Located in Torontoʼs Bloor West Village neighbourhood the Hewitt Avenue House was conceived as an urban home that places a bold emphasis on natural materials, sustainable design and contemporary living. The home was constructed on the site of an existing home typical of Torontoʼs older neighborhoods and just steps from Bloor Street. While renovation was considered, rebuilding was the most cost effective way to achieve the project goals to create free flowing open plan spaces with natural day lighting, ventilation and a high performance envelope.
The Integral House creates a place for architecture, music, and performance located at the threshold between Toronto’s urban fabric and its extensive natural ravine system. In the project’s program brief, our client clearly articulated his dual passion for mathematics and music and his interest in curvilinear shapes resulting in spatially complex volumes.
Software used: The design was developed though hand drafting and physical model building techniques. The working drawings for construction were further developed using AutoCAD, along with some additional hand drafting. Some of the custom hardware pieces – such as the door handles and glass clips for the blue glass stair were developed using Rhinoceros NURBS modeling. The design process was iterative – typically it would start with a hand sketch, or a physical model, which would then be further developed using AutoCAD, and / or Rhino, depending on the item.
PLANT’s work on this existing live/work structure in downtown Toronto involved a 2,000 square-foot interior renovation and a new cladding concept for the exterior facades. This concept creates a more inviting entrance that serves to distinguish the office entrance from the residential entrance. Using a new palette of materials, the light-coloured building skin, metal window accents, and cedar cladding lighten the overall massing of the building’s upper portion. In contrast, warmer, tactile materials were used at the entry points off the street.
Established as a showcase for seductive, sophisticated furniture, AVENUE ROAD, designed by Yabu Pushelberg, is one of Canada’s premier venues for classic and contemporary furniture designs. The Toronto-based company offers a wide range of furniture, lighting and textiles from around the world, by legendary designers such as France’s Christophe Delcourt and British designer Eileen Grey.
Now under construction in the heart of downtown Toronto, The L Tower, is the evolution of 21st century living. An iconic landmark, the residential tower rises 58 storeys and is home to 600 units providing stunning views over downtown Toronto and Ontario. It is on the southwest corner of Yonge St. and The Esplanade and shoots up into the sky like a beacon, with bold clean lines and a dramatic streamlined L shape.
Article source: PLANT Architect, Perkins Will Canada, HSLA and ABUP
Project update – December 22, 2011 – The Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization Podium Green Roof Garden has won two more Awards!!
Green Roofs For Healthy Cities 2011 Award of Excellence
DX Silver Award
The Podium Green Roof Garden is the first transformation in the competition-winning scheme “Agora Theatre” – the Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization. This three-acre upper-level component of Viljo Revell’s 1965 iconic City Hall and multi-level public square was originally conceived as a ceremonial public space, reached via a giant sculptural ramp. The space was never successful at attracting the public – it was a grim, empty, three acres of concrete that has been closed to the public for well over a decade. The Podium Green Roof Garden re-conceives this upper level as a vast public park integrated with the existing elevated walkway system, and while respecting the complex’s heritage status, reopening it to the public as a truly engaging 21st Century space. The project reconsiders how an extensive green roof providing a plethora of technical environmental benefits can be an exciting and successful public space that merits repeated, habitual visits. It is the largest publicly accessible green roof in Canada and the flagship green roof project for the City of Toronto that since 2009 mandates green roofs on all new buildings. By creating a vital community space that fulfils this environmental imperative, it promotes a broader concept of stewardship linking people to their environment.
Night View (Images Courtesy Steven Evans and Chris Pommer)
Architect:PLANT Architect, Perkins Will Canada, HSLA and ABUP
Name of Project: NPS Podium Roof Garden
Location: Toronto, Canada
General Contractor: Flynn Canada / Gardens in the Sky
The Creemore Farm is a renovation and extension to a turn of the century farmhouse north of Toronto near Creemore, Ontario. The project involved the removal of an existing addition and the creation of an entirely new, two-storey tower form built on, and cantilevering off of the existing foundations.
Image Courtesy Matthew Hartney/PLANT, Peter Legris
Camp Arowhon is a family-run summer camp in Algonquin Park now run by its third generation director. The owners purchased a 250 m2 two-story storefront building on Eglinton Avenue West to create a visual presence in the community, facilitate administration, and create a place which fosters a post-camp alumni community. The owners’ goal was to present a building that felt like “a piece of Algonquin Park in the city” evoking the character of camp, while wanting to avoid the typical camp imagery overused by spas and clothing retailers. The character was established instead through the use and detailing of materials: using harvested raw and rough hewn wood from the park, and detailing it with a more polished, but simple elegance found in camp buildings.
Five out of six is the key formula to the brightness and openness in this house. In a city where severe weather conditions created houses with small openings, and many residents with SADs, the residents in this house will experience daylight to its fullest level in both winter and summer days. 5/6 House is an attempt to save on light bulbs!
The Royal Ontario Museum project set out to renovate ten new galleries in the existing historical building and creating an extension to the museum, now called the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. This new extension provides innovative new architecture and the creation of a grand public attraction with 100,000 sq. ft. of new exhibition space. Situated at one of the most prominent intersections in downtown Toronto, the Museum has become a dynamic center for the city. SDL is working on this project with Vanbots Construction. The Extension opened in June 2007.
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