Comme 2019 marquera le 100e anniversaire de l’Institut canadien des urbanistes, le Comité du centenaire a mis de l’avant un certain nombre de projets, dont la production d’une chronologie illustrée des personnes, des lieux, des plans et des politiques qui ont marqué l’histoire de l’urbanisme au Canada.;xNLx;- - - ;xNLx;Project Manager: Dilys Huang, RPP, MCIP;xNLx;Production Editor: Kyla Tanner, Patricia Warren ;xNLx;Chief Curator: Dr. David Gordon, RPP, FCIP;xNLx;Curatorial Committee: Gerard Farry, MCIP; Dr. Raphaël Fischler OUQ, MICU; David Gordon, RPP, FCIP; Dr. Jill Grant, LPP, FCIP; Dilys Huang, RPP, MCIP; Kyla Tanner; Patricia Warren
In 1535, when Jacques Cartier arrived in what is now called Montreal, he found a thriving Iroquoian community at the foot of the mountain. According to the explorer, the village of Hochelaga was located on the island of Montreal, approximately 8 km inland from the docking point, and was surrounded by corn fields extending in the vicinity of Mount Royal. Cartier described the village: "There are some fifty houses in this village and each about fifty or more paces in length, and twelve or fifteen in width, and built completely of wood and covered in and bordered up with large pieces of the bark and rind of trees, as broad as a table, which well and cunningly lashed after their manner." To this day, no physical evidence of the ancient village of Hochelaga has been found.
During the pre-Contact period between 1550 and 1650, the Wendat (Huron) Confederacy, comprising four First Nations, planned and developed approximately 30 villages between Lake Simcoe and the Georgian Bay Peninsula. Based around extensive agricultural subsistence and trading economies, the Huron Wendat settlement patterns demonstrate the organizational complexity of pre-Contact First Nations community planning.
In 1642, an expedition set out to establish a Catholic missionary community on Île de Montréal to be called Ville-Marie, after the Virgin Mary, today's Montréal. Sponsored by the Société Notre Dame de Montréal, the people built a “habitation” — a kind of communal dwelling, with a couple of small rooms set aside for a hospital, a few outbuildings and a rudimentary chapel were also put up. They planted some crops and extended the palisade. Ville Marie was one of the largest examples of the French tradition of fortified bastide towns.
Jean Talon fut intendant de la Nouvelle-France entre 1665 et 1672. C’est dans ce rôle qu’il contribua à bâtir la nation que le Canada allait devenir, notamment en encourageant l’établissement permanent, en créant le mode de lotissement radial distinctement canadien et en introduisant le tout premier recensement, dont il se servait pour éclairer ses décisions en tant qu’un des premiers urbanistes du Canada.
Issued by King George III, the Royal Proclamation introduced policies that would assimilate the French population to British rule. The Royal Proclamation was also important in setting the constitutional structure for negotiation treaties with Indigenous peoples across Canada. The Proclamation is seen by Indigenous and legal scholars as one of the first steps towards the recognition of existing Indigenous rights (First Nations and Indigenous Studies UBC, 2009).
The first British colonial towns in Canada featured a regular gridiron of blocks divided into individual building lots for settlers. The small blocks in Charlottetown's original waterfront grid have retained their historic ambience and charm. In this early map, note the central square and four neighbourhood squares. The original town site was surrounded by common land, which provided room for future expansion and defense works.
St. Andrews, New Brunswick is an early Canadian example of colonial town planning due to its Loyalist founders and grid street pattern. Loyalists fled Castine, Maine during the American Revolution and settled on the Passamaquoddy Bay, part of the Bay of Fundy, establishing St Andrews in 1783.
The Governor General, Lord Dorchester, had ambitious plans to develop what is now Ontario. His 1789 model included a system of townships each averaging 100 square miles and containing a town site. The towns were to be a square mile, divided into one-acre "town lots" with space for streets, church, market, and defence works. A large military reserve would surround the town and then farm lots beyond this.
After the signing of treaties, the Crown made land available to the Canada Company for 4,000 sq kms in southwest Ontario. Two grandiose plans were created by John Galt for the new anchor communities – Guelf (Guelph) to the east, and Goderich on the west.
