PUTTING A ROOF OVER OUR HEADS
The return of Canadian soldiers from Europe after the Second World War brought huge demand for family homes in Ottawa. Housing standards were relaxed to meet this demand, and neighbourhoods quickly sprang up. But when regulations tightened again, many smaller developers left the market. But here’s a small sampler of some of the powerhouses who have shaped the city.
ROBERT CAMPEAU
Originally from Chelmsford, Ont., Robert Campeau arrived in the capital in the 1950s, and soon realized that the housing market was growing rapidly for families like his own. He immersed himself in the real estate market. Starting in Kanata, Campeau would go on to build 25,000 houses across Ottawa, homes to thousands of families today.
Schools, churches and community centres quickly rose around Campeau’s homes. “It wasn’t just houses, he thought of the whole neighbourhood,” says Janine Debanne, associate professor and director at the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism at Carleton University. He had a vision for his real estate development and did what it took to achieve it.
From Kanata’s suburban neighbourhood, Campeau Corp. started looking to more ambitious projects. In the 1960s, Robert Campeau announced his plan for the ambitious Place de Ville complex. Then came the NCC’s plans for Place du Portage and Les Terraces de la Chaudière; he became the major contractor for both.
Robert Campeau died in 2017 at age 93.
BILL TERON
William Teron began his career as an architectural designer in 1955 and later founded the Teron group. He travelled the world to explore best practices for housing development.
“Teron was always one for innovative ideas,” says Bruce S. Elliott, a professor specializing in local and community history at Carleton University. Teron announced his Kanata new town in 1964.
Teron conceived the entire town as a garden city and built the first phases of residential, industrial and community facilities. The main features of the neighbourhood were tightly controlled – such as the colours you could paint your doors, or the prohibition on outdoor clotheslines. “There’s an old saying that ‘People in Kanata had to fold their snow,’ ” says Elliott.
Teron clustered his houses and divided the clusters by green spaces and pedestrian paths, so children would not have to walk alongside roads to get to school. “He built the idealized lifestyles for families at that time,” says Debanne. “The houses weren’t isolated entities, they were part of a package coming from his neighbourhood vision.”
Teron also built hotels, office buildings and housing projects in Canada, the United States and Europe.
THE SHENKMANS
The Shenkman family was active in real estate development in the early 1900s, with Wolf Shenkman. As one generation of the family took over from another, the Shenkman Corporation grew.
Wolf Shenkman kept his projects alive even during the Great Depression. Most of his earlier real estate projects were apartment buildings.
Harold Shenkman joined his father in the business in the 1930s and worked until the early 1990s, when he retired.
He was one of the most successful developers in Ottawa, helping develop most of Kanata, Gloucester City Centre, Brookmill Estates and more.
Harold Shenkman also branched out into commercial and industrial properties and built the first shopping centre in Ottawa in 1955, Westgate Shopping Centre, an important symbol of growth in the city.
Since William “Bill” Shenkman took over his grandfather and his father’s business, developments projects have changed, but the operation of the family business stays the same.
One of Bill Shenkman’s most recent projects involved bringing a Canadian Football League team back to Ottawa, which he did as a partner with the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG). Reclaiming football turned into a $250-million partnership between OSEG and the City of Ottawa to restore the Frank Clair Stadium and revitalize Lansdowne Park.