Art House: inside a monument to modern minimalism

A former architect turned high-flying money manager builds a monument to modern minimalism By Victoria Webster

(Images: Michael Graydon)

“Does anyone actually live here?” is the question most guests ask Shanitha Kachan and Gerald Sheff when they first walk through the door of this Rosedale contemporary. The couple has lived here for a decade; it’s the glass walls, impressive art collection and absence of clutter that make the Bruce Kuwabara–designed space feel like an art museum.

Sheff, co-founder of Gluskin Sheff, the high-end investment firm, trained as an architect and had always fantasized about designing and building what he calls an “architecturally significant” home. By the late ’80s, Sheff was divorced and living alone in a bungalow—Kachan describes it as an “oversized bachelor pad”—on a choice ravine lot. When the house next door came up for sale in 1990, he bought the property, creating a half-acre for his long-time dream project.

Kachan first met Sheff more than 25 years ago, when she worked in corporate sales at William Ashley. “He was the difficult client who always sent samples back—precise and fussy,” she says. In 1995, while Sheff was still drawing up plans for the house, he was reintroduced to Kachan at a cocktail party. He noticed she was no longer wearing a wedding band and promptly asked her out. Kachan, a professional saleswoman, says it was Sheff making the pitch this time. She calls him “swift,” he calls her “stubborn,” and within a year and a half, they were moving in together and integrating their family of six kids. (Now she’s glad she helped select his Coleport bone china dinnerware years ago—they still use it today.) The house took a little longer to come together: Sheff and Kachan worked with Kuwabara’s team for four years to fine-tune every room and feature.

The giant photographs in the living room are “Fantasia for Four Hands” by Rodney Graham, from the Donald Young Gallery in Chicago.

Sheff and Kachan found this birch Alvar Aalto furniture at Wright auction house in Chicago.

They sourced this Eero Saarinen table through Knoll.

The mantel holds Scandinavian pottery and glass from the 1940s to 1970s, which the couple collects.

The paint and aluminum Michael Snow piece on the back wall is part of his Walking Woman series, from Equinox Gallery in Vancouver.

The credenza is by Charlotte Perriand, a French designer who introduced the machine age aesthetic to home furnishings in the 1930s.

The red glassware and shelving is an installation by the artist Josiah McElheny, who was inspired by the work of Charlotte Perriand and the glass designs of Carlo Scarpa. The couple bought the piece at the Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York.

The leather Cassina Cab chairs are from Italinteriors.

Bruce Kuwabara’s firm, KPMB, designed the dining table. Sheff, Kachan and Kuwabara logged many hours perfecting the design: they set the table and positioned it in different lights. Recently, they trimmed both sides after deciding it was three inches too wide.

The white-on-white 12-panel piece, “Twelve Months in the Life of the Artist,” is by the Vancouver artist Myfanwy MacLeod, also from Catriona Jeffries Gallery.

“Intersection NYC” is a photo laminate on canvas by Ian Wallace, from his urban intersection series, purchased from Catriona Jeffries Gallery in Vancouver.

The brown slipcovered chairs are by Antonio Citterio. Kachan and Sheff bought them from Kiosk and originally had them in their Muskoka boathouse.

Kachan bought this red wooden bowl to hold chapatis during an Indian-themed dinner party.

The orange throw—wool with leather trim—is from Le Caprice de Marie-Claude, which is no longer in business.

The metal and lacquer Cassina side table was purchased at Italinteriors more than 20 years ago.

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