MachaiToto: welcome to UT, and thanks for including 'Peterson' when you quoted the architect: it was enough for me to be able to find this:
Lofts with an eco edge
14.10.2006
Toronto Star
Unique green design includes courtyard garden with pond system to deal with storm-water runoff
Zinc-clad Roncesvalles Lofts will include sheltered areas; providing microclimates for outdoor living
ELLEN MOORHOUSE
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Who would have thought living next to an Esso gas station in the High Park area could hold such promise?
But Mario and Frank Ribeiro, who own a site near Roncesvalles Ave. and operate their business, Triumph Aluminum and Sheet Metal Inc. there, plan a new 37-unit loft project that could prove to be one of the most innovative condos around.
Called Roncesvalles Lofts and priced at about $370 a square foot, it will have some unusual features. A courtyard garden has been designed with a pond system to retain and absorb storm-water runoff. And, uncharacteristically for a cold climate, most residents will reach their front doors along corridors open to the air. Heating elements embedded in the concrete floors will disburse snow and ice.
The brains behind this unabashedly modern design, to be clad in zinc and accented with light green stucco, is David Peterson, a 34-year-old intern architect.
"Part of what I really enjoy is defining the problem, then finding a creative solution that has multiple benefits," says Peterson, who studied architecture at the University of Toronto and in Holland after earning a degree in art and architectural history.
Peterson had no shortage of problems for this particular project, not the least of which is the site on Ritchie Ave., close to where Howard Park and Roncesvalles Aves. intersect.
Originally, the Ribeiro brothers considered townhouses, but "as land values and construction costs increased, it didn't make sense to do it on this plot of land," says Mario, who, at 36, is a veteran of the metal cladding business.
He had worked with Peterson on other projects and liked the way he thinks. "I gave him free rein the way he thought it was best," Ribeiro says, "and he's come up with something really special."
The property is rectangular, with the short side fronting on Ritchie. To the south is a string of nine Edwardian homes.
To the north, on the other side of an often-congested access lane, is a gas station and heating oil business. Next to that is a beer store, and the rest of the pie-shaped block is filled in with a mishmash of car repair garages, a propane station for taxis, a body shop, a window and door company, the annex to a stained glass business and a Jehovah's Witness hall.
Peterson's solution to the challenge was to create a C-shaped building embracing a courtyard.
"It turns its back on its neighbours, which is what this building does with the exception of Ritchie Ave. You know it looks out toward Ritchie, but on the back sides, it's either utilitarian spaces (such as parking and access) or places where you can get diffused light without the view."
The courtyard side is oriented to line up with the backyards of the houses along Ritchie Ave., offering an extension of that green space. Residents in the area will no longer be looking at an industrial block wall from their yards, Peterson says, while loft owners will gain light from the southwest exposure and views of neighbouring gardens.
But the courtyard garden won't just be a nice thing to look at — it has a function. To process the storm water, it will have cisterns and ponds for holding and cleaning runoff, and vegetation in a series of beds to take up the water. Plant species such as pussy willows, which thrive in wet soil, will be planted close to the ponds and hardier species, such as staghorn sumacs and junipers, farther away. A row of quaking aspens along one side will shelter units from the summer sun and provide privacy, as well as take up more water from the cisterns.
In the High Park area, storm water and sewage often flow through the same pipes. By having the courtyard retain storm water, Peterson says, "what the engineer tells me is that the amount of water we send to the sewer will be less than the current industrial property, despite the fact we're building 37 units."
At the same time, Peterson says the system is very simple. The only operating part is a low-tech sump pump feeding the water from the cistern to the ponds.
Because the zoning was industrial, Peterson will be able to take the building of four and five storeys right out to the lot line. That will allow him to put most of the open space in the courtyard.
But he also wasn't permitted to put windows along the property line, so Peterson made a virtue of that necessity.
"I didn't want windows looking out on the lane anyway. One thing we did with the windows on the second storey is turn the window, so it faces into a window well...The material inside reflects the light, so you get diffused light into your bedroom and not the view."
Peterson describes the building as subtractive.
"You start with a solid plate and then you start to carve away from it. What that really does for us is give us spaces that are not really outside, but not really inside, either."
Those spaces include the courtyard, the window wells, balconies, the external access corridors and above-ground parking for bicycles and cars under a cantilevered part of the building (there's also underground parking).
These sheltered areas yield microclimates for outdoor living.
"It's something that's more common in warm climates, but it's actually happening in colder climates like Scandinavia," Peterson says. "They understand, you don't want to spend your whole time indoors in the wintertime. So, often, you have this sort of microclimate — something that allows you to be outdoors."