The relocation of the Songhees in 1911 occurred within the heart of Victoria city after 50 years of negotiations for the land. The removal of the Songhees resulted in amendments to the Indian Act which enabled the mass involuntary non-consensual relocation of reserves across Canada.
Established in 1859 and incorporated in 1860, New Westminster is known as the oldest city in Western Canada and was originally the capital of British Columbia until 1866. The Downtown area (original boundary of the city) was first surveyed by the Royal Engineers with a grid pattern parallel to the Fraser River.
The Dominion Land Survey (DLS) is the method used to divide most of Western Canada into one-square-mile sections for agricultural and other purposes. The survey was begun in 1872, shortly after Manitoba and the North-West Territories became part of Canada, following the purchase of Rupert's Land from the Hudson’s Bay Company. Covering about 800,000 square kilometres, the survey system and its terminology are deeply ingrained in the rural culture of the prairies. The DLS is the world's largest survey grid laid down in a single integrated system. The inspiration for the DLS system was the plan for the prairies to be agricultural economies.
The Canadian government unilaterally dispossessed First Nations of their land, cultural practices, and subsistence living. Settler communities developed with this newly available land and natural resources. In turn, Indigenous peoples had to adapt their governance and community planning to assimilate.
La ville de Montréal fit appel à Frederick Law Olmsted pour concevoir un parc naturel sur le mont Royal. La vision d’Olmsted consistait à créer un parc naturel de paysage montagneux qui profiterait à la classe ouvrière et lui permettrait de profiter de la nature sur le territoire de la ville. Il est aujourd’hui l’une des principales attractions touristiques de Montréal et des millions de visiteurs s’y rendent chaque année.
The lands now known as Canada were already inhabited by Indigenous peoples long before European settlers began to arrive approximately 500 years ago. People lived in permanent settlements, traveled to follow food sources, or moved among sites, depending on the time of year and availability of supplies. On the west coast, abundant fishing led to coastal settlements such as the Haida Gwaii villages, such as Skidegate Village, which remained in place for centuries.
The City of Saskatoon was born out of the Temperance movement in 1882 when the Temperance Colonization Society of Toronto established a “dry” community in the area. John Neilson Lake led Temperance colonists to the site that is now Saskatoon.
Banff, Albeta, was founded in 1883 near a proposed Canadian Pacific Railway tunnel site. The first town, 3 km from present-day Banff, was known as "Siding 29". Banff's development, controversial because of the fragility of its environment, has always been determined by the federal government, tourism and the railway. In 1885 the Banff Hot Springs Reserve was formed on 10 acres of land around the local hot springs, and in 1887 a major expansion of park land occurred with the formation of the Rocky Mountains Park. Subsequent winter recreational developments and Banff's symbol as Canada's premiere all-season tourism destination encourages over 3 million individuals each year to visit the park. Banff was incorporated as a town in 1990 with a population 7,584.
In 1885, the first survey of the City of Vancouver was begun by CPR Civil Engineer Lauchlan Hamilton. The downtown grid system in today's Vancouver is credited to Hamilton.
Windsor was the first Canadian city with an electric streetcar system in 1886. The electric streetcar system provided an extensive and effective mode of transportation to the citizens of Windsor until the 1930s, when the Great Depression left the world in financial turmoil. By the time Windsor's streetcar system was dismantled in 1937, the system's scale was extensive and it serviced all 5 of the major riverfront communities of Windsor, Ford City (East Windsor), Sandwich, Walkerville and Ojibway.
Ottawa's first streetcars ran on June 29, 1891 from the Ottawa Electric Railway Company's new car barn on Albert Street. Ottawa was a leader in developing this technology (ahead of Toronto and Montreal). At its peak in 1929, the Ottawa Electric Railway carried more than 30 million riders on 90.5 kilometres of track. The company employed 334 motormen and conductors. The last full day of streetcar service in Ottawa was April 30, 1959.
The city below the hill is a detailed investigation of social conditions in a working class quarter of Montreal during the 1890s. Based on a house-to-house survey of the neighbourhood, this study catalogues and analyses the life of working people after the first years of rapid industrialization. A landmark in the development of urban consciousness in Canada and of sociological research, it is one of the first major efforts to solve problems that are still with us.
