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The new (sub)urbanism

Broadcast Date: Oct. 15, 1997

Life in the suburbs is going urban. In 1997 an innovative design style known as the new urbanism attempts to take good elements from city living and translate them to the suburbs. With garages at the backs of houses and secondary suites above garages, architects are catering less to cars and more to people. Suburbia's architects originally devised communities for easy automobile access in a time when car ownership had sharply increased. The focus has now shifted to parks and neighbourhoods.

"Live close to where you work, live close to where you shop, live close to where you recreate ... that's really what a complete community is all about," says urban planner Paul Roseneau in this CBC Television clip.

The new (sub)urbanism

• From 1945 to 1952, the number of Canadians with automobiles doubled. By 1961, 4.3 million people in Canada had cars.

• In part to accommodate cars, housing lots became larger after the war. The average-sized lot grew from 25 feet wide before the war to 50 feet after it.

• In 1997 the global Congress for New Urbanism was held in Toronto.

• Canada was chosen as the location because it had the highest number of "new urbanist" developments per capita in North America. The conference hosted 360 people from around the world.

• Canada's early model for new urbanism was Montgomery Village. In 1994, this new development began near Orangeville, Ont., with 180 houses. The houses mimicked older Canadian neighbourhoods, like Toronto's Victorian-era Annex and Montreal's Georgian-style Mount Royal.

• Montgomery Village homes were three-storied, situated on narrow streets with garage-free front lots.

• Qualities of new urbanist mode include: garages in back alleyways, a mix of conventional housing with town houses and condos, places to shop and work, and curved roadways to slow down traffic.

• Homes in Murray's Corner (featured in this clip) were priced at $325,000 to $500,000.

• Although well above Langley, B.C.'s typical housing prices, 69 of the 79 lots had already been purchased at the time of this clip.

• Alternatively, early suburbanites got funding breaks on new homes. The 1935 Dominion Housing Act, a government attempt to boost the dormant Depression-era building industry, granted financing only to new housing development.

• In Don Mills, developer E.P. Taylor put his own money toward the city's sewage treatment plant.

• The 2001 Census found that two-thirds of the population lived in Canada's 27 largest urban areas. Half of the country's total population lived in and around Toronto, Montreal, lower mainland British Columbia and the Calgary-Edmonton corridor.

The new (sub)urbanism

Medium: Television

Program: Midday

Broadcast Date: Oct. 15, 1997

Guest(s): Peter Gabor, Paul Roseneau

Host: Brent Bambury, Tina Srebotnjak

Duration: 7:03

Last updated:
May 16, 2008