CONDO CRITIC: West is best, as Wallace Ave. shows
October 31, 2009
Christopher Hume
Go west young Torontonian, transit's good, the housing stock excellent and condos plentiful. Nice condos, too, not just the concrete boxes that deaden the postwar suburbs. Even the notorious Parkdale is being invaded by the forces of gentrification; it's only a matter of time before it becomes another one of those neighbourhoods the upwardly-mobile take over and make their own. Think of Cabbagetown in the 1970s, when no one wanted to be there, let alone live there. Now all those fine old 19th-century flophouses have been turned back into the single-family homes they were originally meant to be. Some may lament the phenomenon, but better to be on the upside of the trajectory than the down.
Wallace Ave., which no one would rank among the memorable thoroughfares in Toronto, is better than it looks. This mixed landscape of old industrial heaps and lowrise residential and apartment buildings can appear bleak, but the visitor soon realizes that this is a healthy and vibrant neighbourhood. The advent of the West Toronto Railpath, which passes beneath the Wallace Ave footbridge, will only enhance the area by making it more accessible and pedestrian-friendly.
Condo Critic
WALLACE STATION LOFTS, 371 WALLACE AVE.: This early 20th-century factory is one of hundreds and hundreds of such buildings in this city that have found new use and new life in recent years. Though not beautiful by any stretch, it comes close enough that it's hard to tell the difference. With a new front entrance (and tomato red door) and large horizontally organized windows, the red-brick structure has acquired an unexpected stateliness that belies its utilitarian beginnings. The vertical piers that rise from ground to just above the roofline add a fortress-like quality, almost grandeur, to things.
Though from the outside the building doesn't look like the kind of place where you'd expect to find granite counter tops and stainless steel stoves, it probably is. Its charm lies in the fact that it is most emphatically what it is, that it hasn't been tarted up and that these interventions, however minimal, are enough to alter completely the flavour of the building. In this way, a 90-year-old masonry box has become a part of the modern city, of greater utility than ever but a lot more attractive.
Projects such as this may not appeal to everyone, but for those unafraid of a little grittiness it's irresistible. Besides, with grittiness comes authenticity, a commodity that has never been harder to find or more sought after.
Grade: A
WHAT DO YOU THINK? Email condocritic@ thestar.ca.
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