Anatomy of a Modern Plan: The Hybrid 3-Storey Townhouse

Three-Storey townhouses have been around for hundreds of years, but the more recent incarnation of the design, with a garage on the main floor, only appeared in Ottawa in the late 1960s. 

There are 3 main layouts for 3-storey townhouses in Ottawa: the Standard 3 level, Split Level and Hybrid. 

Standard 3 level townhouse with 3 floors above grade.

Split level townhouse with 3 floors.

Hybrid townhouse design with a 1.5-storey living room at the back.

In particular, this post will look at the hybrid layouts that have a living room located at the back of the plan with a 1.5-storey ceiling and a dining room that overlooks the room. This design is notable in that it creates a dramatic space commonly not found in smaller houses. These unique layouts were popularized in the late 1960s up until the 1990s, when they stopped being built for some reason. 

The hybrid layout is common in the Toronto area and started appearing earlier than in Ottawa. More common in Ottawa are the split level layouts where the back living room has a standard height ceiling and there may be a peek through lower on the wall in the dining room. 

Some of the first examples of the hybrid layout are from the early 1970s are in Sheffield Glen and Carson Meadows. Unfortunately, I do not have the floor plans for these designs.

Below are the plans for the townhouses at 2296 Orient Park in Blackburn Hamlet, c. 1973-1976. Most hybrid plans follow this same basic layout. One of the variations in these types of plans is the location of the 2-piece powder room. In this layout it is on the second floor, but it is sometimes located on the entry level or in the basement.

The townhouses at the Riverwood Estate in Woodroffe/Mckellar Park, built c. 1976-1978, are a good example of the hybrid layout. As is common with 3-storey townhouses at the time, especially in the Toronto area, these townhouses have neo-Mansard roofs that roll down the facade as a way of making the houses look less tall.

Of note with these designs is that the back of the house has a walkout basement with access to the yard. It is more common to have the direct yard access from the living room. The full size laundry room beside the kitchen is also a rare aspect of these designs.

Gentry Lane (Bertona Street in Manordale), c. 1976-1978, also have houses with neo-Mansard roofs on the top floor.

These designs are a bit different than most of the hybrid designs in that the front door is half a flight up from the ground level.

Some of the designs in Huntview Estates in Hunt Club Woods, c. 1978-1980, are 3-storey plans. They are intermixed with rows of 2-storey designs. The balcony over the garage makes the 3-storey massing feel less tall and is a nice outdoor space off the kitchen for a BBQ.

In this Sawmill Creek complex, c. 1984-1985, 2 of the 3 designs are hybrids. The Bergen/Bergen Special plan has a strikingly modern steep roof line that wraps down the facade.

The cross section diagram shows the typical layout of a hybrid plan. The Bergen Special has a walkout basement.

One design in this Hunt Club Woods complex, c. 1983-1985, is a hybrid plan. It is interspersed with 2-story designs. Of note is the tunnel from the garage to the back yard creating designs where the adjacent unit on one side is only attached by the garage.  

Noteworthy is that these designs have an arch-topped window over the sliding door in the living room, compared to the usual rectangular window. This represents a movement towards more traditionally-inspired architecture at the time. The townhouses in this complex, called the "Chateaus of Hunt Club" have neo-traditional architecture - not quite modern, but not fully traditional.

Timberlay built a series of hybrid designs during the early 1990s in Fallingbrook, Kanata Lakes and Cardinal Glen. They are often mixed in with 2-storey and even bungalow designs. Interestingly, the facade of the Brighton, shown below, has a front-facing gable roof that accentuates the height of the house. This is a departure from the 1970s when neo-Mansard roofs were used to minimize the expression of the height. These were some of the last examples of hybrid designs built in Ottawa.  

This is one of the narrowest of the hybrid designs at 17 feet 6 inches wide. They are typically 18-21 feet wide.

Much like the houses at Gentry Lane, shown above, this model has the front entry raised half a flight above the ground level. Also of note is the staircase that runs from side to side, compared to the common back to front alignment. In this plan one bedroom is located half a flight down from the top floor.

As one of the later iterations of the hybrid design, this plan below has features more common of housing at the time in the 1990s. In particular, the kitchen is large and has a room next to it called a family room (but probably used as a breakfast room), and the master bedroom has a large ensuite bathroom and walk-in closet.

I am not sure why this type of 3-storey townhouse stopped being built, but the hybrid design's dramatic living rooms and dining rooms with balcony overlooks mark a moment in housing that thought outside of the box...and can provide inspiration moving forward.

Just for fun: Although not in Ottawa, I wanted to share one of the more unusual expressions of the Hybrid plan from my hometown of Brampton. The Stornwood complex of townhouses have one of the only versions of a reversed hybrid 3-storey plan that I have ever seen. In this case the high-ceilinged spaces at the back are the dining room and conservatory (the kitchen was built with a dropped ceiling for some reason), and over the garage are the living room and a library with a balcony overlook.