Campeau's Cluster Homes

Campeau's Cluster Homes

A special thank you to a reader for inspiring me to write this post and for sending me the old photo above and ad below from the Ottawa Citizen.

When: Built as rentals in the late 1960s and early 1970s, then converted to for-purchase houses in the 1990s.

Where: Leslie Park: along Monterey Drive, Costello Avenue and Baseline Road; Redwood Park: along Cornell Street, Draper Avenue and Morrison Drive; Riverside Park South: along Provost Drive and Walkley Road. Here is a map I created showing the areas where these houses are located: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=16Im3DfzN--9DRbS2GIvVmTSsy3MailxK&usp=sharing

What I Know: The houses in Leslie Park along Baseline Road and Monterey Drive are the most traditional in style, while the houses along Costello Avenue are slightly different from the others in exterior design sporting more contemporary-inspired facades. Different colours, textures/materials and window composition gives the facade of each house in a row its own character. The houses are staggered in many rows, creating visual interest and defining each house.

Often referred to as "garden homes" in Ottawa, these houses are a good example of the cluster concept of housing. What this means is that rather than having all of the houses laid out with privately owned front and back yards, the houses are clustered together with more communal front yards and open shared spaces beyond the rear yards. The resultant designs have larger park-like common spaces between the clusters of townhouses. Campeau continued to build cluster homes into the 1970s, but this post will focus on their earlier designs.

Although there are variations in design, the houses follow a similar layout with the kitchen or dining room at the front and the living room at the back of the house. With the exception of the 2 bedroom plans, they all have a main floor powder room. Upstairs the layouts have 2-4 bedrooms and 1 bathroom - some with a "cheater door" to the master bedroom. I do not have all of the plans and site plans, but below is what I have so far:

Leslie Park:

Redwood Park:

Riverside Park South:

Comments

AnonymousJuly 9, 2023 at 2:02 PM
The units at Monterey, especially the units facing Baseline Road, were in dire shape before the ’90s reno and sale that you mention. Perhaps not the best type of housing for an all-rental model.
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