Bob Mitchell
Built to order: Janelle Hutchison and son, Paul, talk at the stainless steel kitchen island in their loft-like Riverdale home. Hutchison and her husband, Kelly Robinson worked out the design with builder Bob Mitchell. The family dog is Mini.
"He's not a man who likes to do things the same old way. And if Bob Mitchell has to unpave a parking lot to put up a small urban paradise, so be it."
"In fact, the local builder-developer, well known around town for unique loft projects, has done just that with a custom-built house on Logan Ave. in Riverdale."
"In so doing, Mitchell has managed a microcosmic reversal of destructive urban change once decried in the decades-old 'Big Yellow Taxi' classic written by Canadian singer Joni Mitchell. That lyrical lament seems to have become part of the collective subconscious, expressing disenchantment with redevelopment that's ugly and unimaginative."
"Those latter two adjectives could not be used to describe the outwardly plain, inwardly anything-but 'Loft House', as Bob Mitchell calls it on his Web site (www.mitchell-lofts.com). It nestles next to his sold-out 12-unit Printers Row condominium project, now under construction on Logan Ave. inside a turn-of-the-century building, last used by a printing company."
"Loft House - which was started in the summer of 1999 and mostly finished by the end of the year - is built on what was once a parking lot, 130 or so feet deep, that served the industrial building."
" Visited mostly on a gray, overcast day, the unprepossessing exterior didn't prepare the reporter for the bright interior illuminated largely by natural light."
"A rectangular-shaped set of stairs rises from the centre of the first floor - which has ceilings 13 feet high - to a third floor with a skylight. A shaft of light drops from this skylight, dispersing beams liberally through the second and ground floors. Or, as Mitchell says, it 'daylights the place'."
"Little design features along the way, like a partially open wall in the second-floor bathroom that allows a person to bathe in water and light, sliding doors, steel mesh railings in the stairwell, all contribute to the feeling of openness and light that fills Loft House."
"While it's a brand-new custom construction, Loft House fits into the Mitchell mode of doing something different while rejuvenating an old site and finding some new uses for old materials. (There are many examples of recycled features in Loft House, such as a thick, unfinished steel railing - originally from the Printers Row building next door - that a door slides on."
"It all seems to fit in with the personal philosophy of Mitchell, who has created many loft condominiums out of venerable buildings (among them 670 and 676 Richmond West, 195 Poplar Plains Rd., 289 Sumach) and coming soon, a 32-unit multi-level conversion of 662 Pape Ave., a 1920 extension of the original 1912 Riverdale Presbyterian Church to be called the Glebe."
"The Loft House features all-steel construction, exposed open web steel joists (left in their natural state so they'll oxidize), and steel decking, which creates a modern environment with an industrial feel."
" 'It's the first time I've ever built something with steel walls from scratch. Steel does not bend so you have very true walls,' Mitchell says. 'You have to by trying something new all the time or you get stale.'""There's also a very durable, polished concrete floor on the main level, curved walls here and there and a sawtooth roof with a private, walkout terrace that is not discernible from the front of the house."
"Originally, Mitchell had been planning a more traditional Victorian-style house for the lot. But then the realtor introduced Kelly Robinson and Janelle Hutchison to him."
" Robinson, director of creative development at Mirvish Productions, and his wife, Hutchison, an actress who also works as an associate with Stephanie Gorin Casting, were looking for a loft space for themselves and their 13-year-old son, Paul, but hadn't been able to find anything big enough or suitable to their needs and with the right pricetag." "Everything they'd seen was 'overpriced or would need significant renovations,' said Robinson. Until their agent told them about the Mitchell lot, they hadn't considered the idea of a brand-new home."
"They sat down with Mitchell and talked to him about what they wanted."
" 'We began to realize that we could build new and put old into it.,.' Hutchison said. 'We could apply aspects of an industrial building to a new building,' Robinson adds."
"The three of them worked out a basic building structure with a front elevation, central staircase and sawtooth roof. 'The planets must have been aligned,' joked Hutchison, because they reached a consensus and a deal.
"An architect friend helped with the organization of the interior, which includes curved walls and different angles.
" 'Wood, concrete and steel - those are the three elements we wanted to work with,' says Robinson.
"The rectangular boxy-front of the house is almost plain and rather understated, which was a deliberate approach. 'There's something nice about the anonymity of a block building ... the personality of the house is inside,' says Robinson."
"All told, the three-bedroom, 2000-plus square foot house with a finished basement cost under $500,000, including the 130-odd-foot deep lot, and the couple is pleased with how things turned out.
"The design and wide-open, bright character of their home suits their lifestyle. The loft 'feel' was deliberate - 'I like the notion of space and volume of space with high ceilings,' says Hutchison.
" 'We both love to entertain and we both love to cook - and we love to cook together,' says Robinson."
"They way things are designed, they can easily be cooking together and talking to people in the living room or dining area."
"A striking, stainless steel work island on casters - that looks like it came out of a hotel kitchen - borders the kitchen on one side, creating a generous preparation area."
"In fact, the circa 1930s steel island did come from a hotel in Chicago."
"Hutchison and Robinson found it, and the towering operating theatre light that brilliantly illuminates the work area, at Inside Modern Living on Queen St. W."
"For the backyard, the couple is planning native plants, grasses and perennials to go with some very large natural boulders trucked down from northern Ontario."
" 'I'm not a lawn person,' said Robinson, 'but I am a grass person.' "
" Mitchell also has a new construction project in the works, Mayfair Walk at 910 Logan Ave., which will consist of nine townhouses with Georgian exteriors and interior skylit atriums."
"They, too, can be customized and their Riverdale location is plunk in the middle of the Mitchell field of operations."
" 'I'm not looking in Scarborough or Richmond Hill,' says Mitchell, who loves working in the old city of Toronto."
"Mitchell likes the history of neighbourhoods, the idea of recycling old buildings, maintaining the character of neighbourhoods and 'creating housing without displacing people.' "
"At the same time he enjoys 'creating different things so I don't repeat myself from one project to the next ... it's not at all like high-rise construction.' "
Mini the dog slumbers at the foot of the stairs at
Loft House, which features mesh railings and exposed steel joists, as seen in one of three bedrooms (left).
