HERITAGE OTTAWA

Alain Miguelez, city planner and amateur historian, has written a book about the 1950 master plan that transformed Ottawa. Richly illustrated with 1930s period photographs depicting local streets, the book captures Ottawa at a moment in time before the massive changes of World War II and the postwar years.

Entitled Transforming Ottawa: Canada's Capital in the Eyes of Jacques Gréber, the book was inspired by rediscovery at the National Archives of a large collection of photographs commissioned by Jacques Gréber. Gréber was a Parisian landscape architect and urban designer hired by Prime Minister Mackenzie King to prepare a master plan to transform Ottawa from an industrial town into an attractive modern capital. The plan became known as the Gréber Plan and was adopted in 1950.

The yet to be published book will feature over 300 photographs found in the National Archives collection.

To assist with publication costs, Miguelez has mounted a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to raise funds toward publication of the book.

For more information, click here to visit the project on the Indiegogo website.