phil helwig's blogspot: May 2012

The text below includes notes for an arhictect friend living in India.

Forest Road is somewhat special for the diversity and ages of the houses and the varied institutional setting. A the top end (beginning) of the street are a few grand old houses that would have escaped the great fire of July1892 which destroyed 80% of the city. In the early 1900's this was a prime location for the City's elite and several of the oldest houses are quite grand.

1. Quidi Vidi Village

Prime Minister Monroe lived on Forest Road. His house (photo #15) which is now used as a bed-and-breakfast inn. However, further along the street beyond Her Majesty's Penitentiary and the Anglican Cemetery housing development occurred later (I guess) 1920's to 1960's for some professionals but mostly for ordinary folks. In recent years a few of the old houses have been torn down and replaced by apartments and latterly condominiums.

2. Quidi Vidi Village on piles

Some of the old houses have been so extensively renovated as to have changed their character completely, but only one 2 or 3 fall into this category. You will notice that all the houses are of wooden construction, except Hampton Terrance Condo where I live which is of concrete and brick construction. Even the heritage house, built in 1843 (photo # 14) with its Grecian columns is all in wood. In other cities in Canada you will see many houses constructed in brick or concrete. The virtue of wooden construction is the ability to choose any colour one fancies to beautify one's home, as a result the wonderful variety of colours of homes is a particular and pleasing feature of our City.

3. Country house with mother in law door

As the level of pollution is low and coal no longer used in factories or for domestic heating there is nothing to besmirch the beauty of our streetscapes. The down side of wooden houses is the risk of fire. Occasionally there are house fires when lives are lost, most recently a boarding house fire in which Salvadorean immigrant and distant relative of one of my friends died. The cause was arson and the perpetrator has been convicted and is awaiting sentencing.

4. Forest Road bungalows

Housing construction in Canada in constrained by the climate. Heating of homes is expensive so houses are almost always built in compact-cubic or rectangular shapes to reduce exposure and minimize heating costs. In the old days houses were heated by multiple fire places or for poorer families relied mainly on the kitchen stove for heating. Today most city houses have central heating either in the original design (hot-water radiators), electric heating elements in each room or hot-air heating. Now-a-days a further constraint to architechtural imagination is the cost of labour. This is most manifest in commercial and public buildings where you will rarely see any artistic embellishment.

5. Forest Road typical bungalow

For such buildings layouts tend to be simple and variety is mainly achieved by choice of building materials often glass or ceramics in various colours for the exteriors. The only other institutional building in the Miller Hospital Centre it was probably built in the 1960's before use of glass or ceramic sidings became popular. It is a very plain and uninteresting building.

6. Forest Road, a grand home

On the question of heating one of the benefits of living in a condominium and located half way up is that I have only one exposed wall. Luckily it faces south and on sunny days captures the heat from the sun's rays. I set my thermostat at 15 deg C year round and only turn it up on very cold days. Essentially, my neighbours on four sides donate heat. I also receive heat from the stairwell. Thanks guys! I pay a uniform monthy rate of $60/mo. Private homes, especially older ones may pay up to $450/mo!!