Heating cables will be embedded in the concrete walkways to melt snow and ice, but in Toronto's weather, they will only be turned on about 10 days a year, so they will use little energy. In fact, the building would consume more energy if it had been designed with interior corridors that require heating or air conditioning year-round.
Peterson wanted the building to connect with its setting, but he wanted the residents' views to focus away from the less-attractive industrial parts of the neighbourhood. He has done that by controlling how people move through the building.
Residents will get to ground floor units by walking through the garden courtyard. Upper-floor units are approached by elevator and along the corridors, open to the sky, with doors to the lofts on one side.
The project started out as four storeys, but that wasn't economic, Mario Ribeiro says. A fifth storey was added to the central part of the building to make the finances work.
"It's tough," says Ribeiro, who has supplied metal cladding for institutional and commercial projects, as well as some condominiums, such as the Phoebe on Queen St. W., and the French Quarter downtown, east of Yonge St.
"I've talked about this project, and most guys say I should put a tower there."
Ribeiro says higher property taxes are one reason they looked at redeveloping the site. "The property taxes you pay, it doesn't make business sense when we can almost operate anywhere."
Although Peterson says the project has been well-received by the neighbourhood, not everyone is enthralled with the prospect of more development and the increasing residential density that new condos will bring to the area.
Lily Korkka, who lives in one of the Ritchie Ave. homes, is already smarting from the impact of the larger High Park Lofts condo project across the street, and is skeptical about just about anything developers promise.
She's planning to launch an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board against Roncesvalles Lofts in a bid to stem the rush of redevelopment. "I don't think that model fits into the neighbourhood," she says.
For Peterson, the project represents innovation.
"This is a kind of building type that's not seen in the city," he explains. "It's not a townhome, it's not a highrise, which isn't appropriate to this area, and in some ways, it's not the type of mid-rise we're used to, either.
"The truth of it is, and the Europeans know this, you can get the densities you want without having to make towers. Towers, I would say, are almost a lazy approach to making housing."
Avi Friedman, an architecture professor at McGill University and tireless advocate for innovative and flexible housing, welcomes brownfield developments such as this live-work project.
He identifies clearly the European influence Peterson is exploring.
"Europeans, primarily the Dutch, are experienced with so many fascinating ideas on how to treat an apartment building, with issues such as microclimates and light," Friedman says.
"The Dutch are really leading in articulating the building box, the architecture, and working with materials, colours and interesting approach to design."
Lofts with an eco edge
14.10.2006
Toronto Star
Unique green design includes courtyard garden with pond system to deal with storm-water runoff
Zinc-clad Roncesvalles Lofts will include sheltered areas; providing microclimates for outdoor living
ELLEN MOORHOUSE
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Who would have thought living next to an Esso gas station in the High Park area could hold such promise?
But Mario and Frank Ribeiro, who own a site near Roncesvalles Ave. and operate their business, Triumph Aluminum and Sheet Metal Inc. there, plan a new 37-unit loft project that could prove to be one of the most innovative condos around.
Called Roncesvalles Lofts and priced at about $370 a square foot, it will have some unusual features. A courtyard garden has been designed with a pond system to retain and absorb storm-water runoff. And, uncharacteristically for a cold climate, most residents will reach their front doors along corridors open to the air. Heating elements embedded in the concrete floors will disburse snow and ice.
The brains behind this unabashedly modern design, to be clad in zinc and accented with light green stucco, is David Peterson, a 34-year-old intern architect.
"Part of what I really enjoy is defining the problem, then finding a creative solution that has multiple benefits," says Peterson, who studied architecture at the University of Toronto and in Holland after earning a degree in art and architectural history.
Peterson had no shortage of problems for this particular project, not the least of which is the site on Ritchie Ave., close to where Howard Park and Roncesvalles Aves. intersect.
Originally, the Ribeiro brothers considered townhouses, but "as land values and construction costs increased, it didn't make sense to do it on this plot of land," says Mario, who, at 36, is a veteran of the metal cladding business.
He had worked with Peterson on other projects and liked the way he thinks. "I gave him free rein the way he thought it was best," Ribeiro says, "and he's come up with something really special."
The property is rectangular, with the short side fronting on Ritchie. To the south is a string of nine Edwardian homes.
To the north, on the other side of an often-congested access lane, is a gas station and heating oil business. Next to that is a beer store, and the rest of the pie-shaped block is filled in with a mishmash of car repair garages, a propane station for taxis, a body shop, a window and door company, the annex to a stained glass business and a Jehovah's Witness hall.
Peterson's solution to the challenge was to create a C-shaped building embracing a courtyard.
