Sitting at the edge of a secluded park in midtown Toronto, House on the Park entailed a full renovation of the original Edwardian home, including meticulous restorations to some of its most distinguished features, as well as the addition of a new wing and penthouse storey to enhance daily life for a busy family of six.

Connected to the historical structure through a glazed link, the addition on the east side complements and respectfully contrasts the materials and palette of the original house. The new façade, which consists of fibre cement and aluminum panels, glass, and contemporary brick, forges a graceful conversation with the preserved stone-and-brick exterior. 

The interiors were designed to meet the family’s everyday needs: cooking, eating, gathering, reading, daydreaming. The eat-in kitchen opens toward the landscape and a south-facing sunroom that is illuminated by generous glazing and an ocular skylight. Framed by custom-designed bronze screens and white steel columns with marble inlays — an homage to the older home’s more formal architectural elements — the sunroom provides a unique perspective from which to appreciate the layering of distinct areas: the kitchen, dining room, living room, and library all communicate with one another even as they unfold discretely across the ground floor. 

Every inch of the interiors was either meticulously restored, such as the original Zodiac ceiling above the living room, or reconceived: the sequencing of spaces on the main level honours the original floor plan while two new sculptural staircases, custom-built using wood and steel, reimagine the former stairwell structures to admit more light and create statement moments within the home. 

A soaring deep blue spiral staircase unfurls like a wave, connecting all floors, from the completely renovated basement to the penthouse suite, which adds a modest storey to the house and new vantage point from which to contemplate city vistas to the south. While the stair’s organic undulations play off the elegant curves of the preserved Edwardian-era architecture, its shape and colour converse with the swirling blue brushstrokes in the mural that adorns the dining room walls across the hall. Commissioned by our clients as well as our interiors collaborators at Pencil Design, the painting by artist Tisha Myles offers a whimsical counterpoint to the more formal dining area, conveying the project’s abiding commitment to design that evokes playful elegance. 

Rising above a new herringbone oak floor (a nod to the earlier design) and mirroring the curved linen-clad walls of the atrium space, the sweeping feature stair — a contemporary reinterpretation of the grand central staircase — is enveloped by a statuesque white steel ribbon that torques to create a new second-storey lookover, which itself appears to emerge from the textured walls. A constellation of glass pendants hover like celestial objects above the naturally lit double-height space — a source of otherworldly illumination that reaffirms the room’s splendour.

Images: Doublespace