How does one take a typically narrow bay-and-gable style home in Toronto’s Roncesvalles neighbourhood and create a floor plan with width, moments of discovery, nooks and a feeling of spaciousness?
It’s not easy. But an architect with the right chops – time spent at the legendary firm KPMB or Superkül for instance – can make it happen.
Annely Zonena's home in the Roncesvalles neighbourhood of Toronto.christine lim/Christine Lim
And how does one take a friendship, first cemented in Grade 10 science class, and not only maintain it, but make it ‘next level’? By one of the friends, now an urban planner, hiring and trusting the other (the architect), to transform their house to better suit a family of five.
“I did not look for anyone else,” Annely Zonena says with a laugh. “I knew I would work with the best.”
“In a way, this project, because it was with a friend, preceded me starting my own practice,” says architect Deborah Wang, who is also artistic director of DesignTO.
The women, who agree there has always been “good chemistry” between them since attending Earl Haig’s Claude Watson Secondary Arts Program, are seated in Ms. Zonena’s living room, which, while technically small, feels airy and ample due to large spans of glass and a high ceiling. The mostly white palette – colour is restricted to wood, a green sofa, brown Lotte lamp and the red wine in their glasses – the flush register covers, and lack of pretentiousness also contribute to the feeling of spaciousness.
Of course it wasn’t that way when Ms. Zonena and her husband purchased the home in 2009. Coming from an even smaller house in Brockton Village – which was “made of paper” laughs Ms. Zonena – the couple was, at first, overjoyed. “This is the best house we could ever get,” she remembers thinking.
But, the next year, the first child appeared. Then another. And then another. “We realized this was incredibly unfunctional [even though] I believe in living in small spaces.”
So, despite being a year into the pandemic, dealing with a broken foot, and knowing that supply chain issues were starting to rear their ugly heads, Ms. Zonena called her old pal and the two began a conversation about what this old Victorian needed to become. By mid-summer of 2021, with contractor Plan A swinging the hammers, the massive renovation began.
And, surprisingly, because the team was “very organized” says Ms. Zonena, the usual COVID hiccups were avoided.
“We had to work around the things that were going to take a long time,” adds Ms. Wang. Windows and doors, for instance, were ordered well before construction drawings were prepared.
Renovations on the home were done by architect Deborah Wang, left, a childhood friend of Ms. Zonena.christine lim/Christine Lim
And to get a good look at the product involved some sleuthing: “There was no showroom to go to … and we need to see this in real life, so the builder, Tony, took me to a place where they were installing these doors and we basically snuck around the construction site so we could touch them,” Ms. Zonena says with a laugh. “I’m not going to order something of this price and not see it.”
Even a passerby would surely agree it was money well spent. As was the cost of removing the 1960s angel stone in favour of thin brick veneer (named, ironically, “Old Toronto”) to get this grand semi back into proper, dignified clothes. Should that same passerby pause, he or she will note two things: because of Ms. Wang’s renovation, there isn’t much left to ogle from the sidewalk. And what can be ogled, however, is a wonderful sculpture by Benson Zonena (1923–2001), Ms. Zonena’s England-born father.
Those lucky enough to be invited inside will immediately understand that Ms. Wang is a master manipulator of space. By forcing the visitor to confront a handsome piece of light wood, ribbed millwork – and hang one’s coat in it or sit in its cubby to take off one’s shoes – and then walk the width of the house, turn at the sculpture to stand at a second portal (the first being the front door), one experiences the space much differently than in a traditional Victorian. Using busy, playful, geometric tile underfoot creates even more visual interest while slowing down one’s pace.
Enter that second portal and an incredibly long wall of cabinets leads the eye past the kitchen and all the way to the living room at the rear. A few steps more and one notes that the dining table is tucked behind that foyer millwork wall, that the stairs are tucked to one side (and barely noticeable), and that while those stairs squeeze the kitchen a little, island stools can still gather freely around one end.
“Our biggest creative challenge was how to incorporate seating at the island. … So our solution was to have this big overhang,” Ms. Zonena says.
Upstairs, a similar neutral palette keeps bedrooms feeling spacious (Monty the cat is also fairly neutral in his white and grey coat) and moving a wall solved the usual cramped bathroom problem. “This is my favourite place in the whole house,” Ms. Zonena says of the bathroom, and it’s easy to see why. Terrazzo tile moves effortlessly from floor to shower wall; a mirror, light fixture, and window create a luminous composition; the vanity floats off the floor; and soft green tiles whisper their geometry rather than shout it.
“We just wanted everything to line up; I’m a little OCD about that,” Ms. Wang says with a laugh. She also made sure the new floors and walls were razor-straight by designing a steel structure that’s now buried behind drywall.
When it comes to design, however, obsessiveness is never a bad thing. And compulsion, as long as it’s to improve the lives of others through architecture, is also welcome. One might even say that, with interested and active clients and a good builder added to the mix, it all becomes very good chemistry indeed.