Canada's First Condominium Highrise: Horizon House

Condominium apartment living has become so commonplace that it is hard to imagine that the first time this style of housing came to be in Canada was as recent as 1969. It was in that year that Minto completed Horizon House (now called The Horizon) at 1356 Meadowlands Drive in Parkwood Hills. That year it won a Canadian Housing Design Council Award as described below:

To make this concept of condominium ownership appealing, earlier unit layouts have some features that are more common with houses at the time, and are quite different from today's open concept designs. These include:

Separate dining rooms.
Very large living rooms.
Fully enclosed kitchens with space for a small table.
Bedrooms that are separated from the living area via a hallway with a door. The 3 bedroom design is the only plan where one bedroom opens directly off of a living space.
Bathrooms are separated from the living space and located next to the bedrooms.

The layout of the building with two intersecting rectangles allows for 6 corner units per floor. The floor layout with the hallway, stairs and elevator locations also means that many units only share a common wall with one other - only 3 of the 11 units per floor share a common wall with 2 units.

Over time there have been some changes to the building, the most notable being that all of the patio terraces have been fully enclosed. I am not sure when this happened, but it has expanded the living space in each unit by creating a den out of what was previously an outdoor space. This has changed the feel of the original unit designs where the living and dining room windows were previously oriented towards this patio terrace. Notice how on the plans the outside dining room wall does not have any windows (except for plan 2C where there is a narrow window). This way of designing is what I have referred to as "experiential design" as described in this older post from 2013: Experiential Design

This landmark building influenced the way that condominium apartment units were designed with many of the buildings built in the 1970s and even into the 1980s having many of the features found at Horizon House.

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Campeau in Alta Vista

One of the biggest builders in Ottawa during the 1950s and 1960s was Campeau Construction, a name still known today, even though the builder is no longer active. Many of the houses in Alta Vista were custom built, but Campeau was one of the first builders to construct tract homes in the area. Approximate locations of areas where Campeau built Beginning in the 1950s Campeau began building houses southwest of Kilborn Avenue and Alta Vista Drive, north of Randall Avenue. At the time, bungalows and one-and-a-half storey houses were most popular. Many of the “Victory Houses” built by Wartime Housing Ltd. for returning veterans after WWII were one-and-a-half stories, and the style soon became very popular for all builders. Below are some of Campeau's one-and-a-half storey plans built in the area: With time, the one-and-a-half storey house became less popular, and bungalows and split-level houses became the norm. An easy way to determine the age...

The small Post-War 1 1/2-Storey House - Part One

The small Post-War 1 1/2-Storey House The 1 1/2-storey house is common in certain areas of Ottawa built during WWII and the era immediately afterwards. These houses can be found throughout the city, but larger concentrations include the following areas: Carlington, Courtland Park, Carleton Heights, Meadowlands/St. Claire Gardens, Alta Vista, Overbrook, Eastview, Vanier, Elmvale Acres and Queensway Terrace. The 1 1/2-storey house actually has older roots in European architecture and early North American housing. The style was re-born by Wartime Housing Limited during WWII to fill a need during a housing shortage and were meant to be temporary. The design is economical to build, versus a full 2-storey house, and in some cases the second floor can be left unfinished for future expansion. Here is a link to a NFB short film on the wartime houses: Wartime Housing Below are the 3 basic plans Wartime Housing Limited built in communities across Canada -...

Modern Mansard - The Neo-Mansard Roof

Throughout the mid-century, the Mansard roof was popular in Ottawa housing design. First popularised in France during the 17th century, and then revived in the 19th century, the roof style re-appeared in Ottawa during the 1960s. At first the roof was used on historically-inspired houses, but was eventually altered in a variety of ways to have a more modern take on tradition. Campeau was the builder who used the roof the most in the mid-century, but other builders also followed suit. A traditional use of the Mansard roof. Playfair Park North/South, Russell Heights, c. 1965. This plan had a traditional Mansard option as well as 2 Dutch Colonial options with a Gambrel roof. Beacon Hill and South Keys, c. 1967. Here is a great example of a modern take on the Mansard roof. Instead of protruding dormer windows with arched tops, these houses have an inset window and an asymmetrical facade. From the side, the roof actually has more of a Gambrel-style silh...

Costain in Ottawa - Part One: Blackburn Hamlet (Detached Homes)

Some of my long-time readers may remember that I did a series of posts on Costain a few years ago. For some reason, a few of my older posts have vanished from my blog - for reasons unknown to me. So, I have re-created this post on the builder Costain due to interest from some of my readers. On the positive side, I have been able to get my hot little paws on some new floor plans and marketing material, so there is more material in this post compared to the original (now lost) post! In the mid-1960s the builder Costain (originally from England, but with an impressive global portfolio) came to Ottawa to develop a new hamlet in the eastern greenbelt called Blackburn Hamlet. Today Blackburn Hamlet is very lush with mature trees and extensive parkland, surrounded by the NCC Greenbelt. The west side of Blackburn Hamlet has 3 neighbourhoods separated by parkland, Westpark, Southpark and Centrepark. The Northpark and Eastpark n...

