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 co...

At the end of the 1970s and in to the early 1980s there was a company called Hab-Com that is responsible for some of the city's most interesting housing projects. One of their goals was to create designs that felt like single family housing, but a medium densities.  This is the second and final part of a series that focuses Hab-Com. This post is on Springfield Mews in Lindenlea. I am missing a handful of the plans for the condo units, so if anyone has them I would love to add them to this post. I also know that Hab-Com built a few other smaller projects, but alas, I do not have the plans. The lower part of the neighbourhood has a series of townhouses of varying sizes and designs, as well as stacked townhouses. Much like the Hab-Com stacked townhouse units in Cathcart Mews, these designs are very unique in their layout. Three units make up a repeated module: a bungalow and two upper townhouse units. All three have a ...