During the 1970s Minto built a series of townhouse enclaves with "garden homes" that do not have garages; parking is provided in communal parking lots. The houses are laid out in picturesque clusters throughout the complexes, sometimes centred on communal green spaces. Staggering of houses and different designs in a given row create a real sense of visual interest in these areas as opposed to long rows of similar houses.   By not having garages appended to the front of the houses, large main floor windows on the fronts of the houses allow for a visual connection to the neighbourhood from inside. Many of the designs have a kitchen at the front of the house overlooking the front yard.    Below is a sampling of some of the garden home neighbourhoods Minto built during the 1970s:   Stonehenge (Pineview)   Below is an air photo (courtesy of Google Maps) showing a portion of the Stonehenge neighbourhood. A few of the clusters form cou...

It has been a long and grueling few months of battling cancer and having a stem-cell transplant, but I am on the mend and I feel great! A special thank you for all of the thoughts, prayers and encouraging messages! It is time to start blogging again and I have more great postings coming up, so stay tuned. Also, I wanted to share something fun. While I was healing I  decided to build my own interpretation of the Eichler X-100 House of Steel, built in 1956 in San Mateo California, and designed by my favourite architect A. Quincy Jones. Mid-Century Modern aficionados may be familiar with the house, but if you would like more info, a great resource is: Eichler X-100 . A few years ago I also did a post comparing this plan to one of Campeau's designs in Ottawa: California Modern in Ottawa .   Here are some images of the house and below is my Lego version:       More posts to come...so ...