Museum House - Toronto

Superbly located at 206 Bloor Street West in downtown Toronto,
just west of Avenue Road, this intimate, and very classy, superlative example
of architectural design, boasts 10 - 11 foot ceilings, warm and richly detailed fireplaces and expansive private terraces. 

It is just steps from Yorkville, The Four Seasons Hotel, The Royal Ontario Museum, The Gardiner Museum, Queen's Park and The Ontario Parliament Buildings, The University Of Toronto, and the finest of carriage trade shopping, cafés and fine dining.

Real estate investor and financier Sheldon Esbin,and his wife Carol are
the perfect customers for Toronto's growing number of upscale
condominium projects.

They're ready to unload the "pile of bricks" in Forest Hill Village where
they've lived for 35 years. And they're already converts to an apartment
lifestyle.

"Twelve years ago, we were fortunate enough to be able to take an
apartment in the Renaissance Plaza for a year while we put our house
under renovation. We just had the time of our lives," says Esbin, who was
recently preparing to head off to Florida with his wife.

During the Plaza interlude, they had no worries about where to park the
car when they planned an outing; they just walked out the door, he says.
They also discovered at least 10 kinds of dumplings within a mile's radius
of the Bloor and Avenue Rd. intersection.  But the Esbins won't be buying a condo from anybody else.  They're building their own: Museum House at 206 Bloor Street West.

"I'd been trying to buy that property for 10 years," says Esbin, who owns
the medical building next door at 208 Bloor. "When it came up (in 2005),
I had the inside track and got it."

His next step: call his friend Sol Wassermuhl, who just happens to head
Page + Steele Architects. "I told him, `It's a tight site, but we want to put
a building on it and move in there,'" Esbin recounts. "I always knew it had
great views, especially looking south, which will probably never change."

The Esbins will be occupying the 16th floor of the 19-storey 24-unit
building. They'll have a 4,300-square-foot suite - 2,000 to live in and
2,300 for the shoes and bags, he jokes - with private elevator access and
generous balconies.  (Wassermuhl and his wife are planning to take the 17th floor, Esbin confides.)

Like many in the high-end market, Esbin likes a more traditional
architectural style. He's a big fan of American architect Robert A.M.
Stern's design at One St. Thomas St., a bit east and south of Bloor. It has
all the elements of a classic New York City highrise apartment dating from
the 1920s or '30s. (The project had too many units for Esbin's taste, and
he was concerned about increased traffic in the area).

MuseumHouse will, of course, be intimate. But Esbin has ended up with a
decidedly modern structure, defined by a limestone base, and glass and
metal above. Balconies with glass railings topped with custom stainless
steel planters create strong horizontal lines. Prices start at around $800 per square foot, and the lowest-priced unit, at 1,942 square feet starts at
$1.55 million.

"I think it's going to be a very functional building. It's pretty, but I did not
set out to design a modern building," says Esbin, who is an avid collector
of art, sculpture and books and ephemera related to Toronto's history.
But while the Esbins will compromise on the exterior, their suite will have
a distinctly traditional flavour.

"We intend to have a lot of sconces and woodwork, and things that are
not all that contemporary. We don't plan to get rid of all our furniture, our
beloved pieces that we've picked up over the years." Mind you, they have been acquiring some art deco furniture as a compromise between modern and traditional styles.

For Wassermuhl, however, there was no choice but to go modern with
this building: The context dictates it.  To take advantage of the views, both to the south and north, the units need big expanses of glass, and that immediately suggests a more modern style.

The presence, across the street of some of the city's finest historical
buildings - the museum, with its jutting new David Libeskind crystal, the
elaborately Victorian Royal Conservatory of Music, as well as Queen's Park
to the south - would make any attempt at a traditional look futile, says
Wassermuhl.

"You can't compete with these heritage buildings. So clearly, the way to
go is to be a foil to these historical buildings in a simple, elegant modern
statement."

That's not to say Wassermuhl could not have gone the traditional route.
His firm has such high-profile upscale developments as the Chedington, at
Bayview and Lawrence Aves., One Post Rd. and the Windsor Arms on its
project roster. All of these condominiums exhibit an ornamented style
designed to appeal to luxury seekers and not necessarily the city's
architect critics.  Nor do they conform to Wassermuhl's personal taste.

"As an architect, my preference has always been modern. When I built for
myself and designed for myself, it's always been modern, but Toronto has
definitely been a traditional market at the high end," he says. "It's very
difficult to dictate a direction in terms of the fashion of building, if there's
such a strong impetus from the client. From their viewpoint, they're
building a $50-million project, and it's their money at risk."
That being said, Wassermuhl believes the high-end market is becoming
more receptive to a simpler, more contemporary look.
What highlights the trend for him is the fact that the Ritz Carlton Hotel
will be settling into contemporary-style quarters in Toronto. (The project
is designed by New York-based Kohn Pederson Fox Associates Architects
and Planners with interior layouts by Page + Steele.)

"We were addressed by senior executives from the hotel chain, and they
were clearly happy to move to a more modern approach, and they
indicated that this reflected the change in lifestyle and the change in their
guests," says Wassermuhl.

David Powell and Fenwick Bonnell, of the interior design firm Powell &
Bonnell who are selecting finishes and designing common areas for
MuseumHouse, have seen this shift to a more contemporary taste.
"How many times in the last year, we've been hired by clients who want
to get rid of all the details, have more of a transitional look," says Powell.
"If there is a trend, it's that - almost a turning back on the traditional."
"It's a purist expression of quality, instead of putting a lot of detailing on
it to make it look expensive," adds Bonnell.

Their designs for the project's sales office at 160 Cumberland St. in the
Renaissance Court reflect these sensibilities. The vignettes incorporate
limestone, marble, glass and stainless steel, as well as the contemporary
kitchen cabinetry from Snaidero with a strong horizontal line of the upper
cabinets. The bathroom features a soaker tub backed by curved
translucent glass behind which is a shower.

The sales office serves as a backdrop for art: a Rodin bronze of a woman,
which Esbin had in his office, will be moved to the MuseumHouse lobby;
prints line the walls, including the powder room; and a reproduction from
China of a Tamara de Lempicka deco-style painting backs a desk area.
("It went up when I was out of town," says a somewhat disappointed
Esbin, whose favourite sculpture is a Rodin bronze head of the author
Balzac. "I wish it were real.")

Esbin says he chose Powell & Bonnell because "they don't impose on you
their standard kind of template that they've been successful with. They
listen to you and they're flexible. They helped guide us to some great
kitchens, and there's a lot of flexibility to the interior finishes."

The floor plans for the MuseumHouse suites, which range from 1,950
square feet to an ultra-luxurious two-storey 5,600-square-foot
penthouse, to be priced around $10 million, offer familiar configurations
for buyers like the Esbins, who are used to spacious foyers and living
rooms, separate dining rooms, large kitchens and family rooms, dens and
butler's pantries.  Modern on the outside, with an option for the more traditional on the inside. 

For more information on Museum House and other fine luxury condominium homes, please click here to contact us for more information