E. P. Connors House - Classic Prairie Style in the heart of Westboro

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If you read this blog regularly, you'll know that I love to find examples of architectural styles in the Westboro neighbourhood of Ottawa, particularly Modern and Prairie style architecture.

Once in a while I find a real gem in the 'hood that deserves its own post. In this case, it's E. P. Connors house at 166 Huron Ave.

This house, designed in 1915 by Francis Conroy Sullivan, is a classic example of the modernist Prairie school of architecture in Canada. Sullivan was strongly influenced by the Prairie school and worked for several years with Frank Lloyd Wright, the best known architect of the prairie school movement.

Sullivan, who once worked for the federal Department of Public Works, was a prominent architect in Ottawa from about 1907 to 1917. In addition to frequently designing schools for the Ottawa Catholic School Board, he designed several buildings of national historical significance, including the Banff National Park Pavillion and the the Horticulture building at Landsdown Park in Ottawa.

Although strongly influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright, Sullivan's style was different in several important ways: For example, whereas horizontals predominate in Wright's creations, Sullivan used strong verticals to create tension in his designs.

It's interesting to see how architects working in Ottawa today are influenced by Sullivan's and Wright's work. Barry Hobin, for example, at least to my eye, seems to be a disciple of the prairie school and often seems to incorporate strong vertical elements reminiscent of Sullivan's work into his designs. Just take a look at some of Hobin's designs in the pictures below.

(If your interested, you can see more pictures of the interior of these homes at the Modern Ottawa blog and on Helen McCallum's website.)

Barry Hobin also designed the houses at the the old Olgivie estate in Westboro, which were built by Uniform Urban Developments. Again, notice the influence of the Prairie school.

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Is Ottawa seeing a resurgance of the Prairie school movement. I think so. Arts & Crafts is still very popular, but there is no doubt that there is a shift happening.

Traditional style wins out

After much back-and-forth, we decided to go with the more traditional looking house. The contemporary design was nice, and we loved the porch that Linda designed, but in the end I think I'm a sucker for the strong horizontal lines produced by the prairie style. I also didn't care too much for the windows in the contemporary design. I felt they were too plain, even though they were very characteristic of the Modern style. In addition, the hipped roof of our house does not really lend itself to the modern look.

In terms of deciding factors, cost was not one of them, as both styles cost about the same. Similarly, fitting in with the neighbourhood was not really an issue, because all around we can find examples of Arts and Crafts, Modern, Mid-century Modern and Victory houses.

Another consideration that was raised, which we had not thought about, was that our house might end up looking too squat in the modern style. If you look at all the examples of modern houses in my previous post, they are all tall; they have a lot of presence on the street. Our house would lack that height (at least in the front) making it potentially look squat from the street.

So, with that sorted out, its onto the next step, designing the kitchen and starting to find a builder.


Examples of Craftsman and Modern style homes in the neighbourhood

The Wright Stuff

One of the styles of architecture that we like, and which we think our new house lends itself to, is the Prairie style. This style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, solid construction, craftsmanship, and discipline in the use of ornament. One of the most celebrated architects associated with this style is Frank Lloyd Wright, and Robie House, the house he designed in 1910 for the Robie family in Chicago, is often considered to be the greatest example of this work.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocean_of_stars/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

In designing this house, and others like it, Wright emphasized an open plan for the interior. He took the kitchen, sewing rooms and reading rooms, which were typically the domain of women in the house and hidden away at the rear of the house behind closed doors, and integrated them into the family space. The focus in the interior of the house is on the function of the family. Form then followed function. From this idea came today's open concept houses with the kitchen at the heart of the home.

Unfortunately, Wright's ideas had not been widely embraced in 1950s Ottawa, and as a result, the kitchen in our bungalow is securely ensconced at the rear of the house, through a door and down a passageway, thereby ensuring that whoever is working in the kitchen is separated from the rest of the family.

From the outset, we emphasized Wright's principles of interior design to our architect. Everyone knows that if you have a party, everyone ends up in the kitchen, so the kitchen must be at the heart of our renovated bungalow. You can see from our architects plans that she has done that, placing the new kitchen right smack in the middle of the house with excellent sight lines to all of the public spaces in the house.

On the exterior, I like Wright's emphasis on strong horizontal lines and the use of natural materials like wood and stone. As I mentioned, we already have a hipped roof with no gables, so the house already lends itself to the Prairie style. I also like Wright's idea of concealing the front door so that it cannot be easily seen when looking at the front of the house. This gives a sense of privacy and security, which is important when the interior plan is so open.

We have not yet seen our architects concept drawings for the front or sides of the house, but she knows our influences, so I am looking forward to seeing what she comes up with. In fact, today our architect, Linda Chapman, was featured in an article about the Prairie style in the Ottawa Citizen. The house shown below, which she designed, is showcased in the article. With its deep roof overhang, natural stone exterior and square columns, the house pays homage to Frank Lloyd Wright.

