Balconies at the 1969 Bralmark Court Apartments, in Scarborough, Ontario. Photo by Jesse Jackson, courtesy Ted Kesik
High-rise living in multi-unit residential buildings is, historically speaking, a relatively recent development. Traditional housing typologies?including mid-rise residential buildings in Europe?have benefitted from centuries of incremental improvement, resulting in high levels of liveability. This is particularly true of mid-rises in cities developed before the advent of the automobile, where people are privileged over cars. By contrast, residential high-rises started appearing in Canada only sixty years ago?at the height of the automobile age. With only a few decades to evolve, the typology is still troubled by quality-of-life issues and performance problems. In Spring 1965?as residential towers started to appear quickly and seemed to be permanently changing the country?s urban centres?Canadian Architect published a half-dozen articles both cautious and hopeful for the future of high-rise housing in Canadian cities.
In High Rise Habitat: The Great Controversy (CA, March 1965), urban planner Albert Rose dissected ?the apartment problem? with socioeconomic arguments for and against apartment dwellings. His essay was particularly concerned with the impact of apartment living on family life and social standards. ?The phenomenon of metropolitan growth [?] has produced a whole new society of apartment dwellers in the mid-1960s,? he wrote. ?There are far more hous...