Snout Houses

[memph]

Originally Posted by Doady

These houses actually probably 20-30 years old now. 50 year old neighbourhoods like Milliken and Mississauga Valleys aren't so great either. Just looking at residential streets, I think newer neighbourhoods like Cornell and Uptown Core do look better.

Milliken is more like 40 years old though. This aerial was taken in 1983 and shows construction wrapping up in the street you linked on streetview.



I would say that 1970s-1980s represent an important transition period for Toronto suburbia. During this period, female workforce participation rates increased dramatically, which meant most households required at least two cars.

You also saw Toronto starting to run into some growth limits.

During the 40s-50s the widespread adoption of the automobile greatly increased the amount of land that was accessible to commuters, faster than the population could grow, resulting in rather low density development. However, by the 70s-80s, most of that newly accessible land had been built up and construction of new highways slowed, so you once again had development pressure to reduce lot sizes to build more houses on the smaller amount of remaining land within a reasonable commuting distance. Related to this, you also began to see much more suburban office parks being built.

Average house sizes for new ground oriented dwellings have also been increasing steadily since WWII.

Due to trying to fit bigger homes with garages that can fit more cars on smaller lots, development pressures created a transition from single storey homes being the norm in the 60s to 2 storey homes being the norm in the 80s. And because the lots had to be quite narrow and accommodate 2 car garages, this often took the form of a snout house, whereas in the 50-60s something like this would have been more typical.
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7252...7i16384!8i8192

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by llamaorama

It’s nice to pull into a garage with stuff in your car on a wet day, shut the door behind you, and go inside.

The suburban Toronto-area house I lived in was built during a time that code did not allow doors between the interior of the house and the garage. You either walked out the garage door and up the front path to the front door, or out the back door of the garage and over a few feet to get to the side door of the house. Through that side door was the mud room/laundry room.

[Doady]

Originally Posted by memph

Milliken is more like 40 years old though. This aerial was taken in 1983 and shows construction wrapping up in the street you linked on streetview.



I would say that 1970s-1980s represent an important transition period for Toronto suburbia. During this period, female workforce participation rates increased dramatically, which meant most households required at least two cars.

You also saw Toronto starting to run into some growth limits.

During the 40s-50s the widespread adoption of the automobile greatly increased the amount of land that was accessible to commuters, faster than the population could grow, resulting in rather low density development. However, by the 70s-80s, most of that newly accessible land had been built up and construction of new highways slowed, so you once again had development pressure to reduce lot sizes to build more houses on the smaller amount of remaining land within a reasonable commuting distance. Related to this, you also began to see much more suburban office parks being built.

Average house sizes for new ground oriented dwellings have also been increasing steadily since WWII.

Due to trying to fit bigger homes with garages that can fit more cars on smaller lots, development pressures created a transition from single storey homes being the norm in the 60s to 2 storey homes being the norm in the 80s. And because the lots had to be quite narrow and accommodate 2 car garages, this often took the form of a snout house, whereas in the 50-60s something like this would have been more typical.
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7252...7i16384!8i8192

One thing that might have changed new neighbourhoods in the 70s was rent control. With less high density zones, fewer new apartment buildings, the houses became more packed together, subdivisions more homogenized.

Look at a place like Brampton, almost pure low-rise, almost all houses and no apartments. Very rapid growth without much variation, and so without much thought, throughout 80s, 90s, 00s. That's why I don't like how easily people often dismiss more recent efforts of suburbs to be even a little bit thoughtful, to be even a little bit ambitious, to be even a little bit different, to pay even a little bit of attention to the aesthetics of the street, to achieve even a little bit of character and identity in new subdivisions or build new suburban downtowns. But then again, there are also people who ask why try at all to increase the vibrancy or reduce parking lots in historic downtowns even a little bit also, which I just find mind-boggling.

Personally, I think any small effort to improve our urban environments is worth it, and reducing the prominence of garages in the streetscape is just one example.

[kcexpress69]

Not the prettiest of houses, but I suppose if I found one at decent price, I might get one??

[Obadno]

It seems to me that newer suburban house design has improved drastically and the "Snout House" look is going away

I think it came from a Boomer/Xr value of practicality, I think in general they put less focus on the look and presentation of their house and were more concerned about backyards and enough room for their cars and stuff.

The rebirth of concern of aesthetics is nice.