The FlexPlex finally gets its day in Toronto

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There was a time of darkness in Toronto. A time when development charges sent all but the bravest souls scurrying into their single-family homes when talk turned to multiunit dwellings on tiny lots. When so large was the flaming hoop one had to jump through for a laneway house, only those with friends at city hall (who could lend them an asbestos suit) could entertain the thought. A time when the enlightened were laughed at, or, worse, told to decamp to Vancouver, where hippie bylaw-makers allowed just about anything to be built.

Mike Manning was one such pioneer: “When we applied for the building permit, I had to pay a development charge – for the privilege of building one more unit to make this a duplex – that was $112,000.”

Had Mr. Manning of Greenbilt Homes known that Toronto would see the light and make a building such as his “FlexPlex” in Mimico an easy-peasy – and development charge-free – type of building, he would’ve waited, but he had been thinking of “gentle density” for “more than a decade.”

It’s true. In the long-ago days before the pandemic, John Lorinc wrote in The Globe and Mail about Mr. Manning’s idea. It’s a “savvy approach” that can “add rental units in neighbourhoods that have become inaccessible to all but the wealthy,” Mr. Lorinc wrote in introducing the concept.

The FlexPlex, as designed by architect Paul Dowsett and his crew at Sustainable, could transform from two two-floor units to four single-floor units, or any other combination its owner desired. This was achieved, Mr. Lorinc continued, by stacking “infrastructure – pipes, stairwells, HVAC and so on – so it’s very straightforward … [with only] a single entranceway so the FlexPlex presents itself to the street as a tall-ish single-family home.”

Unfortunately, the pandemic caused Mr. Manning to pivot, and the FlexPlex remained a series of drawings, approved by the city and ready to build, on the computers at Sustainable.

On a mild evening last week, Mr. Dowsett, Mr. Manning and his life/business partner, Catherine Ann Marshall, and this writer stood outside the actualized concept at 19 Burlington St., which finally broke ground in July, 2022. And while it is “tall-ish,” it doesn’t stand much higher than the mid-century modern “Capri Apartments” across the street, or even some of the neighbouring houses. It presents a handsome, single-family face to the street, albeit a very contemporary one with a cladding of concrete panels by Dekko.

“The only indication there’s something going on here is four doorbells,” Mr. Dowsett says, “which is pretty subtle.”

At the moment, only two doorbell buttons are necessary, since Mr. Manning and Ms. Marshall occupy the main floor and lower level, and tenants occupy the top two (both parties moved in about three months ago). However, open that door and a keen observer notes that the stairwell is self-contained so that each floor can have its own private entrance; at the moment, the (unnecessary) door to the basement suite is already framed, wire-free, and behind drywall, and so is the one on the top floor. A few stairs up and one is at the door to the Manning/Marshall suite.

Once inside that unit’s front room, the logic of the plan becomes clear: an interior stair leads to a small landing where the door to a separate basement suite would be, followed by the staircase to the lower level. There is a great deal more logic at play, such as wet walls containing the plumbing, and how certain rooms can become bedrooms with walk-in closets or something altogether different, but what the casual visitor will likely notice is the ample natural light from clerestory windows, or the big outdoor staircase/deck framed in the kitchen. A more curious visitor might notice that the home is all electric.

“Just today I got my first full-month hydro [electric] bill,” Mr. Manning says with a smile. “Heating, lighting, cooking, hot water, clothes drying, all of that? Two hundred and five dollars! So if I split that [with my tenants], I’m paying $100 a month.”

It helps, of course, that Sustainable is known for its commitment to airtight, well-insulated buildings outfitted with Passive House Institute-certified windows (Vetta) and an energy-efficient heat-pump water heater.

“There is so much misinformation about heat pumps,” says Ms. Marshall, who is also principal at investment firm Real Alts Inc. “All kinds of people believe they can’t put heat pumps in their buildings because there won’t be enough heat during an extreme winter day, and it’s just not true. Mike was really worried about putting in a heat-pump water heater, and, you know, this stuff is working. All of this doubt is very similar to the misinformation about electric cars.”

With the FlexPlex, the familiar Generation Z and millennial rant about spending one’s entire life as a renter may also become a piece of misinformation. Like the immigrant families of the postwar period, a building such as this could support four young couples, or a young couple with small children and a set of downsizing parents to provide babysitting services. And, Ms. Marshall says, if a “strata title” is drawn up at the beginning – which basically turns the building into condominiums – then “everybody has the flexibility to make their own decisions on exit[ing].”

“Everybody in the city is talking about the housing crisis, and the impetus is just to build more, faster,” Mr. Dowsett says. “This building goes one step further and builds it better … there are low embodied carbon materials in the building, and there are very low carbon emissions … all of these movements recognizing that there’s a housing crisis, they’re not simultaneously recognizing that there’s a climate crisis.”