Thompson Hotel Private Residence
As with all our projects: We aim to let space, light & material do the talking for us.
This project was a complete renovation and addition to a private condominium suite. A 3 bedroom suite and the adjacent 1 bedroom suite were combined to make a 4 bedroom unit.
This interior renovation had a very comprehensive scope of work and it essentially relies on custom designed millwork elements for virtually everything. Those millwork elements at times, define and transform spaces, house functions, become wall paneling with integrated doors, store shoes etc.
The detailing is elegantly restrained to highlight the materials.
The Clients
One might say: Prototypical Empty Nesters; both are lawyers with University aged triplets, who were downsizing from a massive ravine house with a backyard pool in mid town Toronto to a downtown condominium suite at the Thompson Hotel . The children, who are all away during the school year at the, still need to be housed for the foreseeable future and there are two (lovely) dogs.
The Site
The clients leased a 2100 sq ft, 3 Bedroom Condo suite at the Thompson Hotel with an option-to-buy clause which they executed after they arranged to buy the adjacent 720 sq ft, 1 Bedroom Condo Suite. The plan was to give the 3 Bedroom suite to the kids and create a master suite ‘oasis’ for the parents with an internal connection.
The Project
We needed to first strategically internally connect the units and after a scheme for the projects totality was developed, the project was split into two phases: Phase 1 was to totally renovate the 3 Bedroom Suite to be consistent with Phase 2. And Phase 2 was the complete transformation of a 1 Bedroom Suite into the Master Suite, worthy of a 2800 sq ft, 4 Bedroom Condominium.
The Design Solution(s)
The suite not only had east and west facing bedrooms, but it also boasts a full south exposure, virtually in the trees over looking Victoria Memorial Park. One of the children’s bedrooms occupies the South West Corner (which is adjacent to the Dining Area on the South Wall) and because that bedroom would be empty 80% of the year, we proposed a Transforming Bedroom in the South West corner; with a Murphy Bed and a retractable Wood Wall. So that when the kids were at school, the clients could open up the space enjoy the sunset from their dinner table.
For the most part, this project relies on Millwork pieces to define spaces. In Phase 1, apart from the custom designed retractable wood wall, a credenza niche extends into the space and a massive ‘TV Unit’ are inserted into the space.
In Phase 2, the issues we confronted surrounded, how does one make a proper Master Suite Oasis out of a 1 BR Condo Unit? We added a double vanity on an existing Plumbing Wall, turned the kitchen into a Walk-In Shower, defined a Kind Size bedroom space and then treated all other area as an opportunity for custom designed storage, from which one withdrew corridor space.
In other words, rather than place storage off of a corridor, we made everything Millwork storage and subtracted a corridor from it. Resultantly, every cubic millimeter of Millwork storage was custom designed and fitted to the space.
All of the Millwork was book matched and sequenced Walnut, from the same log. All of the exposed hardware pulls were custom designed and fabricated locally from brushed brass. All of the stone was book matched and sequenced from the same block of stone. All of the walls were treated with a new natural San Marco Venetian Plaster and all of the flooring is Statuario white marble.
As with all our projects: We aim to let space, light & material do the talking for us.
