It may well be the fastest-growing district in Halton Hills…. At least in the minds of some students at Georgetown District High School. 

Leonardville is a fictional town invented by local teacher Michelle Leonard. She conceived it 20 years ago as a teaching tool to help her grade 11 and 12 architecture students visualize concepts. It exists only on paper and in software, but that hasn’t stopped her students from electing her mayor, with an accompanying mug that says as much.

Leonard says she was “trying to engage with the kids and bring this classroom up to the state-of-the-art technology” when she got the idea.

When she brought in some site plans one day, the students began crowding around, looking them over and asking questions.

And so Leonardville went from idea to reality. 

The town has greatly simplified the task of building the mental infrastructure of future architects. Some of Leonard’s students have gone on to become not just architects, but urban planners, home stagers, electricians, artists, graphics designers real estate agents and interior decorators, just to name a few.  

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