The Minto Bungalows of Beacon Hill North By request (I do take requests!), this post is on the Minto bungalows that were built in Beacon Hill North. The neighbourhood is a mixture of houses built by both Campeau and Minto, but for the most part, the Minto houses were built in the area between La Verendrye and Olgilvie. These houses were predominantly built between 1968-1978 and some of these designs were also built in Beacon Hill South. The Agincourt is one of the largest and widest Minto bungalows built in the area and the design won a Canadian Housing Design Council award in 1971. This design was built on the most northerly streets in Beacon Hill North. The Bayview is a plan that has roots in the early 1960s and continued to be built for many years, suggesting that it was a best-selling design. There are two variations in the garage placement as shown above and below. The Chatham and the Bayview are essentially the same plan with variations on the façade. The Glenview is one of two M...

 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...

Innovation in Design - Greenboro Starting in the late 1970s, a new neighbourhood was envisioned in the south end of Ottawa, called Greenboro. This new area was designed with cluster housing, where the houses are set close together, thus freeing up ribbons of open green space and pathways. An advertisement from 1978 states 33% of Greenboro was dedicated to recreational land and designed so that people could walk - rather than drive - to neighbourhood amenities.     The early phases of the area have innovative layouts with the houses set at an angle to the street creating a visual relief to what could feel like a crowded landscape with the closely-set houses. The streets also have a wide variety of housing intermixed including detached, linked, semi-detached and townhouses. Some have garages, while others do not, again creating visual variety.  Later phases of the neighbourhood moved away from the cluster concept and angling of houses, yet high density housing continue...