Ishbel Gordon (1857-1939) was a force for social reform. While her husband, the Earl of Aberdeen, was Governor-General (1893-1898), she founded the National Council of Women and the Victorian Order of Nurses and encouraged the playground movement. Lady Aberdeen’s interest in Ottawa town planning evolved from a desire to improve the capital to be a source of pride for Canadians. She was instrumental in founding the Ottawa Improvement Commission (forerunner of the National Capital Commission) in 1899.
En avril 1900, un incendie se déclare dans le centre ville de Hull et laissera sans abri 40 % de la population. L’incendie ravage le Palais de justice, le bureau de poste, l’hôtel Impérial, une église anglicane, des bureaux de journaux ainsi que de nombreux commerces et résidences. Le feu se propage ensuite à de nombreux parcs de sciage et scieries longeant la rivière des Outaouais. Le pont interprovincial, construit de bois et enjambant les rapides de la Chaudière, s’embrase, privant ainsi Hull et Ottawa de leur seule liaison terrestre. Au cours de l’après-midi et de la soirée, le brasier se déplace vers le sud dévastant le secteur des plaines LeBreton. En fin de compte, le feu s’était étendu sur une superficie de 13 kilomètres carrés du territoire (cinq miles carrés), avait détruit plus de 3 200 bâtiments soit des manufactures, des moulins, des commerces et des résidences. Sept personnes perdirent la vie, la plupart du côté de Hull. Plus de 14 000 personnes furent laissées sans abri et sans ressources parce que leurs lieux d’emploi avaient aussi été détruits. L’estimation des dégâts oscille en 10 et 15 millions de dollars (300 à 450 millions en dollars d’aujourd’hui).
In 1903, Frederick Todd prepared a preliminary parks plan for the Canadian capital, which considered both Ottawa and its sister city Hull, located across the river in the province of Québec. However, the Ottawa Improvement Commission declined to retain him as a regular consultant and relied on its technical staff for design and construction. Many of Todd’s recommended parks and parkways were incorporated in the future plans of Edward H. Bennett (1915), Noulan Cauchon (1923), and Jacques Greber (1950).
Tuxedo Park was planned by the Olmsted Bros. as an exclusive residential suburb of Winnipeg. Through the use of landscape architecture, allowances for wide roadways and boulevards, strict building codes, and generous allotments of park land, Tuxedo Park came to be regarded as “the most beautiful and exclusive district for elaborate home-building in Winnipeg". In close proximity was Assiniboine Park, located along the Assiniboine River. At the time, it was considered well beyond the limits of the city. Assiniboine Park was designed by Frederick Todd as a large suburban park and recreation grounds for the rapidly growing city.
John M. Lyle attended the Hamilton School of Art and trained as an architect at the Yale School of the Arts before enrolling in the École des beaux-arts, Paris in 1894. Upon return to Canada in 1906 he was instrumental in disseminating the beaux-arts ideals to the architectural profession through Atelier Lyle's lectures at University of Toronto. His early works reflect the beaux-arts style - Royal Alexandra Theatre (1906) and Union Station (1913-27) in Toronto - as do his later works - Memorial Arch, Royal Military College, in Kingston (1923) and Bank of Nova Scotia in Ottawa (1923-24).
The largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, Jasper Park, was created in 1907. Tourism began as early as 1915 and the first major hotels, the Athabasca and the world-famous Jasper Park Lodge, opened in 1921 and 1922 respectively. Thomas Adams prepared this town plan in 1923. The coming of the Grand Trunk Pacific and Great Northern railways (1911-12) and an all-weather road to Edmonton (1936) spurred Jasper's growth, not only as a tourist town, but also as a railway divisional point. Today, more than 3 million visitors pass through the park gates each year, and more than 1.8 million stop to experience this unique wilderness and World Heritage Site. The Town of Jasper was incorporated in 2001 with a population of 4,051.
