which was finished last year.  Main Squared is the title of the work by Stuart Kinmond, evoking the area's spiritual institutions in its stained glass. The green bench beneath represents the land, while the two blue benches represent the Rideau Canal and Rideau Rivers, which form the east and west boundaries of the neighbourhood.

The de Mazenod Chapel is part of St. Paul's, located in Laframboise Hall. It was named after Eugene de Mazenod, bishop of Marseilles and the founder of the Oblates Of Mary Immaculate, the order from which both St. Paul's and the University of Ottawa rose out of. It is regularly used for services and other activities. When I think chapels, I think of small side chapels off the main area of worship- this one is the size of a conventional sanctuary.

I finish with these views taken in June at Carleton University, the last of the universities here in Ottawa.  Founded in 1942, it attained university status in 1957. Its campus has been here since 1952, nestled between the Rideau River and Dow's Lake at the north and south sides, and the Rideau Canal and Bronson Avenue on the west and east sides. This is a view of MacOdrum Library, which has had some modifications in recent years, including a new glass dominated front facade.

The campus has some art here and there, including here in the quad outside the library. Locavore is the title of a 2015 bronze sculpture by Mary Anne Barkhouse, a First Nations artist from the British Columbia coast. It takes animals that some might see as "irrelevent or bothersome", such as the western coyote and the snowshoe hare, and puts them in close proximity; they are "given pride of place and nature is never subservient to culture". Later in the month I'll show you another of her sculptures at a different location.

Within the library, wooden sculptures can be found near the entrance, such as this canoe set.

This abstract carving is titled Justice, by the artist David Fels.

Part of the library's renovations included the installation of a spiral staircase. This is the view looking up.

The First Colours Of Spring

Late April features the first signs of any spring flowers here in Ottawa, and they tend to be the small flowers that are showing for just a few days before the bigger ones make themselves known. They tend to come in shades of blue, purple, white, and even yellow, and they're a welcome sight to bees.

These were the first I saw, in the early days of spring warmth. They were sprouting on the grounds outside the Laurentian Centre, which occupies the old J.R. Booth mansion here in Ottawa.

A day or two later, I passed by a couple of houses in Centretown. This garden I've photographed at some point when it's in full bloom- it features that bench.

A few houses away, these were blossoming.

There were even a few in Dundonald Park.

I can always count on finding these in shady spots within Central Park in the Glebe.

There have even been some on the grounds around the National War Memorial.

This last one I took on the final Sunday in April. I happened to be up in Rockcliffe Park (which is both a park and a neighbourhood). These were wrapped around the roots of a tree as I passed by this property.

New Edinburgh

Today I'm starting a series of posts from the New Edinburgh area. A neighbourhood to the northeast of the downtown core, it was founded as a village by stonemason and businessman Thomas McKay (places named after him have been known to spell it as as MacKay, hence the United Church in this neighbourhood that I showed you some days ago). He bought the land at the east stretch of the Rideau River where it meets the Ottawa River in 1829, and was involved in the building of the Rideau Canal. The village took its name for Edinburgh in Scotland, where he had come from. His family residence later became Rideau Hall, and the streets in this affluent neighbourhood bear the names of he and his relations. The homes here are lovely to stroll around.

New Edinburgh is home to several embassies and ambassador residences. This is the Mongolian embassy.

When I saw this at a distance coming from the north, the tower made me think of an old fire hall- which its older section might well have been at some point- but this is a retirement residence. I took this shot from the south side of the structure.

I kept walking, on my way towards Rideau Hall, photographing some of the homes as I went.

These two houses are neighbours on a short street, Rideau Gate, which happens to be one of the most distinctive addresses in the city. To the left of me is Rideau Hall. To my right across Sussex Drive is 24 Sussex, residence of the Prime Minister, currently under extended renovation (the PM and his family are residing at a house on the grounds of Rideau Hall). The first house is 7 Rideau Gate, an official guest residence owned by the Canadian Government.

Its neighbour to the right is another embassy. South Africa has its High Commission here.

Rideau Gate joins Sussex Drive in a rarity here in Ottawa: a traffic circle. Walking across that gives us a view through the trees of the Ottawa River, still frozen over. The river here is wide, and the wooded area you see in the background is Rockcliffe Park, which is the next neighbourhood east from New Edinburgh. Tomorrow we'll take a look at Rideau Hall.

The Church And The Waterfront

This view of the Gatineau River from the Lady Aberdeen Bridge looks south to its outlet at the Ottawa River.

Close by is this impressive Catholic church, Saint-Francois-de-Sales, standing over the river.

A view from the east shore shows us the bridge itself.

Aside from the church, there's a good sized waterfront here, with wooden boardwalks and stairs heading down towards the river. Leamy Lake Park is visible on the west shore of the Gatineau River.

The church itself dominates the location. There was a mass going on inside at the time, otherwise I'd have been able to show you the interior.

This rather large boat was moored here on the waterfront, with work going on aboard while I was here.

A final view of the Gatineau River, this looks north from the bridge as the river goes past Leamy Lake Park. I'll be wrapping up this walkabout tomorrow.

Reaching The Joining Of Waters

Here we are close to the east end of Leamy Lake Park.

The park's eastern boundary meets the main channel of the Gatineau River, which flows from its headwaters to the north along a route of 386 kilometres to its outlet just south of this spot. Across from here is a church; you may have spotted the spire in one or two distance shots in my first post from this series. Before amalgamation of the city of Gatineau, this would have been the boundary between the cities of Gatineau, on that shore, and Hull, on the shore where I was standing.

The path takes us to the meeting of two great rivers. The Gatineau River reaches its end here and joins the Ottawa River. The Gatineau shoreline is at the left, and the Ottawa neighbourhood of Rockcliffe Park is wooded at the right on the far shore.

There is a large house up in Rockcliffe Park that can be seen closer here. From comparisons to shots I've found online, I believe it is Lornado, the official residence of the American ambassador. The name of the place comes from a shortening of the novel title Lorna Doone. Lornado hosts a Fourth of July party every year held by the ambassador- the latest one has taken forever to actually get around to filling the post, months after the last one was told by the incoming administration that he was out of a job. I doubt I'll be invited anytime soon, particularly with my rather low opinion of Agent Orange, but then again, how much longer will that insufferable, dementia ridden, insecure, knuckle dragging, dimwitted, narcissistic, thin-skinned jackass and world's oldest temper tantrum throwing crybaby be fouling up the Oval Office? 

Looking off to the left takes in another view of the church I showed above.

A side trail leads up to a spot a short distance away overlooking the Ottawa River. The Macdonald-Cartier Bridge, where I began all of this, can be glimpsed to the west.

Here, on the bridge crossing the main channel of the Gatineau River, is another glimpse of that church, which we'll see more of tomorrow. The bridge itself is the Lady Aberdeen Bridge, the oldest of the bridges connecting the two sectors of Gatineau. A bridge has been here since 1894, and the original span here was named for the wife of a governor-general, while a second span crosses on its north side.