The project at 1120 Ossington Ave. in Toronto is an L-shaped, three-storey building to wrap around the existing building.Smart Density
I have referred to the Iron Triangle in this space before. “Cheap-Fast-Good” and how it’s not possible to have all three, so pick two: cheap and fast won’t be good; good and fast is expensive; and good and cheap is slow.
But maybe, just maybe, architects and urban planners Smart Density and developer/builder Assembly have shattered that old adage to bits.
The project? 1120 Ossington Ave., just north of Geary Avenue. The client is St. Clare’s Multifaith Housing Society, the self-described “social justice landlord” that’s made quite a difference in reducing homelessness since 1998. In 2011, the former Italian United Church on site was added to and converted into 20 apartments.
“It looks like Dorothy’s house landed on the church,” quips St. Clare’s operations manager Andrea Adams. “If you look from across the road, it really looks like that.”
However, for the next dozen years, the relatively large piece of adjacent land housed only a few bushes, a lot of interlocking pavers, and two or three vehicles. So, the decision was made to make the land work a little harder to make a few more lives a little easier vis-à-vis an L-shaped, three-storey building to wrap around the existing one. Adding to St. Clare’s own funds, says Ms. Adams, was money from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Rapid Housing Initiative.
“So, in keeping with it being ‘rapid,’” she continues, “it’s timber, mostly prefab, click-into-place pieces … 25 units are going to [be built].”
But to backtrack a little, St. Clare’s had to fire a few imaginations first by answering questions such as “What am I funding?” and “What will it look like?” Since Ms. Adams had worked with Smart Density’s Naama Blonder on “HousingNowTO,” a volunteer initiative that advised the City of Toronto on how to maximize affordable housing units on city-owned sites, she called upon her old friend to come up with a plan. She did, and architectural designer Mohcine Sadiq created a tasteful, yet playful, design – complete with motel-style outdoor corridors to conserve space – which incorporated colourful cladding and artful shading fins by artist Leo Krukowski to animate the façade.
“We can actually make the neighbourhood a better place, and more beautiful,” says Ms. Adams. “I know a lot of people are alarmed: ‘Oh non-profit, affordable housing, what’s going to happen to the neighbourhood!’ If you were to look at our projects, we put a lot of thought into aesthetics to make them an asset to the neighbourhood.”
But, in a housing crisis, how to get it built fast? And cheap?
“Ossington went up in, I think, 17 working days,” says Luke Moir, project manager at Assembly. “That’s a huge advantage; on average it’s $60,000 a month to run a job. … So the quicker you can compress that construction schedule, you have savings.”
Assembly is able to offer that kind of speed by using a “kit of parts” (built at Fab Structure in Ripon, Que., and Element5 in St. Thomas, Ont.) such as cross-laminated timber floor assemblies, bathroom and kitchen pods, as well as wall and ceiling panels. Taking Smart Density’s design to McCallum Sather in Hamilton to “flush out the design” and make it compatible with “the kit,” the pieces were manufactured around the same time as the foundation was being poured in March of this year (there is no basement with this system).
“So as soon as I’m done [pouring], the first floor, ideally, shows up and they frame it in two days,” says Mr. Moir. And the panels, it should be noted, take up far less space as they wait for workers to wrangle them into place which is perfect for tight, city infill sites such as this.
Assembly uses a 'kit of parts; such as cross-laminated timber floor assemblies, bathroom and kitchen pods, as well as wall and ceiling panels.Loftin Construction
And despite the “tilt-up” and fastening together process being done so quickly, there is quality and sustainability. “Part of [St. Clare’s] funding [was] they had to be 20 per cent better than code and, at the moment, we’re at 38 per cent,” says Mr. Moir. “We have a very tight envelope, and then [an] R-28 effective wall.” The “coolest piece of technology in the building,” he adds, is the Innova HRA-i Plus which “has an intake for both the fresh air and it also runs the heat pump.”
But, just as important as speed, technology and savings, says Ms. Blonder, is a force of will: “You don’t hear about a lot of not-for-profit that successfully develop housing through funding [and] take it to the finish line in today’s market. … The market is kind of dead; we have projects with permits but everything is stopped.”
A cessation in building, however, is not ideal. But with interest rates coming down, perhaps the city will see more action, especially in the not-for-profit sector and the missing middle.
“In terms of built projects, this is going to be our first,” says Ms. Blonder. “And I’m super-proud that our first is affordable.”
But will Toronto ever see Parisian-style streets full of six- or eight-storey buildings, and, ideally, with a 50/50 mix of market rate and affordable?
“I honestly think that before we were around, there was not only a missing middle in terms of physically, but also in the industry – the industry didn’t know how to do it, they built single-family homes maybe three-storeys tall and high-rises … but how do you build that middle efficiently?”
With Smart Density and Assembly, the answer may have arrived, and just in time.
Editor’s note: (Oct. 17, 2024): This article has been updated to correct the name of one of the companies that built the 'kit of parts' used in the home. It is Fab Structure in Ripon, Que.