"It turns its back on its neighbours, which is what this building does with the exception of Ritchie Ave. You know it looks out toward Ritchie, but on the back sides, it's either utilitarian spaces (such as parking and access) or places where you can get diffused light without the view."
The courtyard side is oriented to line up with the backyards of the houses along Ritchie Ave., offering an extension of that green space. Residents in the area will no longer be looking at an industrial block wall from their yards, Peterson says, while loft owners will gain light from the southwest exposure and views of neighbouring gardens.
But the courtyard garden won't just be a nice thing to look at — it has a function. To process the storm water, it will have cisterns and ponds for holding and cleaning runoff, and vegetation in a series of beds to take up the water. Plant species such as pussy willows, which thrive in wet soil, will be planted close to the ponds and hardier species, such as staghorn sumacs and junipers, farther away. A row of quaking aspens along one side will shelter units from the summer sun and provide privacy, as well as take up more water from the cisterns.
In the High Park area, storm water and sewage often flow through the same pipes. By having the courtyard retain storm water, Peterson says, "what the engineer tells me is that the amount of water we send to the sewer will be less than the current industrial property, despite the fact we're building 37 units."
At the same time, Peterson says the system is very simple. The only operating part is a low-tech sump pump feeding the water from the cistern to the ponds.
Because the zoning was industrial, Peterson will be able to take the building of four and five storeys right out to the lot line. That will allow him to put most of the open space in the courtyard.
But he also wasn't permitted to put windows along the property line, so Peterson made a virtue of that necessity.
"I didn't want windows looking out on the lane anyway. One thing we did with the windows on the second storey is turn the window, so it faces into a window well...The material inside reflects the light, so you get diffused light into your bedroom and not the view."
Peterson describes the building as subtractive.
"You start with a solid plate and then you start to carve away from it. What that really does for us is give us spaces that are not really outside, but not really inside, either."
Those spaces include the courtyard, the window wells, balconies, the external access corridors and above-ground parking for bicycles and cars under a cantilevered part of the building (there's also underground parking).
These sheltered areas yield microclimates for outdoor living.
"It's something that's more common in warm climates, but it's actually happening in colder climates like Scandinavia," Peterson says. "They understand, you don't want to spend your whole time indoors in the wintertime. So, often, you have this sort of microclimate — something that allows you to be outdoors."
Heating cables will be embedded in the concrete walkways to melt snow and ice, but in Toronto's weather, they will only be turned on about 10 days a year, so they will use little energy. In fact, the building would consume more energy if it had been designed with interior corridors that require heating or air conditioning year-round.
Peterson wanted the building to connect with its setting, but he wanted the residents' views to focus away from the less-attractive industrial parts of the neighbourhood. He has done that by controlling how people move through the building.
Residents will get to ground floor units by walking through the garden courtyard. Upper-floor units are approached by elevator and along the corridors, open to the sky, with doors to the lofts on one side.
The project started out as four storeys, but that wasn't economic, Mario Ribeiro says. A fifth storey was added to the central part of the building to make the finances work.
"It's tough," says Ribeiro, who has supplied metal cladding for institutional and commercial projects, as well as some condominiums, such as the Phoebe on Queen St. W., and the French Quarter downtown, east of Yonge St.
"I've talked about this project, and most guys say I should put a tower there."
Ribeiro says higher property taxes are one reason they looked at redeveloping the site. "The property taxes you pay, it doesn't make business sense when we can almost operate anywhere."
Although Peterson says the project has been well-received by the neighbourhood, not everyone is enthralled with the prospect of more development and the increasing residential density that new condos will bring to the area.
Lily Korkka, who lives in one of the Ritchie Ave. homes, is already smarting from the impact of the larger High Park Lofts condo project across the street, and is skeptical about just about anything developers promise.
She's planning to launch an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board against Roncesvalles Lofts in a bid to stem the rush of redevelopment. "I don't think that model fits into the neighbourhood," she says.
For Peterson, the project represents innovation.
"This is a kind of building type that's not seen in the city," he explains. "It's not a townhome, it's not a highrise, which isn't appropriate to this area, and in some ways, it's not the type of mid-rise we're used to, either.
"The truth of it is, and the Europeans know this, you can get the densities you want without having to make towers. Towers, I would say, are almost a lazy approach to making housing."
Avi Friedman, an architecture professor at McGill University and tireless advocate for innovative and flexible housing, welcomes brownfield developments such as this live-work project.
He identifies clearly the European influence Peterson is exploring.
"Europeans, primarily the Dutch, are experienced with so many fascinating ideas on how to treat an apartment building, with issues such as microclimates and light," Friedman says.
"The Dutch are really leading in articulating the building box, the architecture, and working with materials, colours and interesting approach to design."
