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National Post

Homes: Old house, new tricks

This midtown renovation by Barbora Vokac Taylor of BVT Architect was completely transformed inside and out. But the success of the project, built by Derek Nicholson Inc., lies in the way Vokac Taylor and her team preserved its relaxed, welcoming family feeling. The result is a home that works as well for its current occupants as it did for the first family that lived here. Article content Article content Article content The clients, who have two school-age children, 'loved the neighbourhood and the house, but it had a few problems,' recalls Vokac Taylor. Being able to accommodate a close-knit extended family that visits regularly was high on the list of needs. Her clients also wanted a better connection to the outdoors; like many early-twentieth-century Toronto houses, the original was a warren of rooms and corridors that cut off natural light. 'It was a wonderful house,' she says, but it didn't suit the way her clients live. Article content The house is on one of the busier streets in the neighbourhood, so a means of adding privacy without making it a fortress was in order. A sequence of stepped poured-concrete paths and low and mid-sized planters culminate in a 90-degree turn to a stoop leading up to the front door, which is set in a shallow recess, a modern incarnation of a sheltered porch. Panels lining the recess contain the first of several small surprises. Made of a weathering steel designed to oxidize naturally over time to a rich patina, the panels are perforated, creating light patterns that evoke dappled sunlight through leaves. Article content Article content For the front facade, classic elements like a two-storey bay window, top-floor shed dormer and recessed front porch were retained but updated. The bay window is now a single, squared-off glass-and-steel volume spans both storeys unbroken. Article content Inside, the foyer, brightened by light from a large window next to the door, maintains the original placement of the staircase to the left, with a built-in bench for removing boots (now fully modernized and finished with an elegant marble plinth). To the right, the former living room is now the dining room. It's a move that makes sense for a modern family accustomed to welcoming hordes of family for dinner: the gap in a partition separating it from the foyer allows diners to see who's coming in, and those who've just arrived to see who's already there. Article content 'There are rituals about the way we live that are still relevant,' says Vokac Taylor. 'We like a sense of spaciousness, but divisions within the spaces of a house give us a sense of intimacy or scale.' Article content Article content The original living room fireplace remains, now tucked within a cool, blackened-steel panel. Above, plain-sawn walnut cabinets add both warmth and storage; a solid verde antico marble slab creates a bench for seating or an additional surface. On the partition side, a banquette runs the full length of the wall right across the opening, pulling this side of the room together nicely.