In 1908, the Municipality of Point Grey was established by breaking away from the Municipality of South Vancouver. The newly elected Council moved quickly to improve access and services to the area. The BC government re-planned part of the town in 1925 and a Town Planning Commission was formed in 1926, chaired by Professor Frank Buck. Point Grey collaborated with the City of Vancouver on the 1929-30 comprehensive plan prepared by Harland Bartholomew Associates.
En 1909, Westmount (Québec) adopte le premier règlement de zonage au Canada qui prend la forme de règlements d’aménagement. Un « règlement sur la construction » est assorti d’un ensemble complet de contrôles d’aménagement comme on les connait aujourd’hui. L’instance municipale divisa le territoire en un certain nombre de districts, attribua à chaque zone des usages prescrits pour le sol et des types d’habitation, imposa des normes variables de retrait et de hauteur des édifices, les surfaces couvertes et même la densité des projets.
The Commission of Conservation was established to provide Canadian governments with scientific advice on the conservation of human and natural resources. The Commission was created under the leadership of Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier and was chaired by Clifford Sifton - two of the leading conservationists in Canada. The Commission was to work for the public interest, with the public interest being the wise management of resources.
The 1909 Plan of Chicago was a foundational document for the City Beautiful movement across Canada and the USA. Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett created the Plan with a concern over city appearance, and a goal of improving living conditions in both urban and suburban areas of Chicago.
Thomas Mawson's Regina plan in 1912 was inspired by the City Beautiful movement and work by Daniel Burnham. While his plan was never fully implemented, it drove much of the planning and design for Wascana Centre.
In 1912, Leaside was planned according to garden suburb principles by landscape architect Frederick Todd, contracted by the Canadian Northern Railway (CNR). Part of CNR's growth plan involved creating planned communities built around new shops. Leaside would be the third of these model towns, following Mount Royal, Quebec and Port Mann, British Columbia. Leaside became the first town in Ontario to be comprehensively planned before construction.
Mont-Royal est une banlieue indépendante de Montréal, conçue par l’architecte paysagiste Frederick Todd. Elle fut construite par le Chemin de fer Canadien du Nord. Todd s’inspira en grande partie des mouvements de cités-jardins, banlieues vertes et City Beautiful. Les principes de conception englobent l’utilisation d’un réseau quadrillé, d’un système de boulevards diagonaux et d’un réseau de rues curvilignes.
Begun in 1913 as a response to the city’s housing crisis, Riverdale Courts (now Bain Apartments Co-operative) was one of two housing projects built by the Toronto Housing Company. The buildings were designed by architect Eden Smith in the Arts & Crafts style. The project was a public-private partnership dedicated to providing comfortable but affordable homes for low-wage earners. It was among the first social housing projects in Canada aimed at improving conditions for the working class.
The Plan of Saskatoon was designed by Christopher J. Yorath. Prior to being appointed as the Commissioner for the City of Saskatoon, Yorath was considered to be thoroughly experienced in municipal engineering, which also involved housing and town planning projects. His ideas for Saskatoon included park space, civic areas, roads, tramways, as well as a “ring road” - a forerunner of today's Circle Drive (The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan, 2006).
Thomas Mawson was an architect, landscape architect, and city planner. He was an advocate for the City Beautiful movement in Canada in the early 20th century. Mawson was invited to the University of Toronto to deliver a series of six public lectures in 1911 on the subject of city planning. Coverage in the local and national press led to commissions for work in Toronto, Halifax, Banff, Vancouver, Victoria, Saskatoon and Regina, including his grandiose City Plan for Calgary. Many of the original colour perspective drawings of the plan have survived, and are now held in the Mawson Collection at the Canadian Architectural Archives at the University of Calgary.
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Thomas Adams was involved in the British Garden City movement and was founding President of the Royal Town Planning Institute. He came to Canada in 1914 to serve the Commission on Conservation. Adams founded the Town Planning Institute of Canada in 1919, which primarily promoted the new discipline of planning.
Bowring Park opened in 1914 as a public recreation area for St. John's on land donated by Bowring Brothers to mark their 100th business anniversary in Newfoundland. Frederick Todd and Rudolf Coshius began the original design and construction in 1912.
