Inspiration Village at the ByWard Market in Ottawa was a vibrant part of the Ottawa 2017 and Canada 150 celebrations and events. It made the Market even more fun to be in from May through September of 2017, hosting over 340,000 visitors. One of the most popular aspects of Inspiration Village was the huge “OTTAWA” sign that attracted all visitors, local and from afar, to take selfies and pictures.

This past fall ,the City of Ottawa and the ByWard Market BIA enthusiastically re-purposed the “OTTAWA” sign by positioning it in it’s permanent home in the York Street Plaza at the corner of York and Sussex Streets, placed several colourful muskoka chairs and a heater in front of the sign and put colourful lights on the trees to afford the local community, visitors and users of the market a place to sit, take pictures and enjoy the market in a fun and practical way.

This is an amazing and inexpensive way to revitalize the downtown market, attracting tourists, local people from other parts of the City and immediate community to come downtown, and take full advantage of what the Byward Market has to offer. Once the LRT opens at the end of 2018, the Byward Market will become easier to access and potentially will entice 1000s of additional visitors to the Market and other downtown cultural attractions, events and businesses. It will do this by promoting fun features such as the “OTTAWA” sign and other programming events and public art opportunities.

Special thanks to Robin Etherington who co-authored this blog

Read more about this project

http://www.obj.ca/article/much-photographer-ottawa-sign-finds-permanent-byward-market-home