A home for Calgary’s one per cent

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1308 Montreal Ave. SW, Calgary

Asking price: $10-million

Taxes: $28,668 (2024)

Lot size: 69.98 by 155.35 feet

Listing agents: Cailey Heaps, Heaps Estrin Real Estate; Spencer Stupka, Charles Real Estate

The backstory

Underwhelmed by the alternatives available in Calgary’s resale market in 2012, Cory and Andrea Paddock decided to commission renowned local firm, Sturgess Architecture, to bring their vision to reality.

Upon settling on a quarter-acre site abutting on two roadways in Upper Mount Royal, an exclusive neighbourhood in Calgary’s inner-city, the architects set off on a journey to design not only a masterpiece for the prairie city, but a functional home where the Paddocks could raise a family.

The aesthetic preferences of the young couple seemed straightforward. “We were always drawn to materials being honest to what they are: steel, concrete, wood,” Mr. Paddock says, noting the importance of creating an unbounded space to foster social interaction.

But the Paddocks wanted more than a run-of-the-mill home, whose features would undoubtedly become passé.

“Good architecture is essentially timeless,” says Kevin Harrison, principal at Sturgess Architecture. “If the materials of the building are honest to their nature, an avant-garde design will make it more timeless, not less.”

Initially, however, the Paddocks were intimidated by the architects’ proposal. “After we saw the first renderings, we were taken aback,” Mr. Paddock says. This gave the Calgary couple pause to ponder their options – and they chose timelessness.

As strong supporters of Calgary’s direction, the Paddocks concluded that moving forward with an iconic design would leave a mark on the prairie city’s architectural heritage.

“We really saw this house as an investment in Calgary,” Mrs. Paddock says. “Just because this didn’t exist for us to buy, it doesn’t mean that the city isn’t worthy of this architecture.”

The house today

Named after the street its located on, the Montreal House is surrounded by Calgary’s history. Even the public trees at its doorstep are a municipally protected historic resource. For this reason, ensuring contextual fit was essential for the Paddocks.

“The site ultimately defined the architecture, and how we addressed context,” Mr. Harrison says. “We had a real opportunity to speak to context through its nature.”

With three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms above grade, the Montreal House is a relatively small dwelling, but no detail has been spared. Following the Paddock’s vision, the architects came up with a flexible, linear layout whose 4,062 square feet provide enough space to allow for privacy, while also ensuring an intimate atmosphere in the social areas.

“The clients came to us with a pretty open ended program,” Mr. Harrisons says. “But they had a vision of active and passive recreational spaces for their family.”

Radiating from the open-plan kitchen, fitted with a bespoke range hood and millwork, a functional layout accommodates the needs of a growing family without compromising the architectural prowess of the dwelling.

A stairwell by the kitchen connects the main floor to the three bedrooms upstairs, tied together by a suspended walkway that hangs from the structural steel beams above.

“We designed the bedrooms in such a way that they interact with the active spaces,” Mr. Harrison says. “The kids might be in the bedroom and you might be downstairs cooking dinner, and you could just call up and say, ‘Dinner is ready,’ at a talking voice.”

At the back of the second storey, a family room opens up to an inward facing patio, where the details of the building envelope, clad in weathered steel and Kayu Batu wood, are the most apparent.

Another set of stairs on the main floor, adjacent to a west facing library that overlooks the courtyard, leads to a wine cellar, a recreation room, and an assortment of naturally-lit hobby rooms in the basement.

Introduced by a subdued foyer, the kitchen shares the main floor with a double-height living room, where the steel cladding that swaddles the building’s exterior wraps around an irregularly shaped fireplace, showing the material’s evolution. Outside, the steel has developed a patina. Inside, it remains a polished veneer of metal.

Exposed to the elements, the Carten steel and Kayu Batu wood of the building’s envelope will continue to weather over time, changing colour as they age. Eventually, the reddish-brown wood will turn grey, and the sleek silver steel will rust into shades of brown and red.

Meanwhile, raw steel columns – whose serial numbers were intentionally left visible – subtly indicate where one space ends another begins.

“The volume of the house is supported through steel frame, and then wrapped in cross-laminated timber,” Mr. Harrison explains, pointing at the importance of leaving all structural components untreated. “All the materials we used are honest in their expression, and one of the reasons we did that is that any building evolves over time and these materials have an expression of age and evolution.”

Despite the prominence of steel, glass and concrete, an abundance of wood and natural light collude to create a warm atmosphere, Mr. Harrison says. “We oriented the house in a north-south direction to free open courtyard space to the west so we could really capture opportunity for afternoon sun, for play space, for the family to have that extension of their living space bleed out into the yard.”

To mitigate the heat produced by sun exposure in the summer months, a series of cantilevered beams in laminated timber hangs over the west-facing windows, which span the entire height of the building. “We always start with a passive approach to sustainability,” Mr. Harrison explains, noting that passive ventilation was key to determine the configuration of the house.

Finally, the “free plan” notion that informed the concept of the Montreal House, allows any space to shift and adapt the needs of its occupants. “The flexibility between living and dining and those sorts of spaces is open for interpretation,” Mr. Harrison says. “Some people might be more formal, some people might be less formal, and I think that open plan allows for that in some fashion.”

The best feature

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The monumental façade of the Montreal House stands out amongst the arts-and-crafts and Tudor-revival style homes typical of Upper Mount Royal. Yet, it manages to blend in with its surroundings, evidencing that contextual fit doesn’t have to produce unimaginative results.

“We were very intentional about trying to nestle the house into the existing street and into the community,” Mr. Paddock says. “We wanted to save as many big trees as possible, which we did, and went to great lengths to do so.”

On Montreal Avenue, two spruce trees that precede the construction of the house stand taller than the building. To protect the roots of these trees and ensure their long-term survival, a ramp lifts up from the sidewalk towards the main entrance, leaving the ground undisturbed. As the elevated walkway twists and turns by the trees, anticipation for what’s to come is inevitable.

But preserving the integrity of the trees birthed more than an outstanding façade.

“When you look out the front window, whether that’s from the living room or from the walkway upstairs, you would never know where you are, you’re just enveloped in greenery,” Mrs. Paddock says. “It feels like you’re in the forest.”