Uptown East: Proposal for the Redevelopment of Manor Park Ottawa

This thesis examines challenges and opportunities associated with the intensification of established suburban neighbourhoods, questioning how the forces acting on them might be leveraged to create higher-performing communities without compromising the existing social or architectural character. Drawing on a of review of literature and an analysis of precedents, the design portion of this thesis uses Ottawa’s Manor Park neighbourhood as a hypothetical case study to explore how intensification might enrich suburban areas. Among other things, the demonstration plan for Manor Park illustrates how Clarence Perry’s neighbourhood unit diagram continues to be relevant. Implicit in this unit, which was the basic module for many suburban communities, is a roadmap for accommodating environmentally sustainable intensification without threatening existing neighbourhood character or cohesion. While the approaches explored in the demonstration plan are specific to Manor Park, they can be easily adapted to similar suburban neighbourhoods across North America.