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All stories relating to design

The Informer

Gimme Shelter

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Condomonium: $1 million for a spacious, Art Deco–inspired penthouse in the Madison Avenue Lofts

ADDRESS: 380 Macpherson Avenue, Penthouse 614

NEIGHBOURHOOD: Casa Loma

AGENT: Robert Greenberg and Andre Kutyan, Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd.

PRICE: $1,069,000

THE PLACE: A penthouse in the Madison Avenue Lofts, a six-storey structure that combines elements of industrial and Art Deco design. The building stored wire bundles for Toronto Hydro in a previous life, and though converted lofts often fall short on amenities, this building is stocked with an exercise facility, a sauna, a theatre and a meeting room.

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The Goods

Design Scout

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Our six favourite pieces from Come Up to My Room 2012 (including one we had to get on our hands and knees to see)

Walking from space to space at the Gladstone’s annual Come Up to My Room event (where the hotel surrenders its accommodations to be reimagined by a clutch of designers) is a bit like taking an absurd, down-the-rabbit-hole-type journey though the minds of several artsy archetypes. There’s the minimalist, who works with little more than white Styrofoam and LED lights; the maximalist, whose room is so packed with hundreds of abstract, laser-cut feathers it’s pretty well impossible to enter; the Parkdale hipster, whose half-shorn hair and acid-wash jeggings are more interesting than the art itself; and the conceptualist, whose work is likely very, very deep but will be likely be lost on everyone without a PhD in philosophy. That said, the show, which is on until this Sunday, is exuberantly creative, spectacularly strange, and well worth a visit. Our six favourite pieces after the jump.

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The Informer

From the Print Edition

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Where to Buy Now: Corktown, because the historic neighbourhood has lofty ambitions

Where to Buy Now | Corktown

What used to be a don’t-walk-here-at-night zone is being reinvented by builders like Streetcar Developments and Brad Lamb into a booming mid-rise condo ’hood. By the end of 2010, 68 per cent of the real estate sales in Corktown were condos. These include plenty of lofts: the Queen City Vinegar Co. Lofts (shown above); the four-building Corktown District Lofts (shown below); and Trinity Lofts, an eight-storey, curvy construction that bridges the gap between the Distillery and King Street and gives good space for the buck ($550 per square foot). With nine-foot-high exposed concrete ceilings, the Trinity units appeal to designers who work in the area’s studios or professionals looking for a 20-minute walk to Bay Street.

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The Goods

From the Print Edition

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Where to Get Good Stuff Cheap 2012: how to decorate your home for less

Where to Get Good Stuff Cheap | Home

Edison bulbs
Eclectic Revival
3075 Dundas St. W., 416-766-5500
When LEDs and compact fluorescents became the norm, decor radicals opted for replica Edison bulbs—the low-tech lighting equivalent of a turntable. The bulb’s distinct amber glow is produced by fragile carbon filaments; it’s a warmer, softer light than the tungsten coil on an incandescent emits. They’re becoming easier to find—Restoration Hardware carries them now—but the city’s cheapest source remains the vintage lighting store Eclectic Revival. $15 each.

Check out our 17-item home guide to living the good life for less »

The Informer

Gimme Shelter

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Year in Review 2011: the best houses, condos and cottages of the week

Let’s face it: taking a peek through a stranger’s home gives us all a voyeuristic thrill. But aside from when a place goes up for sale, it’s pretty well impossible to get inside without breaking windows (and the law—an open house with a realtor is one thing; gaining access with a crowbar is completely another). That’s why we take such delight in scouring the city every week to find the most opulent, outrageous and storied church conversions, summer getaways and stately mansions on the market. Here, our 10 favorite houses, condos and cottages of the week from 2011 (with a yurt thrown in for good measure).

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The Informer

Gimme Shelter

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Condomonium: $2 million for a roomy apartment in Thornhill’s amenity-rich Avignon

ADDRESS: 7071 Bayview Avenue, unit 508

NEIGHBOURHOOD: Thornhill

AGENT: Jerry Hammond, RE/MAX Ultimate Realty Inc.

PRICE: $1,990,000

THE PLACE: A two-bedroom-plus-den condo in Thornhill’s Avignon on Bayview. The low-rise, boutique-style development is home to 81 suites, and amenities include an indoor pool, sauna and boardroom (in case you really, really want to take your work home with you—or annoy your downtown colleagues by making them drive to Thornhill). The interior is designed by Tas DesignBuild, the firm behind King West developments M5V and Zed Condominiums.

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The Informer

Gimme Shelter

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House of the Week: $5.5 million for Canada AM co-host Valerie Pringle’s Casa Loma mansion


ADDRESS: 3 Clarendon Crescent

NEIGHBOURHOOD: Casa Loma

AGENT: Leanne Weld, Royal LePage J&D Division, Brokerage

PRICE: $5,495,000

THE PLACE: Built in 1906, this brick and stone house sits on a double lot on a private road with only six other residences. It’s even a listed heritage property (but don’t worry, the interior isn’t ancient—the home underwent extensive renovations in 1996).

