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 r...

In this post I will look at a tale of two adjacent neighbourhoods built approximately 20 years apart - Parkwood Hills and Fisher Glen. Both areas were predominantly constructed by the same builder, Minto, and they are a good example of how house design changed between the 1960s and 1980s. The two neighbourhoods are a good comparison as both areas generally have smaller to medium size houses for their time. This post is quite long, but I wanted to share all of the plans and information I have on the two areas. In some cases I have two versions of the same plan as one may be more clear or have a different facade image. Type of houses and layout: Most of Minto's detached house lineup in Parkwood Hills during the early 1960s consisted of bungalows and side split designs. They are modestly sized houses, almost all with 3 bedrooms and 1 full bathroom. A few of the plans have a small 2-piece ensuite bathroom off of the master bedroom. Some plans came with garages, but carport...