In this edition of The Weekender, Doors Open Toronto, the Rolling Stones play the ACC and three more things to do in Toronto.
ARCHITECTURE
Doors Open Toronto (FREE!)
Architectural voyeurs get a once-a-year chance to peek inside more than 150 of the city’s most storied, striking and sacred buildings. This year’s lineup includes perennial favourites like Commerce Court North and the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant, plus a special focus on renos, revivals and retrofits, like the former Maple Leaf Gardens conversion and the Don Jail-Bridgepoint Health mash-up. May 25-26. Various locations, toronto.ca/doorsopen/2013
Jason Halter and Anita Matusevics met in architecture school at U of T 25 years ago. They got married, had two kids and landed jobs as designers at Bruce Mau’s office, collaborating with the likes of Frank Gehry and Rem Koolhaas. For the past decade, the couple have been strictly freelance, and their work has taken them to places like Italy and Africa. During their travels, they accumulated a startling collection of art—Picassos, Burtynskys, Basquiats—and designer furniture, which is showcased in their 3,300-square-foot Edwardian house near Avenue and St. Clair. The house had been given a mediocre renovation in the ’90s, so when they bought it in 2005, they gutted it with the help of Halter’s old friend John Shnier of Kohn Shnier Architects. There’s now a sleek galley kitchen with slate floors, a master bath with a shower that has a skylight (one day they hope to add a retractable skylight for showering in the rain), and a surprisingly large basement office where Halter and Matusevics do most of their work. Halter’s latest venture was inspired by the house. He and his tree biologist brother, Reese (who’s crashing in the sunroom for a while), are collaborating on water-efficient and bee-sensitive landscaping. Why? People keep knocking on the door to ask who designed their front yard. 
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