This concept proposal was created during a visioning process established to explore master plan alternatives for a new residential and mixed-use community. Envisioned by the developer as an exciting new growth opportunity for the coastal town of Port Elgin it would potentially accommodate roughly 1,200 residential units and 85,000 sq ft of mixed commercial and recreational uses. A 30 acre artificial lake is carved out of the 250 acre site. The sketch illustrations capture the artistic and architectural ambiance of a new neighbourhood created with early twentieth century City Beautiful principles at work. The central feature of the plan is the artificial lake which is shaped to create several arms each with distinctive characteristics. Each arm functions as either a canal, lake, harbour or riverfront. By stretching out the perimeter of the lake in this way the effective length of water's edge is increased and the opportunities for civic and public access to this amenity is increased. Further, the plan employs streets and promenades that front onto the water's edge, bringing the boundary between water and land with all of its architectural potential into the civic realm. As a result, such features as campaniles, pavilions, bridges, seawalls, and promenades having been artistically arranged to create aesthetic vistas, figure prominently in the design. As well, a clearly defined urban core is established which becomes less dense as one moves away from its center in a way similar to that of a New Urbanist Transect. There are many complex forces that shape an urban environment, both natural and human in origin but it is the urban space and form as illustrated here that can have the power to inspire.