Category: Buildings

Citicom and Timberlay Went A’Courtin’

Somerset Court, 30 years in. Image: Google Maps.
Somerset Court, 30 years in. Image: Google Maps.

The Somerset Court condominium, located on Somerset Street West just off Elgin, recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. Designed by architect Barry Hobin, it was a joint project of Robert McElligott’s Timberlay Developments and Toronto’s Citicom, which was probably best known until the late 1970s for its parking lot business. Since Robert Smythe tackled the ins and outs of the condominium’s development in a 2012 URBSite article, I will discuss it only briefly. Instead, I focus on Timberlay, Citicom, and the brief partnership they enjoyed during the middle years of the 1980s.

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Le Versailles in Sandy Hill (1964)

Le Versailles Apartments, Henderson Avenue. Image: July 2016.
Le Versailles Apartments, Henderson Avenue. Image: July 2016.

Since moving to Ottawa in 2000, I have spent more time exploring the city on foot than I can recount and Sandy Hill has always been one of my favourites. As you can probably expect from me on this blog, it’s less so the grand homes that define the neighbourhood (though they are lovely), but rather the most interesting mix of apartment styles that grace the area. The midcentury apartment designs, to my eye, have often been just slightly a cut above the remainder of the city, including in my own home turf of Centretown. Among them are Pat Gillin’s Chanteclair and Sans Souci, the Bachelor, the Summit, and my favourite, Réal St-Amour’s own Le Versailles (pictured above).

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“A ‘Little Mexico’ on Lake Ontario” (The El Pueblo Townhouses, 1971-73)

Rippin' up Beech Avenue too. The El Pueblo apartments are there in all of their splendour.
The El Pueblo townhouses in all of their splendour. Image: Littlest Hobo, Season 2, Episode 2 “Duddleman and the Diamond Ring.” (1980)

Recently, I read a post by historian Richard White on his blog Historical Perspectives on Toronto Planning called “Rejected Development.” Perhaps best known for his his recent publication, Planning Toronto: The Planners, The Plans, Their Legacies, 1940-80, I read it with interest. In making an argument that planners in the postwar era did not always want to “‘bulldoze’ everything old and replace it with some lifeless, modern, tower-in-the-park sort of structure,” White offers the example of the rejected River Oaks tower development on Beech Avenue in the Beaches neighbourhood. The El Pueblo townhouse complex, which was constructed in its stead, has always stood out to me. Not only have I walked past it on a few occasions, but as a regular watcher of The Littlest Hobo, it was familiar.

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It’s a Library and it’s an Archive and it’s My Favourite

In all its glory. Image: July 2016.
In all its glory. Image: July 2016.

Maligned by some, I have never hidden my love for the Library and Archives building at 395 Wellington. I’ve always found Alvan Mathers’ design for the building to be both monumental and welcoming at the same time. To my eye it is certainly a “building befitting, in design and size, the dignity of the Dominion and the importance of the undertaking” of a National Library (and Archive).1F. Dolores Donnelly. The National Library of Canada (Ottawa: Canadian Library Association, 1973): 41.

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Notes

Notes
↥1 F. Dolores Donnelly. The National Library of Canada (Ottawa: Canadian Library Association, 1973): 41.

Demolished Ottawa: Broadview Apartments

The Broadview Apartments, 437-439 Wellington St., on August 18, 1938. Image: LAC / Public Works Accession 1966-090 NPC Box 04841.
The Broadview Apartments, 437-439 (or 441-443½) Wellington St., on August 18, 1938. Image: LAC / Public Works Accession 1966-090 NPC Box 04841.

There has always been something a little passive sounding to me about using “lost” to speak of buildings that are no longer standing. In so many cases, a building’s removal was a deliberate act undertaken with clear eyes and a clear purpose. The reasons may vary (no longer adequate, stands in the way of desired vistas, etc.), but the building’s demolition was no accident. To that end, I have begun a new series of much shorter posts that highlight a demolished building. I hope to get one done every two weeks.

