Architecture: Tinkering to Tailor an Annex Mansion

Originally published in the Globe and Mail. Read the full text here.

A renovation that is more revisionist than slavishly devotional

To renovate or to knock down and rebuild? It's a question that some Torontonians– those who can afford to both buy property and do something with it – are lucky enough to ask. Conventional wisdom says that renovating is at least cheaper than building from scratch, but that doesn't always hold. Modification comes with its own expensive challenges. Rip open the walls, and who knows what you'll find? Lead? Asbestos? Bizarre pipe configurations around which it is difficult to build?

And then there's the aesthetic question. How do you combine old and new in a way that doesn't seem forced? One option is to embrace juxtaposition: add modernist boxes to gabled houses, set sleek glass against weathered brick. Another is to somehow integrate contemporary elements into a single, unified whole. To do that, a designer must think like a theatre director who's mounting an old play for a contemporary audience.

"You have to know the traditional language in order to work with it," Toronto architect Paul Raff says. "Then, if you are going to change something, you do so with confidence and good reason." You hook into what a work once was and imagine what it could be.

For a recent project, a two-year renovation of an Edwardian mansion in Toronto's Annex, Mr. Raff took the integration approach and pulled it off beautifully. Mr. Raff acknowledges that he and the clients – a design-savvy couple, with three kids – considered pulling the building down. But to do so would disturb the character of the Annex, a heritage neighbourhood with its own style: a Queen Anne/Richardsonian Romanesque mash-up that you don't see anywhere else. Plus, Mr. Raff saw things he liked in the building: not just accents – crown mouldings, stained glass – but also a roomy, Edwardian sense of proportion. The staircase, for instance, has generous landings, the kind on which you can install furniture.

Renovating means knowing when to restore and when to reconstruct. Mr. Raffchemically treated the Jatoba wood floors to bring out their nut-brown colour. He also commissioned stained-glass windows and outfitted the stairs with new risers and sculpted balusters. The goal wasn't to imitate every fusty Edwardian flourish but rather to streamline the aesthetic. For example, the exterior columns on the third-storey dormer were fluted and spun. "There was too much visual information," Mr. Raff says. "It was like a wedding cake where the decorator has gone nuts with the icing." He remade the structure with tidy, unadorned pilasters.

Renovating also means taking stock of how people once lived and how they live today. The original entrance of the house had a cramped foyer, its double doors a modest defence against winter draftiness. But contemporary building science has made such precautions obsolete. Mr. Raff resealed and insulated the walls, enabling him to open the foyer to the rest of the home. On the second floor, he created his-and-hers offices: a man cave with wraparound walnut panels on the east side and a sunny west-facing room in what used to be a covered balcony. Both clients work in downtown, consulting-related fields. They need quality work spaces more than they need overhangs in which to drink gin.

This is an excerpt. Read the full text here.