Interestingly, today's Citizen also ran a story about how major subdivision developers are starting to pick up on the Prairie style. Urbandale, for example, is marketing its new Horizon Collection of townhomes to be built in Kanata. Urbandale says that they are modeled on Wright's timeless classic, Robie House, although I would say its a fairly conservative take on Wright's house. Still, Urbandale says they have not revamped the exteriors of their townhouses since the '80s, and it was time for a new, fresh look. I find it interesting that they went with Prairie style. I am wondering if this will be the next trendy style in Ottawa as people start to feel that Modern is overdone? We'll see. Maybe we will be trend-setters with our house.

Five more examples of Modern Architecture in Ottawa

If you read my previous post on 10 examples of Modern Architecture in Hintonburg and Westboro, or the latest edition of Ottawa Magazine, you will know that the Modern style is seeing a resurgence in new residential infill developments in Ottawa.

In this post, I provide five more examples of Modern Architecture, mostly from in and around the Glebe, including two houses that show that this style has been around for a long time.

First is this house at 716 Golden Avenue, near Westboro. Built in 1975, the entire house is clad in brick, rather than the corrugated galvanized steel seen on so many Modern houses built today. If your interested, this house is currently up for sale by the original owner for a cool $1.1 million. For a short time, at least until it sells, you can check out the real estate brochure to see pictures of the inside.

Now over to the Glebe.

Freen House at 5 Clemow Avenue is not only one of the best examples of Modern Architecture in the city, it is also testament to the fact the despite its name, Modern Architecture dates back to the first half of the 1900s. Originally built in 1958 in the Modern style, architect John Donkin went to work on it in 2006 re-cladding the exterior and adding tons of new windows to vastly improve the connection to the outside. He also gutted the 2200 square foot interior to create what the owners describe as fluid spaces that are open to interpretation. Below you can see pictures from both before and after the renovation. The total budget for this renovation in 2006 was $435,000 - under $200 per square foot. If you would like to see more pictures of the inside of Freen House or read about this project read Capitalizing on the basics on the Canadian Architect website, or visit John Donkin's website.

Further south in the Glebe, there are a number of newer houses in the Modern style. Close to Freen House are these newly built semi-detached houses 171 First Avenue.

This house at 135 Glen Avenue was built in 2009.

And here is another at 341 Sunnyside Avenue.

I have updated my map of the locations of these Modern style houses in Ottawa. It's a bit too far on foot to visit all these houses in one day, but it might make for a great Sunday afternoon bike tour once summer arrives.

10 examples of Modern Architecture in Ottawa

Recently, Ottawa Magazine did a spread on the recent rise of Modern Architecture in Ottawa. Not that this is a new style. It got its start in the early 1900's, but it appears to be seeing a bit of a revival in the residential sector in Ottawa.

Ottawa Magazine's spread focused on houses in Hintonburg, a once rough-and-tumble neighbourhood now referred to by the chattering classes as "Ottawa's arts neighbourhood." I suppose that's because it's close to the fashionable Westboro neighbourhood, but, until recently, has been relatively cheap, which makes it a good launch point for struggling artists. With land prices in Westboro going through the roof though, land in Hintonburg is quickly being snapped up by potential home owners who want a great house in central Ottawa without spending a fortune on land.

Because Hintonburg is a well established neighbourhood, any new houses are infill projects, and a number of them have adopting a notably modern look, such as this row of townhouses at 1133-1139 Gladstone Avenue designed in 2002 by Urban Keios:

or this house at 41 Grant Street Designed in 2008 by James Colizza, which is actually two semi-detached homes placed back-to-back:

and this house designed by Phil Castro being built on an impossibly narrow 12 foot wide lot on Armstrong Street. Despite being only 12 feet wide, Castro has managed to squeeze 1700 square feet into this Hintonburg home that was recently featured in the Ottawa Citizen.

This house at 98 Stirling Avenue designed by John Donkin has been featured in several publications. Its rusting iron front wall matches the colour of the surrounding brick houses but, together with its galvanized steel second story, has a Modernist feel.

However, Hintonburg is not the only place that the Modernism is making steady inroads. Throughout Westboro, the style is prominent, with a number of exisiting and under-construction infill projects adopting the style.

For example, this house on Beechgrove Avenue:

This one being built on Ferndale Avenue:

and this pair of semi-detached houses being built at 224 Royal Avenue:

And this very attractive house on Duchess Avenue that was built a number of years ago

[UPDATE] Next door to this house on Duchess, Jason Flynn has designed another lovely modern house, which will meet Gold LEED standards, to be built by September 2010.

In Champlain Park area, these three houses were built on a large lot on Keyworth Avenue this year.

And just down the street, this house on Keyworth Avenue has incorporated elements of Modernism with more traditional elements.

If you have nothing to do on a sunny afternoon and fancy taking a walking tour of these houses, simply print this map to show you the way.


[UPDATE: In a newer post, I give five more examples of Modern style houses, including one originally built in 1958]