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THE GLOBE & MAIL, by Adele Freedman Two buildings in downtown Toronto, both designed by Peter Hamilton, both nearing completion, are both worth waiting for. From Hamilton, savvy modernist, we have learned to expect handsome, flowing, light-filled spaces. Characteristically, his architecture leans towards simple forms, white interiors and sophisticated use of industrial elements and materials: few can match his way with glass block. The combination is hardly revolutionary. What impresses is Hamilton's restraint and delicacy Ò his light touch. He's always understating the case. He understands amenity. He has a cultivated sense of when to stop. Nothing's changed but there's a freshness and check to the new work that show a different side to Hamilton. No stranger to leafy neighborhoods, he's emerged into the thick of commerce. For Phase Three Properties, he's designed a mixed-use building on Cumberland Street, east of Avenue Road. Good address, incoherent context. Chalk that up to a seventies predilection known as split-level, or front-split, retail. You know the stuff. Yorkville is full of it. One set of stairs leads up to a store, or group of stores; another leads down to a half-buried store, or row of stores. Sidewalk and door never meet. Hamilton was required to fit this
building between two mis-matched neighbors. The building to one side meets the
property line; the front-split special to the other side is recessed from the
sidewalk, separated from the street by a pit. Although the Phase Three
development contains upstairs-downstairs store space, the point being to
maximize retail, as developers say, Hamilton insisted on putting the doors on
street level, where he thinks they belong. In other words, instead of putting
stairways outside a building, forcing it back from the street, he's put them
inside. You'd never guess walking past 136 Cumberland there was a store below
grade. Maximum retail, no pits. The residence is recessed for privacy, the windows protected by perforated metal sun louvres, painted blue, yet the metal balcony in smart canary yellow protrudes slightly from the Cumberland facade. The big windows of the second-floor retail space are mullionless; they're set into a protruding steel channel. Three tiny wired mesh windows have been set into the glass block wave so shoppers can look east towards Bay. A matching pair of curved glass display bubbles is positioned between the concrete columns, each wrapped in blue perforated metal, that anchor building to sidewalk. The last time an architect tried to work with so many types of glass and window resulted in the embarrassment known as the Metro Toronto Police Headquarters. Vive la différence. When an architect of Hamilton's talents works for one of the top graphic designers in the country, the results are bound to look good. Burton Kramer turned to Hamilton, an old friend, to re-renovate a narrow, three-story house on Dupont Street into his offices. What he got was a three-dimensional billboard on the street Ò Hamilton gone Hollywood. And with reason. Not only is his client in the image business, but also his client's future office was leaning to one side, off plumb by a foot. The solution was to re-skin the front to make the building appear what it wasn't, namely straight. Hamilton chose corrugated aluminum with an embossed finish to do the job. The roof of the building is flat, but he rounded the silver skin at the top so we know it's a false front, and stepped the aluminum cladding around one side, filling in with green stucco. Since the building as found was wonky, Hamilton responded by going wonky, too. He placed the front door to one side, on street level, and put a rectangular piece of glass next to it to light the reception area. The second-floor window is off-centre; it looks like a bay window pressed through a wringer. The square window at the top is likewise asymmetrical. Triangle square, rectangle, curve, wedge. Red, blue, yellow, green. Kramer's line of business is well represented. The rooms inside are small but bright. Hamilton exposed the ductwork and designed the handrails and continous lighting fixtures from standard parts. One wall of the conference room angles out as lighthearted reminder of the building's original condition, and one handrail looks to be out of control. Shooting through the top two floors is a box made of wired mesh glass topped by a skylight that brings natural light into what would have been the darkest rooms in the house. There's a big deck off the third floor, and an elaborate wooden fire-escape stair painted turquoise that the staff uses regularly to exit. The place is all sun and fun, and as eccentric as its occupants. For further insights into the mind and
hand that produced 103 Dupont and 136 Cumberland, see an exhibition
of Hamilton's sketches and renderings at Ballenford Architectural Books
and Gallery. It runs through the end of March. For more information please visit http://www.kramer-design.com or contact: Janet Young
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