A PLAN FOR DON MILLS: DESIGN AND THE CREATION OF THE CANADIAN CORPOUTE SUBURB A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Guelph by VALERIO RYNNIRlERI In partial filfilment of requirernents for the degree of Master of Arts Apnl, 1997 Q Valerio Rynnirneri, 1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 ,,,da du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie SeMces seMces bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Weilington OttawaON K1AW Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in rnicroform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/fïlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fkom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT A PLAN FOR DON MILLS: DESIGN AND THE CREATION OF THE CANADIAN CORPORATE SUBURB Valerio Rymimen Advisor: University of Guelph, 1997 Professor G. A. Stelter This thesis is an investigation of Don Mills. the new town built outside the City of - i oronto in 1953. Don Mills became thc cornprehensive mode1 for the next three decades for resolving conflicting issues in the Toronto region; issues such as building rnetropolitan infrastructures protection, and ensuring the availability, quality. and affordability of housing. The new town's success in 1954 lay in the unlikely resolution. through its design, of conflicting purposes; the business goals of Argus Corporation, and the ideals and policies of academe and governrnent. Persona1 relations between Don Mills' protagonists, and the evolution of a practical trust between the business and design. allowed those differences to be overcome. Macklin Hancock, who was interviewed for this thesis, was a student at Harvard's Graduate School of Design in 1950 and emerged. with his family connections to Karl Fraser. as the figure best suited to design the new town. Acknowledgernents This thesis has taken some time to complete and the thanks that are due are not only for help and suppon, but also for patience. I would like to thank Dr. Gilbert Stelter, my advisor, who has had both in abundance during the course of turning an architect into a histoncal researcher and writer. The University of Guelph's History Department must especially be thanked for their patience in encouraging me to continue in this endeavor. One person is key to the research itself. Macklin Hancock generously gave of his time and enthusiasm during the course of my interview with him. In subsequent phone calls he was always able to assist me. This thesis could not have taken the form it did without his willingness to share his memory of the founding of the community he designed. James Murray, the architect of many of Don Mills homes and buildings. like Hancock. was open to being interviewed for this work. Hopefully. an extended history of Don Mills to follow this research will use more of Murray's interview since it deals in detaiI with the building of the new town. Much of the research for this thesis has taken place in public archives. In particulm. the staffs of the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Libraries (both Central and Urban Development), and the City of North York's Corporate Archives have been very helphil. In the case of the North York archive, they were in the process of packing and moving their collection, but were still able to locate al1 of the materials that 1 needed. and find me the office space to review the matenal. The people closest to me. who's lives I have disrupted, must be thanked. Robert Jan van Pelt, colleague, house mate and fiend, gave good advice at key moments in the writing. A historian. he was curious to see how a designer told another designer's story. My mother and brother also gave me the moral support that they always have, and forgave my periodic absences from extended family life. Finally. it's clear to me that without the patience and support of my wife. Jane. (and her occasional prodding) that 1 would still be in the research part of this work. She was an incisive critic when my effort. and the quality of the work itself. fell short of what she though that I was capable of. Table of Contents A ckno wledgernents i List of Plates iii Introduction: Business Builds a City house + home design + history design + power: a thesis statement sources + precedents Chapter One: The Art of the Suburbs page 2 1 Borderlands and Planned Communities --') 7 The Process of Decentraiization 34 Nowhere to Live 42 The Marriage of Town and Country 48 Towards New Towns for America (and Kitimat) 52 Chapter Two: This is a Good Place for a City puge 60 Taylor Was An OId Hand At That 61 Maybe Gmdgingly 63 Wrentham Estates 65 Everything Grows 66 0 Money and Power 70 The Harvard Way 74 1 Went To Work That Summer 78 Assernbling the Land 91 0 Al1 These Things Came Very Quickly 95 Progressing Favourably 98 Chapter Three: The Don Mills Landscape page IO5 Very Serious Difficulties III Success 117 The First Town of Its Kind for North Arnenca 132 Why Couldn't You Do It in Canada ? 130 0 Just a Diversion 134 Good Business 140 Conclusion: A Metropolis in Miniature page 145 The Full Spectnim of Economic Life 149 Still Close to the Line 154 Bibliography page 160 Plates 1-30 afier page 168 List of Plates Plate 1 Photograph of the developen. Plate 2 The plan of Don Mills. 1954. Plate 3 Two plans of Don Mills' Toronto region context. Plate 4 London, England's 18th century squares. A detail of Grosvenor Square. PIate 5 Regent's Park: plan and views. Plate 6 Blaise Hamlet: plan and views. Plate 7 Plans of Llewellyn Park and Rosedale. Plate 8 View of Rosedale. Rosedale's location in Toronto. Plate 9 Plans of Lawrence Park and the Humber Valley surveys. Plate 10 Plan of Leaside. View of Levittown. Plate 11 Diagrarn of Ebenezer Howard's Garden City. A picture of Howard. Plate 12 Two of Ebenezer Howard's diagrarns for the Garden City. Plate 13 A plan and view of Letchworth. Plate 14 Letchwonh: land use plan and plan detail. Plate 15 Parker and Unwin housing: plans and views. Plate 16 Clarence Stein: the Radburn plan and the neighborhood concept. Plate 17 A Radbum auto court: plan and view. PIate 18 Views of Clarence Stein projects: Radbum and Chatham Village. Plate 19 Plans of Kitimat. British Columbia and Harlow new town. England. Plate 20 Karl Fraser and the Don Mills model. Plate 21 The plan of a Don Mills' quadrant (north-west area). Plate 22 Views of Don Mills housing from phase one. Plate 23 The plan and a sketch view from the Don Mills Shopping Centre. Plate 24 Views of the Don Mills Shopping Centre. Plate 25 Views of Don Mills' factories and office buildings. Plate 26 The site plan of the proposed Don Valley Parkway. Plate 27 Views of the proposed Don Valley Parkway. Plate 28 The Parkway's effect on cornmuting times to Toronto. Plate 29 An aerial view of Don Mills: the north West quadrant. Plate 30 An aerial view of Don Mills: the south West quadrant. Introduction Business Builds a City Nestled between the two forks of the Don RiverJhe new town of Don Mills is a planners dream coming tnie. In minimizing the risks of an investment that may eventually total $200 million, its industrialist-developers aim at a healthier balance of industry, housing and commerce than any US. or Canadian planned community has achieved so far. Article in house + home magazine. July 1954' A picture in the July 1954 issue of house + home magazine, at the head of an article describing a new tom about to be built in the outskirts of Toronto, showed a group of three men attentively watching a fourth one.(Plate l) Arthur Weinstock was signing ont0 what was described as a "plamer's drearn coming truc."' Weinstock was the first of seventeen house builders to buy land in the new town of Don Mills. The suburban community, planned on farmland north-east of the city, was proudly described in its publicity as "the first town of its kind in North America". Leaning across Wienstock's right. Karl Fraser, the chief executive assistant to hancier Edward Plunkett (E.P.) Taylor, was holding the contract out to Weinstock. Fraser was smiling wanly, but with some satisfaction. As the man Taylor had put in charge of charge of Don Mills Developments Limited, the Company created to build Don Mills. Fraser was at the end of the long and cornplex business venture which was only at that moment coming into its first hition. Behind Weinstock and standing at Fraser's left, James Harris was smiling broadly. He was only thirty-four years of age. and a former industnal analyst for the Canadian National Railways. Industnal expansion and land development had been Taylor's first idea for the Don Mills site in 1947 at the begiming of his land assembly. At the moment of Weinstock's signing, however, industry's role in the new town had been combined with the full range of the land uses found in any modem Ontario town.