DON MILLS
Don Mills was planned as a model town that would humanize urban life in an age of industry and the automobile. Initiated and financed by businessman E.P. Taylor and designed by Macklin Hancock, a young urban planner, it was built between 1952 and 1965 on 835 ha of land between the west and east Don River valleys. Hancock's planning team envisioned a self-contained community distinguished by consistent design principles and modernist style. Industry, commerce and major roads were arranged to be accessible but insulated from residential areas. Greenspaces preserved natural watercourses and provided pedestrian routes between different neighbourhoods. An immediate critical and commercial success, Don Mills has been imitated in suburban developments across Canada.
From: Wikipedia
Don Mills
Mills is a residential neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada, and claims to be the first "new town" planned and fully integrated post-war community developed by private enterprise in North America, and the blueprint for post-war suburban development in Toronto and contemporary residential neighbourhoods. It is part of federal and provincial electoral district Don Valley West, and Toronto electoral wards 25: Don Valley West (North) and 26: Don Valley West (South).
Early history
The Don Mills area was first settled by Europeans in 1817. The area was a considerable distance from the town of York, but the Don River provided a easy means of transportation, and also a source of power for a number of mills along its length. While the city of Toronto steadily expanded, the Don Mills area remained rural until after the Second World War. It was cut off from the city by ravines to the south, east, and west. Only two roads connected to the area York Mills Road and Don Mills Road. In 1950 the area consisted of about 20 farms.
Don Mills project
This combination of emptiness and proximity to the city attracted the attention of industrialist E.P. Taylor. His original plan was to erect a brewery on the site, along with a small community to house the workers. Taylor had limited previous experience in the property development business, but had built a project named the Wrentham Estates in York Mills. Seeing the profit to be made with such projects, Taylor abandoned the brewery idea and decided to simply build a new town on the 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) he had acquired.
In 1951 he began planning the Don Mills community, and it was announced on March 11, 1953, by its financial backer, businessman E.P. Taylor. and built on about 8.35 square kilometres (2,100 acres) of farmland centred at the intersection of Don Mills Road and Lawrence Avenue East. Development was headed by the Taylor-owned Don Mills Development Company with an expected cost of $200 million.
Design principles
The design of Don Mills was influenced by Ebenezer Howard's Garden City, and by the principles of two American town planners, Clarence Stein and Henry Wright, who developed the garden city community of Radburn, New Jersey. Design of the project was entrusted to Macklin Hancock, the son-in-law of Taylor's executive assistant. Still in his mid-20s Hancock had been studying at Harvard when approached for the job. At Harvard Hancock had studied under a number of the founders of modernism and new town planning including Walter Gropius, William Holford, and Hideo Sasaki. These studies lead Hancock to envision a self-contained community distinguished by consistent design principles and a modernist style. Several names were proposed for the new development, including Eptown after Taylor. It was called Yorktown at its initial unveiling, but the name Don Mills was finally adopted at the suggestion of Hancock.
The design was based on five planning principles, which had not been implemented in Canada before:
- The neighbourhood principle – which broke down the community into four neighbourhood quadrants, all surrounding a regional shopping centre, Don Mills Centre, at the southwest corner of Don Mills and Lawrence. Each quadrant was to contain a school, a church, and a park.
- Separation of pedestrian and vehicle traffic – which was accomplished through the creation of a network of pedestrian paths providing easy access through parks to area schools and the town centre, while roads were designed to slow vehicular traffic through the use of winding roads, T-intersections, and cul-de-sacs.
- Promotion of modernist architecture and the modern aesthetic – Don Mills Development controlled the architectural design, colours, and materials of all buildings in Don Mills. As well, the corporation insisted that builders use company-approved architects who had been educated according to Bauhaus principles, to prevent the project from deteriorating into a typical post-war subdivision of builder's homes.
- Creation of a greenbelt – linked to a system of neighbourhood parks that would preserve the beauty of the surrounding ravines.
- Integration of industry into the community – which followed Howard's ideals for the Garden City. Planners felt that it was important for residents to live and work in the same satellite town so that Don Mills would not become a bedroom community. A sizeable number of high residential densities—rental townhouses and low-rise apartments—was essential if the town were to attract a cross-section of residents working in local industries.