Brutalist Bonbons

The Portage Bridge was the result of a snap announcement made at one of Pierre Trudeau's first Federal-Provincial Conferences - one quarter of the civil service workforce in the National Capital Region would be relocated to Quebec. A major road link was needed quickly to get thousands off public servants across the Ottawa River and into a wall of office towers that would swallow the old downtown of the City of Hull.

Another legacy of the era is an underappeciated brutalist landscape architecture that spreads along the bridge's sloping embankment on the Ontario side.

Montreal architect Daniel Lazosky was the supervising designer for the entire Place du Portage complex. Schooled in some of the most ambitious brutalist projects ever built, such as the Place Bonaventure in Montreal, he is the architect of record for Place du Portage Phase I and II (truly Brutalist), and Phases III and IV.
The southern approach to the Portage Bridge is a complex arrangement of pathways, stairs, ramps, retaining walls, seating areas and plantings. It is all conceived in a uniform exposed aggregate.
The heavy concrete roadway is pierced by three openings, a long tunnel to access to the Cliff Street heating plant and two recreational walkways.
The basic unit is this free-standing bracket or bollard that can be re-arranged for lighting, waste baskets, and benches. The variation above is the light and waste bin combination. The light was concealed under the lip of the bracket, and cast a downward pool.
The concrete elements are bolted together with steel fasteners. As the cement weathers, more of the chunky multicoloured aggregate is exposed
The retaining walls are battered, or slightly sloped, and the formwork is highlighted to give that much loved brutalist finish, now somewhat mellowed by the elements.
The light sconces have not worked in living memory, but prove that you can make almost anything from concrete.
Subtly detailed parapet walls are broken with banks of more sconces.
There are many viewing platforms, joined by a confusing network of paths.
A bridge curves over the outfall from the Fleet Street pump station's tailrace, with another lookout at the metal fence.
What may be the world's only brutalist bike rack sits on one of the small islands formed by the numerous channels that date from the Chaudiere's industrial period.
Below is one of the children's play areas and sand boxes, ringed by tot sized benches, with larger one for the adults around it. To the rear is a view over the Bronson Channel to the recently recommissioned Ottawa Hydro generating station No. 2.
In the 1980s most of the original elements visible from the bridge deck were post-modernized by the National Capital Commission for the 'Ceremonial Boulevard'. Here you can see how the new was grafted onto the old.
The dark pathway tunnels had glass block skylights to provide some light. The one at the tunnel near the Mill Restaurant is still there. The one closer to the National Archives had rusted so badly it had to be replaced - with more concrete
Beneath the Portage Bridge are a number of storage areas and an underground garage for the restaurant.
The doors to the hydro vault have a battered surround.
The landscaping spreads into Victoria Island, where concrete steps were sited to align with the natural steps of the stone outcroppings.
Just past the Willson Carbide mill ruins is a lookout that projects over the Ottawa River. This is the eastern entrance to a walkway that goes under the bridge.
On the Chaudiere side it's remarkable (and a little scary) to see just how thin the concrete is, and it is all slowly decaying. This vantage provides a good view of the underside of the bridge, with its box girders spanning the course of the river.
Brutalist architect has few friends. Brutulist landscape architect is an even lonelier discipline. At the foot of the Portage Bridge a rare example sits rotting through benign neglect. About half of it has already disappeared.