H6 HOMEOFTHEWEEK O THEGLOBEANDMAIL| FRIDAY,MARCH13,2020
THEBACKSTORY
The view from the front room of 281 Brun-
swick Ave. makes a strong argument for
floor-to-ceiling glass in all homes: It posi-
tively embraces the leafy Annex street and
when the garden is in full bloom it’s like
viewing a massive terrarium.
Lightfloodsinfromthecurtainwallthat
runs the width of the house’s street-facing
wall (and turns a corner with no bracket,
giving the glass an L-shape). “We never
really close these blinds until the heart of
the summer. I just think it looks lovely,”
homeowner Gail Misra said.
Some might feel pressure to keep the
space as showroom perfect as it is now and
notrevealtogawkersaglimpseoftheusual
clutteroflife,dirtyplates,junkonthefloor,
unopenedmail.“That’snotmylife,itnever
happens ... it almost always looks like
this,” she said with a laugh.
You might not be able to tell from the
modernist glass and sharp angles seen
from the street, but inside this house still
beatstheheartofamorethan100-year-old
worker’s cottage. The front of the house is
an addition designed by Gary McLuskie of
Diamond + Schmitt Architects and fin-
ished in 2010. It features two large living
rooms (the one above with 15-foot ceilings
and more glass) and a bridge to the old
house.
“[Gary] doesn’t usually do houses; he
does opera houses,” said Ms. Misra, a law-
yer,arbitratorandmediator,aswellasafor-
mer vice-chair of the Ontario Labour Rela-
tions Board. Indeed, Mr. McLuskie was a
key partner in the design of the Four Sea-
sons Centre for the Performing Arts on
Queen Street, the home of the National
Ballet of Canada and another modernist
block with dark exterior, tonnes of glass
and blond wood in the interior. There’s a
grandeur to what really is a smallish space:
1,675 square feet with two bedrooms and
two bathrooms.
There’s no “front” door here; the walk-
waythatzigsandzagsaroundtopiarytakes
visitorstowhatherhusband,MarkRowlin-
son, calls a side “entrance plaza” that’s not
visible from the street and serves as a tran-
sitional space between old house and new
addition. There’s a rain-chain (a more
attractive option than gutter downspouts)
that runs from the upper level through the
entrance plaza into drainage below: In
winter, the dripping water often turns into
an ice sculpture.It’s not just their humble cottage that
has changed over the decades, the neigh-
bourhood, too, has evolved along with the
city.“Thereusedtobemoreprofessorsand
other people teaching at the University [of
Toronto] and many more houses renting.
Student housing ... that is a totally dimin-
ishing and disappearing group,” Ms. Misra
said.
“It has less of a student feel largely be-
cause the Brunswick House used to be on
the corner [six doors north] ... it’s now a
Rexall,” said Mr. Rowlinson, also a lawyer
and assistant to the vice-president of the
UnitedSteelworkersofCanada.The“Brun-
ny” on Bloor Street, once a infamously
cheap beer hall in business for more than
140 years, closed in 2016. “That made the
neighbourhood somewhat quieter,” he
said.
“Not somewhat, it’s unbelievable now,”
Ms.Misrasaid.“Wewouldfindtheoddbot-
tleofvodkastashedinthehedge,someone
wanting to come in and pee somewhere
along here. But that is such a thing of the
past now.”THEHOUSETODAYFrom the entrance plaza, a right turn takes
youtotheaforementionedglass-walledliv-
ingroom,aleftturntakesyouintoadining
room that once marked the borders of the
old house. Through here is a hallway to the
kitchen with doors for powder room, pan-
try, storage and basement access.Inthekitchen,awallofdarkcabinetson
the right house the stacked wall-mounted
ovenandmicrowaveandfridge.Ontheleft
is a run of Caesarstone countertop with
dark lower cabinets and lighter uppers
framing the window above the sink. The
gas range at the end of this counter run sits
next to the door to the backyard deck (and
lanewayparking).Hereinthebackitopens
up again slightly for a breakfast nook and
the stairs heading upstairs (above is a re-
stored tin ceiling, original to the house but
painted white now).
Upstairs at the back of the house is the
masterbedroom,afull-wallwindowonthe
back with low skylights on the left bring in
moreandmorelight,andtheceilingvaults
upward on a steep angle that ends on the
opposing wall with an asymmetric 15-foot
peak. The room is open to the stairwell, al-
lowing light to flow through the hallway.
Through a short hall with closets on
both sides is the master bath, a three-piece
with no tub but a glassed-in shower stall,
with skylight and window. Just outside is a
small six-foot-by-six-foot office space with
the laundry hidden behind in a closet.
Travelling forward to the front of the
house is that bridge that sits above the en-
trance plaza. Here, the space in the house
compresses, narrowing even as more glass
brings in more light, and then as you move
towhatisnowthestudy(butcouldbeasec-
ond bedroom) it releases into a 15-foot-tall
room with another L-shaped corner glass
panel and another floor-to-ceiling window
facing the street. This time there’s more
wall than glass, providing for quiet corners
andsomeprivacy(plusalotofshelvingfor
books). Closing it off from the rest of the
house is a gigantic barn-style sliding door
on a rail.THEBESTFEATUREThese two rooms above and below, de-
signed by Mr. McLuskie, serve the needs of
the homeowners in different ways. Mark
can watch sports upstairs in a light-filled
library; Gail can read downstairs while in
communion with the neighbourhood
street life. Not only are these rooms emi-
nently livable and architecturally clever,
butbecausetheywerebuiltforwardfroma
deeply set-back house, even the modernist
shape,withitsgrey-louvre-likesidingexte-
rior on the front, doesn’t brashly impose
itself on the streetscape.
“I was at a fall fair of the Harbord Village
Residents Association, and I saw they had
this board up with a picture of our house,”
Ms. Misra said. The woman at the booth
told her it was there as a positive example
of how the largely Victorian neighbour-
hood–famouslythehomeofpreservation-
ist and livable city guru Jane Jacobs – can
adapt to modern forms. “This is from peo-
ple who really feel quite strongly about
maintainingneighbourhoodcharacter,soI
felt so much better about that. We didn’t
ruffle feathers.”Thishouseat281BrunswickAve.inTorontowasgivenamodernist,glass-filledadditionbyGaryMcLuskieofDiamond+SchmittArchitects.Ratherthanhaveatraditionalfrontdoor,
thehousefeaturesaside‘entranceplaza’notvisiblefromthestreet,whichhelpsdelineatethenewerfronthalffromthemore-than-century-oldback.PHOTOSBYMODERNMOVEMENT
Asliceof
modernist
grandeur
AmidanenclaveofVictorianhomesinTorontostands
anewlymodifiedhousethatdoesn’t‘rufflefeathers’
SHANEDINGMAN
REALESTATEREPORTER
TORONTO
281 BrunswickAve.
TORONTO
AskingPrice:$1,795,000
Taxes:$7,218.94(2019)
LotSize:17feetby119feet
Agents:PaulMaranger,ChristianVermast
withSotheby’sInternationalRealty