Where did all that open space go?

Posted Feb 9, 2012 By Charles Gordon

Canadians really like open space, as someone recently wrote. Actually that was I, writing about the problems with intensification. We're used to having lots of it, because that's the kind of country this is, with lakes and prairies and uninhabited forests, and we don't like it when someone crowds us, whether in the supermarket, on the beach or on the Queensway.

There's another thing about open space, though. With the notable exception of LeBreton Flats, we seem to have a compulsion to fill it. Give us a nice open space and we'll begin working on cluttering it up.

Anyone who has worked in an office knows this. Back in the day - maybe the '70s - the open office concept was a fad. Many beautiful open offices were created, in government departments and private business. And almost from the moment people moved in, they began nullifying that space. Plants and bookcases appeared, then higher desks, then partitions, then full offices. Eventually the modern office became the rabbit warren we see now.

The same thing happened to shopping centres. Some had a nice airiness to them at one point, skylights and wide aisles. Not any more. Kiosks of all sorts block the view. Tables and benches, while welcomed by many weary shoppers, clog the aisles. And don't even think about open space in the supermarket. While you're thinking about it, you'll be knocking over a big mound of merchandise that wasn't there a minute ago.

Another dramatic example is what we still think of as the new Ottawa airport. Actually, the new airport before that was another dramatic example. If you remember that one, there was at first a nice clear view across the main lobby to a huge window, outside of which were the airplanes. Nice - just the way an airport should look, with the sky and the planes on display.

Then some kiosks arrived, then a bar. All of a sudden the window disappeared and all of that space. You could have been at the mall, for all that it resembled an airport.

It must be human nature. Nature abhors a vacuum, someone once said. An old Latin proverb, apparently. But commerce abhors a vacuum too. If you visit the new airport at the arrivals level, you see that advertising signs on stands are all over the place. TV screens glare at you from every direction. There are signs on top of the luggage carousels. There are machines of various types, ATMs, terminals for looking at pictures of hotels. There are kiosks, a chair that gives you a massage.

Aside from the chair that gives you a massage there actually aren't that many places to sit, but may be the price we pay for the open space that remains. There is a bench near the escalator, but it turns out to be a statue of a bench. Cartier, after whom the airport is half-named, is standing behind it. Sir John A., after whom the other half is named, is sitting on it, all bronze-like. There must be many a weary traveller who wishes Sir John A. would stand the hell up so someone could take his seat.

It's actually quite a spectacular area. The escalator coming down in full view is a nice touch, so that the people arriving get a good chance, as they descend, to wave at the people meeting them. Also, the fountain, a curtain of water falling over the word "OTTAWA" is soothing to look at.

So all is not lost yet. We just have to resist the temptation to cover every inch of floor space with something that might amuse someone, or convince him to buy something. We have to come to terms with our conflicting attitudes toward open space: we want it, and when we get it we want to fill it up. The thing with open space is, you can't get it back.