Condo Critic: 'Series of boxes' still fits into Ave and Dav

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Lined with residential, commercial and old industrial buildings, Davenport is a road of many faces. For all its various incarnations, the most desirable stretch runs east and west from Avenue Rd.

Ave and Dav, as the area's called, has become the centre of an urban village that includes some of Toronto's most appealing streets – Tranby and Bernard to name a few. Despite the compact scale of the local housing stock, the neighbourhood is well connected and even better serviced.

On the other hand, many of the nice old heaps that once defined Davenport have given way to unimpressive modernist boxes and uninspired condo developments. But like so many successful Toronto neighbourhoods, this one seems to thrive regardless. Its atmosphere of gentility and sophistication shines through the indignities that have been visited upon the area.

Condo Critic

238 Davenport Rd.: This strange structure, which looks out onto the street from the north side just west of Avenue Rd., offers few clues about itself.

The extra large balcony that occupies most of the front facade is the most obvious feature, but even it could be some sort of corporate terrace, a place for staff and visitors to mix and mingle.

At the same time, the addition of a smaller balcony within the larger one may indicate a more conventional residential presence. The ground floor, of course, is business-oriented, which makes sense. Above the balcony, a row of trees provides evidence of further domesticity.

But because the architects eschewed the traditional approach of creating identity through the front facade, the building can't be understood in the usual way. In this case, we feel the condo was designed so inhabitants can look out without us being able to look in. The large loggia-like space seems to extend out over the sidewalk and make the building impossible to ignore.

And certainly, it has little to do with its neighbours; as far as this condo is concerned, they don't exist. In that respect, it's like everything else in the vicinity. Whatever coherence the 19th century brought to the district was undone by the last century.

Still, this is a building one can't help but admire; its confidence verges on indifference, falling just short of arrogance. Conceived as a series of boxes, one stacked atop the other, it steps back from the sidewalk supported by a pair of columns. The box above reaches out to the property line, providing shelter to the entrance below.

In this part of town, where it's normal for buildings of all sizes, shapes and uses to share space on the street, a project such as this is somehow able to fit in. As odd as it may seem, it works.

GRADE: B

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Email: condocritic@thestar.ca.

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Toronto Star

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