Initial Master Plans

		1950 photo shows reduced agricultural activity as land then held more for speculation than for farming purposes.
		NAPL: A12714-17

On January 7, 1953, the Board of Governors executive was informed that the Chairman, J.E. Coyne had decided that Carleton needed a new site, that the site would be located on, and adjacent to, the original "Rideau Campus", that it would comprise more than 50 hectares, and that work would start in the near future. Acquisition of the outstanding properties was completed five days later.

The following month the College president, M.M. MacOdrum reported that the "College architect" had been invited to submit a master plan for development for the next twenty-five or fifty years (Carleton senate minutes 4 February 1953). At the next Board of Governors executive meeting it was decided that the architectural firm of Abra, Balharrie & Shore would be retained to "provide advice and assistance in the preliminaries to the development of the site" (19 February 1953).

The architect prepared two conceptual planning schemes for site development in April. There is no evidence to indicate if the Board of Governors or other college officials reviewed those initial site proposals, or conceptual master plans.

The initial master planning schemes for a campus at this site, cited here as the Balharrie plans (1953), seem to have been prepared to accommodate about 1000 full-time students, with 100 living in residence. Space was provided for an auditorium with stage and scene shops, a library, a cafeteria with kitchen facilities, dormitories, lecture rooms, offices and laboratory spaces. Both conceptual schemes located the site half on the plateau now occupied by Paterson Hall and the Alumni Theatre, and half on a line from the south end of the Tory Building to the south end of the MacOdrum Library.