We all have our guilty pleasures! Mine is sleuthing through images of multi-million-dollar penthouses I might buy in Toronto when I make it big.
I love Toronto. It’s not only hip, cool, and exciting, but you’re automatically granted global status if you can add one of its sky-high palaces to your housing collection. Today I’m featuring one of the penthouses in the One St. Thomas Condominium, where rapper Drake used to live before he moved into his Multimillion-Dollar Mansion By Ferris Rafauli In Toronto, which we featured here last month.
One of the four St. Thomas penthouse interiors was designed by the firm Taylor Hannah Architects, which is run by the University of Toronto alumni, Dee Dee Taylor Eustace. This penthouse is remarkable for its consistent design motif and is unique for its location in one of the few Robert A.M. Stern residential towers in Canada.
Photo courtesy of Robert A.M. Stern Architects.
Although they often go unnoticed, successful architects can manipulate the smallest of details that aren’t as visible to the naked eye as the Miesian megastructures that have made the movement of Modern Architecture so popular. Check out chapter five of this recently published Canadian Modern Architecture book, written by George Baird, the former dean of the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape & Design.
One Miesian megastructure that you could enjoy viewing from this penthouse is the Toronto-Dominion Centre in Toronto – should you have a couple of million dollars for the downpayment.
Photo courtesy of Taylor Hannah Architect.
Architect Dee Dee Taylor Eustace deploys a theme of framing throughout all 6,000-square-feet of this unit. Although this is visible on almost every surface, if you take a closer look, you’ll start to see how the theme makes its way into the minor details.
Take a look at the floor, for example. You’ll notice that the stone borders that include the camaru wood floors create a ‘reveal’ where the stone border meets the wall.
If you continue analyzing the space, you’ll see in the photo below that the same onyx stone makes its way up to certain doorframes where it connects to customized white cornices by a metal inlay with a chrome finish which frames and subtly highlights the ceiling.
Moreover, notice how the abstract expressionist paintings by Painters 11 – a prominent, Canadian group of artists from the 1950s – complements the navy blue velvet dining chairs and yet accentuates the warmth in the French crotch mahogany doors.
Photo courtesy of Peter Sellars.
Dee Dee’s framing method is consistently deployed around the penthouse and even makes its way onto the patio furniture where you could be sipping on your morning coffee, enjoying the view of the Royal Ontario Museum designed by Daniel Libeskind and Canadian architect, Frank Gehry.
Photo courtesy of Peter Sellars
The flower pots on the patio are lined with polished metal borders, evocative of the metal inlays found just beneath the cornices on the interior. The chrome finish creates a mirror effect, and we all know how mirrors make spaces feel bigger and reflect light, which effectively enhances the experience of any space, especially this foyer in the photograph below which includes its own private elevator.
Photo courtesy of Peter Sellars.
Dee Dee does not leave any detail untouched, including the polished nickel hardware on the mahogany doors, as seen in the photograph below. Can you spot the framing motif in this photograph? (Hint: It’s where you would store your cosmetics!)
Photo courtesy of Taylor Hannah Architect.
Repetition and consistency are two of the most important languages in architectural design. As one of my architectural technology professors at Carleton University says, “…the consistent reinforcement of one or two main ideas throughout a space is key to a dynamic and successful piece of architecture…“, and that is what we see here in this project by Dee Dee Taylor Eustace.
So, next time you’re at a loss of words to describe Toronto’s ROM museum on Bloor Street, remember that the details are what make the whole.
To learn more about the firm’s work, visit Taylor Hannah Architect.
Interested in reading more about penthouses around Canada? Check out these articles on canadianrealestatehousingandhome.ca:
Drake’s Multimillion-Dollar Mansion
Inside The $15M Shangri-La Vancouver Penthouse
A Sky-High Penthouse In The Four Seasons Toronto For $36,000,000
If you’re infinitely interested in skyscrapers and megastructures like the Toronto-Dominion Centre, a famous read is Rem Koolhaas’ Delirious New York. The illustrations in this book communicate how holy the public perceived such megastructures to be and will surely catapult you into the 1960s every time you pass by the TD Centre.
Researched and written by Christina Ghafari, HBA in Architecture from the University of Toronto’s John H Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, and M.Arch at Carleton University, Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism.
