Common Ground: Reconsidering Contemporary Urban Development

Urban Developments today are su ering an identity crisis. Market demands have led to a globalized urban standard, one of mixed-use. The 'mixed'-use model fails to mix anything in a meaningful way. The result is a packaged, o -the-shelf and easy to implement 'canned' urbanism.As a capital city, should Ottawa be concerned with how the built environment re ects its identity?Tunney's Pasture is far from the rolling meadows its name suggests. Instead, it is an out- of-date idea of a government campus built in the 1950's. Today, Tunney's is seen as 'a wasteland.' New proposals fail to realize the site's potential. The Tunney's Pasture Master Plan will be critiqued as an example of a canned urban approach. An alternative proposal will be put forward: one based on principles di erent from globalization and mixed-use, that consider instead identity, historical context and the site's pastoral origins.