Campeau in the late 1950s and early 1960s

Below is a collection of floor plans that Campeau built in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I quite like the first plan with its blank front facade to the right of the front door. It gives the house a modern take on the Cape Cod-inspired 1 1/2 story style. I do not believe that many of this design were built, though. I also quite like this design below, with its blank facade and large wall of windows in the Living Room. Too bad my only copy of the plan is cut off at the top.

CMHC house designs from the mid-century

Between 1947 and 1974 the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), formerly Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation, published regular floor plan books of small houses suitable to be built in Canada. Blueprints could be ordered for the architect-designed plans, and examples of the built houses can be found throughout Ottawa. There are so many interesting plans that were available through the CMHC, so this is only the first posting with some of my favourites. If you recognise any of these designs that have been built in Ottawa (or elsewhere in Canada), please feel free to share the location with me! I have always been a fan of the butterfly roof! Although there are no front facing windows on the above design, the cedar shake cladding makes for a very interesting facade. The architect was based out of Kanata, and I could easily see this house fitting into the natural landscape of Beaverbrook - although I don't think it was actually built there. The central atr...

Amberwood Village - Stittsville

Another blog post by request! Located south of Hazeldean Road east of Stittsville Main Street is a very special "adult-lifestyle" neighbourhood begun in the late 1970s. The original phases of Amberwood Village consist of a series of houses built in clusters along the edges of the Amberwood Golf Course. The development was originally built by a company called Jaric Developments Ltd. The architect of this original portion of the area was W.G.Mohaupt - who also designed the "courtyard singles" in Hunt Club (see my old post Favourite Plans South and scroll down to see these designs) - and also used to design houses for Minto. The clusters of attached houses are grouped on dead-end lanes and units are attached is a variety of arrangements. Some designs have an attached garage, while others have detached garages clustered together with others. The result is a very interesting streetscape with a lot of open spac...

The bungalow staircase

California spearheaded the popularity of the bungalow (or ranch home), in mid-century North America. In California, basements are rare. During WWII and immediately afterward, some Ottawa houses were built without basements to save costs. But, the appeal of having a basement as extra room for storage and expansion space, meant that the basementless house did not last long. Having a basement meant that California-inspired designs had to be adapted to allow room for a staircase down. The placement of the basement stairs in bungalow design is sometimes a challenge. With a two-story house, often the staircase is located in the front hall, but this is not the case with many bungalows. While a staircase up leads to finished rooms on the upper floor, the staircase down to the basement was historically linked to service spaces. Basements in older houses were more utilitarian, so there was no need to have the basement stairs on display like the stairs to the upper floors. A stair...

California Modern in Ottawa

During the mid-century era, California became the epicentre of modern design. From the architect-designed case-study houses, to the mundane tract house, all eyes were on California. In Canada, books and periodicals on architecture filled with Californian design would have sparked the imagination of Architects and designers. W hen one thinks of Mid-Century Modern (MCM) California tract housing, the name ‘Eichler’ often comes to mind. Perhaps one of the most famous MCM tract builders, Joseph Eichler, defined MCM design in the United States. His widely-published designs even captured the imagination of Canadians. Any designer/architect in the know would have seen an Eichler plan. In Ottawa, there are a few examples of houses built in the 1960s with floor plans that could have been influenced by those being built by Eichler. The most famous Eichler-built designs are those with an open-air atrium at the centre. One of the floor plans built by Teron in Beaverbrook during the...

Neighbourhood Spotlight - Beacon Hill North

The Beacon Hill North area, east of downtown, has some great examples of MCM houses. Map of Beacon Hill North The two main builders in Beacon Hill were Minto and Campeau. For the most part, the Minto-built homes are in the centre of the community (in an area that was also marketed as Beaconwood), and the Campeau-built homes act as book-ends on the western and eastern sides. Simpson Homes also built a handful of large houses in the northwest portion. In addition, there are a few pockets of houses built by other builders, including MacDonald Homes, as a part of the H.O.M.E. Plan (Home Ownership Made Easy) – particularly on the east side. The Campeau houses in the southwest portion of the area were marketed as being in Rothwell Village, due to their location bordering Rothwell Heights. The houses built in this area were Campeau’s larger two-storey and split-level models. One of the Campeau designs in Rothwell Village. The same design was also built in Arlington Woods. ...

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