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The Goods

From the Print Edition

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Great Spaces: Two fixtures of the charity ball scene buy a party house to rival any event venue

Great Spaces: Top of the Hill

Great Spaces: Top of the HillMax Gotlieb, a partner at Cassels Brock, and his wife, Heather, have lived together in Forest Hill since 1984. Though they spent much of the past two decades renovating their family home in the area (the couple jokes that they had a construction crew in their employ full-time), there was always another house on Heather’s mind. For years, she passed one of the neighbourhood’s most stately Georgian revivals while shuttling her three kids to school, and she dreamed of one day living there. It went on the market only once, briefly, in all those years, long before the Gotliebs were ready to move. Heather feared she had missed her chance. But in 2006, she and Max started talking about finding a larger space, and, miraculously, her dream house was up for sale. The place was massive—9,500 square feet—and perfect for entertaining, but outdated: the third floor had never been upgraded and was still laid out as servants’ quarters. They hired the developer Joe Brennan to update the house, completely gutting the upper floors. He also punched out the back to facilitate flow and add an additional 1,000 square feet (Max says the cost of buying and renovating was “many, many millions”). The Gotliebs don’t consider themselves philanthropists (“I’m not Peter Munk,” says Max), but they attend several fundraisers a week—and host many themselves, including large receptions and grand, expansive dinner parties. After all, they now have a home where they can entertain 200-plus people at a time—which is exactly why they bought it.

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The Informer

A Message from Toronto Life

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Weekend Reading List: top stories from our sister sites, from roller skaters to deep-fried taters

Every weekend we round up the highlights from the other websites in the St. Joseph Media family. Check them out, after the jump.

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The Hype

Creative Types

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Five things we learned about celebrity interior designer Lenny Kravitz

Lenny Kravitz (right) (Image: Elhormiguero)

Lenny Kravitz is a name we haven’t heard in a long time, save for occasional radio play of “American Woman” and news of his daughter Zoe’s exploits. It was recently announced that Kravitz has been pegged to design a 10,000-square-foot floor at Toronto’s Bisha Hotel and Residences downtown, and we’re intrigued at the idea of Kravitz extending his unique aesthetic sensibilities to interior design (although we can’t help but imagine snakeskin and leather everywhere). Check out five things we learned about Kravitz and his love for design below.

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The Informer

Gimme Shelter

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Condomonium: $795,000 for a sub-penthouse suite in Seventy5 Portland, with common space designed by Philippe Starck

ADDRESS: 75 Portland Street, Unit 904

NEIGHBOURHOOD: Waterfront Communities—The Island

AGENT: Brandon Ware and Lee Michael Colucci, Private Service Realty Ltd.

PRICE: $794,900

THE PLACE: The 11-storey Seventy5 Portland is another project from Freed Developments, the company behind the Thompson Residences and Fashion House condos. The sub-penthouse has an open-concept layout and polished, sealed concrete ceilings.

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The Informer

Diamonds Are Forever

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Toronto Blue Jays unveil their new, totally awesome logo

The Toronto Blue Jays unveiled their freshly redesigned logo today at an absurdly over-the-top ceremony at the Rogers Centre that included human mannequins and logo ice sculptures. The design is classic, clean and confident—exactly the look a team needs when stacked against division rivals like the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. We love it.

The Informer

Gimme Shelter

9 Comments

Condomonium: $1 million for a two-level penthouse in the Fashion District’s District Lofts

ADDRESS: 388 Richmond St. West, Penthouse 4

NEIGHBOURHOOD: Waterfront Communities–The Island

AGENT: Steven Fudge, Bosley Real Estate

PRICE: $1,095,000

THE PLACE: A two-level penthouse in the Fashion District’s District Lofts community. Built by Context Developments and designed by ArchitectsAlliance, the 14-storey U-shaped twin towers won a bunch of awards, including the 2003 City of Toronto Architecture and Urban Design Award of Excellence and an Innovative Building Award from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

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The Informer

Gimme Shelter

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House of the Week: $2.8 million for a country home built by one of Canada’s most celebrated architects

ADDRESS: 16854 McLaren Road

NEIGHBOURHOOD: Caledon

AGENT: John Dunlap, Moffat Dunlap Real Estate Ltd.

PRICE: $2.8 million

THE PLACE: Just your average 1970s, cedar-clad bungalow—if an average bungalow is designed by an architectural legend and sits on enough land to fit a small village.

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The Informer

Cityscape

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A symbol of Torontonian modesty and bureaucracy lives on—yes, the Fort York bridge is back from the grave 

Urban planning types (and bridge lovers in general), rejoice! The Fort York Pedestrian and Cycling Bridge, which recently won an urban design award despite the fact that council voted to kill the project, will be resurrected. The public works committee approved a plan to build a bridge that will be less flashy and a few million dollars cheaper. Of course, the news wasn’t all good. Construction on the bridge cannot start until 2014, and time and money was surely wasted on the original plan. So the city will be left with is a bridge that’s impressive (but not too impressive), expensive (but not too expensive), wrapped in bureaucratic red tape, late and perhaps a little bit wasteful. In other words, the final product will be “quintessentially Torontonian.” Read the entire story [National Post] »

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