East Lofts meet the rest
Toronto should be so lucky to have all its condos and lofts designed by Peter Clewes
By Kelvin Browne - National Post
When I realized commuting from Caledon to Toronto was killing me, it became clear that having a downtown condo would be the solution. I didn’t want to give up the country place but a downtown pad was essential if I was going to work in Toronto. But where?
The answer was King Street East. It is Toronto’s most urban neighbourhood, with a cosmopolitan mix of stores, restaurants and people. Unlike a condo in Rosedale or Yorkville (which I couldn’t afford anyway), it’s a real community. Here you can pretend you’re living in New York, sort of.
King East has been my home now for three years. I still like the area, but since the Mozo lofts were built at King and Sherbourne, I’ve been eyeing buildings that are new and filled with light.
The new places offer everything an old retrofitted factory building like mine, a.k.a. an original hard loft, doesn’t have. I covet a swell kitchen with granite counters, trendy sandblasted glass walls and better soundproofing, among other things.
Temptation has moved closer. Now, at the corner of King and Princess streets (near Sherbourne), East Lofts will soon rise. Designed by Mozo’s architect, Peter Clewes of ArchitectsAlliance, it is similar to its modernist predecessor a block away. It is vastly superior to most condos being built today, including the ungainly behemoth that went up across Sherbourne just north of King last year. East Lofts will enhance street life by adding two levels of retail at ground level and 129 suites in the tower above.
In a town where some say there’s a glut of indistinguishable condos, what makes this building stand out? A few years ago you had to have good floor plans and good architecture to sell, but now you also have to have luxe finishes, great bathrooms and the best kitchens. East Lofts does. It’s the next generation of urban living.
Finishes? It may sound trivial, but when you’re living in a small space, details matter: East Lofts has sliding translucent-glass doors to bedrooms, mirrored closet doors that are solid and slide sensuously with the push of a fingertip, gas ranges in the kitchens and even gas hookups on the balconies. According to its brochure, II X IV Design Associates has fused Asian balance and Western flair. PR hyperbole perhaps, but the suites demonstrate an Asian reverence for nuance, particularly in the bathrooms.
The developer, Harhay Construction Management, has a track record of stylish projects such as Abbey Lane Lofts, 32 Stewart and Zen Lofts. It’s likely an advantage that Walter Harhay is both the developer and contractor — after all, developers often have disagreements about costs with their builders, so projects don’t always get built the way developers promise. The result is that condo buyers have to pay to fix things after they’ve moved in. Not here. Owners get what they want and Harhay takes a lot of time to customize. And they’re really good with follow-up.
So that this column doesn’t sound like an unsolicited sales pitch, I should add that I have quibbles. As good as East Lofts looks, it has what has become a ubiquitous style for new apartments. Many buildings in Toronto are reminiscent of Mr. Clewes’ aesthetic. Maybe this is a look that sells to young first-time buyers and/or empty nesters transforming themselves from sluggish suburbanites to ageless downtown hipsters.
To be fair, when it comes to suites, there’s a reason most seem the same — how many ways can you design a 600-square-foot unit? (East Lofts’s units, by the way, range from small to 1,000 square feet or more.)
I observed to a real estate agent that overexposure of this updated modern idiom gets boring. It’s hard to tell one new building from another. That brought a firm rebuke from the real estate agent. “Toronto should be so lucky to have all its condos designed by Clewes or look like his buildings.” That’s true. There are lots of ugly condos being built; let’s not take any attractive ones for granted.
Will I miss the idiosyncrasies of my current slightly decrepit hard loft if I move to East Lofts — the rough brick walls, distressed timber beams and exposed, dangling elevator mechanicals in the atrium lobby? This kind of historic personality clearly matters to some people. But despite the imperfections, lofts fetch a premium in my building.
Should I switch from a small, quirky industrial loft to a large, chic edifice, into a suite with dozens of better and more modern features? I thought it was a no-brainer, but now I’m reconsidering. Maybe I need my home to be different more than I need it to be new and well designed.
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