In 1915, Edward H. Bennett authored one of the first comprehensive plans in Canada for the cities of Ottawa and Hull. Despite its ambitious, yet practical aesthetic and technical proposals, little of the plan was ever implemented. However, the plan did have some influence, notably on Gréber's plan of 1950.
Horace Llewellyn Seymour worked as a land surveyor and municipal engineer before being seconded to the town-planning section of the Commission of Conservation in 1915, where he served as Thomas Adams' lieutenant for eastern Canada. This was Seymour's formative period as an urban planner, and Adams' ideas influenced him throughout his career. His wide experience included the reconstruction of the area devastated by the halifax explosion and two benchmarks of Canadian planning: the comprehensive plan and zoning scheme for Kitchener-Waterloo (1922-24) and the first plan for Vancouver (1926-29). From 1929 to 1932 Seymour was director of town and rural planning for Alberta.
In 1915, Morell and Nichols proposed a grandiose civic centre for the City of Edmonton. The Minneapolis landscape architects' design was heavily influenced by City Beautiful principles. The objective of the plan was to bring a sense of civic grandeur to indicate to potential investors that the city had a bright future.
The Stanley Park Seawall in Vancouver was begun in 1917 with the goal of staving off erosion. The Seawall took approximately 60 years to complete. Today, it is the park's most popular walking, jogging, biking and rollerblading path and, because of its relatively flat terrain, its 10 kilometre route is for all ages and abilities.
Rural Planning and Development was written by Thomas Adams for the Commission of Conservation and was the first Canadian planning textbook. Adams was the planning advisor to the Commission of Conservation and a driving force in Canadian planning, with this publication showcasing the rural conditions and problems of Canada. At the time of writing this book, Canada was primarily a rural country, with Adams' urban textbook not being completed until 1934.
From the ashes of the catastrophic Halifax Explosion, which shattered the City's North End on 6 December 1917, rose the Hydrostone District, a splendid example of an English-style garden suburb. The neighbourhood is an important achievement by the influential town planner Thomas Adams; it is also Canada's first government-assisted housing project.
Le plan de la ville de Témiscaming fut conçu par Thomas Adams et influencé par les principes de cités-jardins. Il reposait sur des concepts tels que la ceinture de verdure, la séparation des usages conflictuels et l’aménagement de rues épousant le contour du territoire de la ville frontalière.
Thomas Adams' 1919 design for Lindenlea was a Garden Suburb in Ottawa. It was a demonstration project for the federal government's first affordable housing programme, providing modest homes in an attractive setting with a community hall, small parks system, tennis court and playground.
The Town Planning Institute of Canada (TPIC), which was modeled after the British Town Planning Institute, was founded by Thomas Adams in May, 1919 to primarily promote and professionalize the new discipline of planning. The TPIC was eventually renamed as the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) in 1974.
Noulan Cauchon was an engineer, town planner and, at various stages during his career, an architect. He was a founder of the Town Planning Institute of Canada and the Ottawa Town Planning Commission in 1921. He played a significant role in the planning of Canada’s capital city in the early twentieth century. Cauchon was a close ally of Thomas Adams during the 1914‐26 campaign to extend town planning across Canada. Cauchon’s background as a railway engineer influenced his City Scientific approach to planning, which contrasted with the City Beautiful proposals for the capital produced for the federal government. This City Scientific approach became the dominant mode of planning in Canada after 1918. Cauchon produced a comprehensive zoning by‐law and many small‐scale planning schemes for the Ottawa area.
A.E.K. Bunnell managed the Ottawa office of the Federal Plan Commission (FPC) from 1913-15 and worked with Edward Bennett. The FPC ‘s 1915 report was one of the first comprehensive plans for a Canadian metropolitan area. In 1942-43, Bunnell was a member of the Advisory Technical Committee to the Toronto Planning Board preparing a master plan. Bunnell joined the Ontario Department of Planning and Development in 1944 as a consultant and for many years was the Director of the Community Planning Branch, became Director of the Housing Branch, and a consultant to the Department of Municipal Affairs. Bunnell was instrumental in drafting Ontario’s 1946 Planning Act and 1948 Housing Development Act. He was a founder and honorary member of the Community Planning Association of Canada. Bunnell was made a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners in 1973.
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