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The Alta Vista Drive Apartments and the Alta Vista Shopping Centre (1956)

Reuben Palef's Alta Vista Drive Apartments, 2015. Image: Google Maps.
Reuben Palef’s Alta Vista Drive Apartments, 2015. Image: Google Maps.

I’ve been on a roll lately when it comes to the cluster apartments developments of the 1950s. Since 1965 is my next stop in the apartment list transcription project, it’s most likely going to be the case that what catches my attention in that year will not be the clusters that defined the 1950s. To that end, much like I have done with Doug O’Connell’s Westwood Park, I’ve decided to select a few of these developments that were completed after 1955. In this case, I’ve looked back eastward, towards Alta Vista’s Riverview Park neighbourhood.

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Update! The Governor Metcalfe (1959)

It didn't look over a dog park when built. #ottawa #ottcity

A photo posted by Christopher Ryan (@chrisarrrrr) on

As it looms over Jack Purcell Park1I really don’t care that the racquet art was inspired by the wrong Jack Purcell., the Governor Metcalfe Apartments at 330 Metcalfe has been witness to a considerable number of changes that have taken place in its front yard, including the construction of the park itself in 1967 and its popular dog run in 2011. Continue reading Update! The Governor Metcalfe (1959)

Notes

Notes
↥1 I really don’t care that the racquet art was inspired by the wrong Jack Purcell.

From East(wood) Park to West(wood) Park

Westwood Park (now Byron West) Apartments, 950-980 Byron Avenue.
Westwood Park (now Byron West) Apartments, 950-980 Byron Avenue.

If you will remember my “Ottawa’s Apartments, 1955” piece a few days ago, you’ll probably remember that Doug O’Connell was a busy man during the 1950s and 1960s. Whether it be alone, or with his brother in law Allan Witt, O’Connell had his fingers in a tremendous number of pies through those years. As part of my own efforts to untangle the seemingly anonymous development the apartment clusters in Laurentian View, I was able to put a name to the cluster of 7 ten-unit apartments along Byron that lies between Sherbourne Road and the Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral.

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Laurentian View’s Apartments, 1955

Eastwood Gardens. Image: June 2015.
Doug O’Connell’s Eastwood Park Apartments. Not a Laurentian View apartment, but a similar model in many ways. Image: June 2016.

A few days ago, I posted a lengthy story about cluster developments of apartment buildings in suburban neighbourhoods during the 1950s. While I made every attempt to be as complete as possible, I had found that information pertaining to the three clusters (two of which were complete and listed in 1955) in the Laurentian View area was somewhat difficult to come by. There were few reports quickly found in either the Journal or the Citizen, and Might’s Directory, being what it is, was less than useful in learning names and ownership at the time. To that end, since it’s just so conveniently located, I headed out for the Land Registry Office.

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Brevity is the Soul of Witt

The Croydon Apartments, as seen from the Museum of Nature's east parking lot. Image: July 2015.
The Croydon Apartments, as seen from the Museum of Nature’s east parking lot. Image: July 2015.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” At least, so the popular saying goes. The market for apartment buildings in the early 1960s was hot. Really hot. It was during this time that such large builders like Mastercraft, Assaly, Minto, and numerous others started looking upwards as much as they were outward into the greenfield development they had been through the 1950s. The action wasn’t limited to the larger players, however.

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Ottawa’s Apartments, 1955

J.R. Beach's 1950 apartment at 196 Metcalfe. Image: June 2016.
J.R. Beach’s 1950 Beach Apartments (now Algonquin Annex) at 196 Metcalfe. Image: June 2016.

Back in March, I transcribed the list of apartment buildings from the 1945 Might’s Directory of the City of Ottawa and ran some minor analysis of the proportion of apartment buildings in each of Ottawa’s neighbourhoods. I decided to jump ahead to 1955, as a massive transition in the Canadian housing market was well underway.

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