culture.place

From Street Art to Streetscapes: culture.place

It started with a simple mission: putting Ottawa’s vibrant street art on the map. As the Ottawa-based team behind Malovey Labs, we built OTTAWALLS.art to document the city’s murals and credit the artists behind them. What began as a digital archive (and now features over 337 murals and 114+ artists) quickly caught the attention of local community builders.

Soon, that single map was embedded across six major Ottawa platforms, including Ottawa Tourism, Apt613, and the Centretown, Wellington West, Chinatown, and Glebe BIAs.

Working alongside these districts, we noticed a massive gap. While our map was celebrating public art, BIA teams were struggling behind the scenes to manage the everyday realities of their neighbourhoods. Vital district knowledge was trapped in scattered spreadsheets, endless intake forms, and the institutional memory of busy staff members. Nobody had the whole picture of who they served, what needed fixing, or where the gaps were. The public couldn't see half the hard work happening to keep their streets thriving.

So, we evolved. Built right here in Ottawa, Canada, culture.place was born to give civic organizations a single, unified view of everything they manage. Instead of chasing down business owners for updated hours or manually syncing lists, BIAs gained a system where businesses could submit their own updates, and staff could approve them with a single click. But a BIA’s job goes far beyond storefronts. Managing a main street means keeping track of vacant properties, street furniture, benches, planters, bike racks, signage, holiday lighting, and even the hydro poles where seasonal banners hang. That is why we spent the last year working closely with Ottawa’s BIAs to build what comes next.

Launching in Winter 2027, the next generation of culture.place transforms how BIAs manage their streetscapes on the ground. Built directly from the feedback of local district teams, this new tool brings operations, safety, and placemaking onto one tool and map:

• Total Asset & Infrastructure Tracking: Log and monitor everything from vacant storefronts and graffiti removal to flower planters, holiday decor, and patio permits—tailored entirely to your district's unique fields and categories.
• Real-Time Team Collaboration: Out on a walk-through? Snap a photo of a damaged bench or a burnt-out holiday light, attach it directly to the pin on the map, write a quick note, and tag a colleague to inspect it or assign a maintenance ticket on the spot.
• Actionable Heat Maps & Automatic Reporting: Spot trends before they become crises. Visualize heat maps of crime, safety concerns, and maintenance bottlenecks, while generating automatic, board-ready reports that prove your BIA's impact to stakeholders and city council.

One update changes everything, keeping your internal team aligned while giving the public a curated, live window into your neighbourhood. We’ve seen firsthand what happens when Ottawa’s BIAs have tools built specifically for the way they work. Now, as we gear up for our Winter 2027 launch, we are looking to partner with even more BIAs across Canada. Whether you are looking to untangle years of spreadsheets, streamline street-level maintenance, or secure grant funding to modernize your district's digital infrastructure, we are ready to help you put your neighbourhood on the map.