In the Swim

The lush ravine setting was gorgeous, but the house…not so much. Portrait of a dramatic do-over By Veronica Maddocks

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Curving along the brow of the Cedarvale ravine, just north of St. Clair, Heathdale Road smells of honeysuckle and heritage roses. It surely is the Platonic ideal of a street, but its houses don’t always fulfill the promised perfection. In the 1960s, many were expropriated for the doomed Spadina Expressway. They spent almost 30 years in a state of genteel neglect. When the city returned them to the marketplace in the mid-1990s, most were screaming out for either a drastic renovation or complete demolition. Lawyers Tina Goldlist (currently at home with the kids) and Hershey Piafsky bought theirs in 2002 and took the latter route, deciding to start over. “We wanted clean lines without feeling as though we live in an art gallery,” says Goldlist. “I’m a swimmer. I know there isn’t much space for a pool, but I have to be able to do my laps.”

Goldlist and Piafsky approached architect Stephen Teeple, whose deconstructionist design for U of T’s Graduate House they admired. He, in turn, was intrigued by the chance to create his first family home from scratch. “Tina and Hershey were energetic and fun, with a refined taste for modern architecture and for pushing its direction,” he says. “But I also wanted to create a home that would be a delight for a young family.”