In the world of listicles, some sources provide more substantive ones than others (and fewer weird ads you’d rather not see), and one of the more fun sources in the built environment sphere that UrbanToronto readers will appreciate is Architectural Digest, even if their stories often tend more to interior design than actual architecture. Recently though, AD turned their sights to 11 of the buildings in the world that they consider ‘The World’s Most Beautiful Repurposed Buildings’, and hometown favourite Hariri Pontarini Architects has made the list with a hometown favourite project from the last decade; 7 St Thomas near Bay and Bloor.
The 9-storey office building was developed by St Thomas Commercial Developments, having purchased six Victorian townhouse buildings along St Thomas and Sultan streets which had mostly been converted to commercial use over the years. Over the 2010s, plans were made and then realized to retain the entirely of the Victorian heritage street-front walls while renovating the interiors and building up behind.
Architectural Digest cites the marriage of the 1880-built townhomes with the “sparkling six-story tower, starkly illustrating the synthesis of new and old. While the preserved red brick harkens back to a very different time than curved, glassy, modern structure with which it shares an address, the newer build’s set-back positioning keeps it from overwhelming its centuries-old predecessor.”
Click here to catch the other 10 buildings that Architectural Digest singled out around the world, of you can learn more about 7 St Thomas from our Database file, linked below. If you’d like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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| Related Companies: | gh3, Hariri Pontarini Architects |