H8 OTHEGLOBEANDMAIL | FRIDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2019
‘Y
ou see them come in as
little Grade 9s – big eyes
and scared of the world –
and you see them all dressed up at
prom and graduation, ready to
take it on, and from there, their
talent just goes like this,” says
Hastings and Prince Edward Dis-
trict School Board superintend-
ent of education Laina Andrews
as she creates an upward arc with
her hand.
Sitting a few feet away at the
kitchen island, one of those for-
mer big-eyed kids – now a tall, reg-
ular-eyed, married architect with
a second child on the way – cra-
dles a cup of coffee and tries to re-
main humble, even though he’s
obviously proud of the home he
designed for Ms. Andrews in 2016.
The last time Craig Race and the
tanned, athletic, sixtysomething
spent this much time together,
she was his vice-principal at CDCI
West in Cobourg, Ont., and Mr.
Race was an eager – if slightly an-
noying – member of student
council.
“He wasn’t in the office a lot,”
she counters with a laugh. “[But]
they were always trying to get
away with doing crazy things that
I had to really think about before I
said yes or no.”
When Ms. Andrews looked up
Mr. Race 15 years later, he was a ris-
ing star at Toronto firm Sustaina-
ble, and she was searching for
land in the Cobourg/Port Hope
area (about 100 kilometres east of
Toronto) after having a less-than-
satisfactory experience building a
custom home. “I never felt that
the house was together ... there
were things missing and [Mr.
Race’s] eyes looked at it and he
said, ‘Yeah, I see what’s missing.’ ”
Perhaps things were “missing”
because this builder’s home used
architectural technologists rather
than an architect; perhaps it was
because Ms. Andrews isn’t your
average client. She knows exactly
what she wants, and, more impor-
tantly, what she doesn’t. What of-
fends her sensibilities? “Wasted
things” in a design: Why trap all
that air above one’s head in a
complex, McMansion-style roof if
it’s unusable? Why have curly-cue
moulding on a baseboard when “I
just need something to hide
where the floor meets the wall.”
That’s not to say ornament
doesn’t have its place. As a lover
of heritage architecture, today’s
mixing-and-matching drives her
crazy also: “When you’ve got Vic-
torian filigree on an Arts-and-
Crafts home, for example; when
you’ve done this mish-mash Co-
lonial with modern features or
Roman columns or something
like that.”
Strong words such as these re-
quire a strong architect. Thank-
fully, Mr. Race is no shrinking vio-
let; his views on wasted space and
willy-nilly builders so aligned
with hers, the first series of
sketches proposed got the nod of
approval, even though the final
“Meadow House” looks some-
what different.
It all started with the meadow
north of Cobourg, of course, and
where to place the dwelling. With
a neighbour on one side, a tree-
lined country road on the other,
and a vast, flowered and forested
area sporting fiery sunsets on 2^1 ⁄ 2
sides, that was a no-brainer. And
after the team brought in fill
(from the many subdivisions be-
ing built nearby) to raise that por-tion of the lot a few feet, it became
even better.
The first design consisted of a
no-nonsense, double-height box
with long vertical windows. Nice,
but “boring,” says Mr. Race, who
included an alternative that
“twisted” the upper box 90 de-
grees to cantilever it over the
ground floor; while that cantilev-
er was lessened over the next few
months, what was built is still a
striking, yet simple, way to
achieve visual interest while also
providing a sun-shading device.
Since a garage was required,
Mr. Race used it as the “third ele-
ment in the organization of
cubes,” and then created a “quasi-
fourth element,” a sheltered en-
try-point. Exactly two materials
clad everything: Low-mainte-
nance Maibec wood siding andstanding-seam galvanized alumi-
num, which never meet: “We
didn’t want any two boxes that
were touching having the same
cladding,” offers Mr. Race, “so it
goes wood-metal-wood-metal
and improves the composition.”
The inside composition is just
as lovely. A mottled concrete floor- the serendipitous result of tarp-
ing and sand blowing underneath
while curing – lies underfoot in
the generous foyer and extends
into the kitchen, which features
cabinets clad in rich cherry wood
that weren’t so rich when Ms. An-
drews first saw them. When deliv-
ered, she remembers, they looked
blond, and she “almost had a cor-
onary.” She was assured, however,
that the wood would tan natural-
ly: “It was quite incredible, it
keeps darkening,” she enthuses.
A long strip window over the
soapstone-clad sink counter al-
lows her to see who’s coming up
the drive, and three sliding doors
on the long wall drink in views of
the meadow: “Everywhere you
look out has a different feel to it,”
she says.
Up the unfussy, open-tread
stairs – the mid-century-inspired
handrail and pickets were created
by a shop teacher at one of her
schools – and what’s notable in
the two bedrooms are the deep
walk-in closets and generous en-
suites. While both sport repur-
posed mid-century credenzas as
vanities, only the one belonging
to the master enjoys a Juliet bal-
cony.
“Although the house is simple,
it is not short on storage space
and the amenities,” Mr. Race says
of the 1,600-square-foot building.
On the deck outside – which
feels like an “infinity deck” be-
cause of how it floats over a drop
in the landscape – Ms. Andrews
and her daughter watch wild tur-
keys, deer and the many pollina-
tors go about their business. It’s a
view that can make one pensive:
“I think people think that to build
something that’s not a traditional
home costs more,” Ms. Andrews
finishes, thinking about the very
reasonable $300 per square foot
she spent on Meadow House.
“But it’s not about the materials
you use, it’s about how you use
them, and it’s about hiring some-
body who knows how to use
them.
“I’ve spent a lifetime loving ar-
chitecture and loving [the] design
of houses more than most people,
but I’m still not qualified to put
this together.”
Thankfully, one of her former
students took it on, and soared.TheboxesthatmakeupLainaAndrews’shomearecladinMaibecwoodsidingandstanding-seamgalvanizedaluminum.PHOTOS BY ROBERT WATSON PHOTOGRAPHY
Acompositionofcubesinthecountry
ArchitectCraigRace
andhishigh-school
vice-principalsee
eyetoeyeonthe
educator’sdreamhome
DAVE
LeBLANC
ARCHITOURISTCOBOURG,ONT.
Above:Thekitchen’scabinetsaremadeofcherrywood,whichtansnaturallyovertime.Below:Themid-century-inspiredhandrailandpickets
onthestairstothesecondfloorarethecreationofashopteacheratoneoftheschoolsMs.Andrewsoverseesassuperintendentofeducation.| REALESTATE