Green going

Years ago I was among those who lamented the medical school's move from the main downtown campus of the University of Ottawa to the suburban setting of the developing health sciences campus about 6 Km from the city centre. One of the factors I weighed when considering whether to accept the invitation to leave Edinburgh and come to Ottawa was the location of the university in the heart of downtown Ottawa, just a few hundred meters from Parliament hill. Like the ancient University of Edinburgh, and like my own university in Adelaide, South Australia, Ottawa University is intimately entangled with the city, town and gown are entwined. The sylvan setting, the vista of green lawns and trees visible from the picture windows of the staff lounge helped me to get over the pangs of separation. But over the years since then, as the health science centre expanded and budded off satellite buildings, those lawns and trees have disappeared. There was a pleasant little view of trees through the windows of the walkways linking the health science centre to the Ottawa General Hospital on one side, and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario on the other side, at any rate for a while. The trees and lawns on the CHEO side went years ago, but those on the OGH side survived at least in part despite the orgy of building and the new paved parking lots for the cars of those who work in these new buildings ... until this summer. Lately as I've strolled along the walkway to the OGH, the floor has shuddered to the rhythm of heavy earth moving equipment, some of the glass is covered over with opaque plastic and where a window remains translucent the view is dismal: the green has gone, the ground is scarred by a deepening hole, the future basement of yet another new building. I suppose eventually all that will survive of the green spaces will be a few shrubs in tubs. We must adjust and adapt to new realities. Ottawa is a big city these days, the health science centre, the hospitals, the other buildings for research centres and so forth, must expand to keep pace. But I'll miss all that greenery.