Bookend – West Queen West
This project involved a dramatic renovation to an existing ‘worker’s cottage’ in downtown Toronto. The client wanted to expand and renovate their existing home with a thoroughly modern interior. This new modern home was to be set into an original town house from the early 20th century.
Given that the house was the last house of a series of town homes that almost filled the whole block, the design also sought to have the house gracfeully turn the corner, welcome in light from all angles and form a visually interesting ‘bookend’ to the block. It is a home that optimistically looks to the future of downtown urban living while respecting the past forms and history of the City.
The design for the project involved a few ‘simple’ moves. The first move was the creation of a new grey brick rear addition that contains a new ground floor kitchen, guest bedroom and upper living space for the primary suite. This brick volume is offset from the existing house with a vertical aluminum and glass reveal that contains a ground floor breakfast area and dramatic two-storey spaces.
The second move was creation of a wood clad volume ‘dropped’ into the existing brick house that would contain a new second floor washroom, laundry room, home office/bedroom, and on the upper floor the new primary bedroom and en-suite bath.
The third move was to retain the existing brick house exterior, and entirely refit the interior to provide a beautiful entertaining and relaxing space on the ground floor, and a secondary basement suite with it’s own kitchen and entrance.
Lastly, to to top it all off (literally and figuratively) the new wood volume and brick addition support a roof top deck designed to house a small garden and hot tub for entertaining and relaxing – all while enjoying dramatic downtown skyline views.
