The house of well-known Toronto artist and art dealer Charles Pachter is a stone's throw from the spectacularly reworked Art Gallery of Ontario. Frank Gehry's AGO, basking in critical acclaim, makes an impressive neighbour.
But Mr. Pachter's home has its own — albeit more modest — success story, and has garnered design kudos of its own, namely the 2007 award of excellence from the Ontario Association of Architects.
Honours aside, it's clear when you hear the details of how his house was created that it was a labour of love.
It was designed by architect Stephen Teeple, and his associate, Bernard Jin, together with Mr. Pachter himself. Mr. Teeple — who won two Governor-General's awards in architecture this year — calls 22 Grange Ave. a "collaborative process."
It was a meeting of the minds when Mr. Teeple and Mr. Pachter sat down in 2002 over glasses of single-malt scotch in the property's backyard that the vision for Pachter Hall was born.
And although Mr. Teeple says his firm contributed the architectural ideas, he adds that the 65-year-old artist was invested in the design every step of the way, fine-tuning details to ensure the home would deliver a stunning experience.
"It kind of puts him on the map a little bit. For a single painter, it's an expressive little building," Mr. Teeple says. "It gives him some presence. He kind of saw it as his mini-baby AGO. The whole city shares in the AGO, but every little thing counts."
The house at 22 Grange in Toronto is a striking contrast to the rickety Victorian homes stuffed into Chinatown's narrow lots. It's modernist right down to its sans-serif grey "twenty-two" street address. The structure consists of three stacked segments, the middle one set farther back so the top careens dramatically forward. The glass and steel panelling at the front and back of the house make for an inviting facade.
The 6,200-square-foot, three-storey expanse contains Moose Factory, Mr. Pachter's gallery, as well as his studio and loft-style living space.
The house had humbler beginnings, though. When Mr. Pachter first bought the property in 1996 for just $145,000, it was a ramshackle garage with a lot full of garbage and a warehouse at the back, curving behind a neighbour's house.
When he happened upon it, he says, the warehouse was about a century old, having once been a Jewish funeral home and, later, a Chinese wholesale food storage facility, complete with bags of rice and old food spilled everywhere.
Mr. Pachter was no stranger to architectural projects: For close to 30 years he's been renovating and selling homes mostly in the neighbourhood between Dundas and Queen streets. He doesn't like the term house-flipper, although he's renovated 24 dwellings, including this one, to date.
"It's not the same — I lived in them," he explains. "This art palace is the end result of 40 years of making art, having art shows and renovating old dumps."
After he bought this property, he fixed up the warehouse, tore down the garage, and, in 1998, opened Moose Factory to showcase his work, all the while living in a nearby house. But in 2002, he sold that house and committed himself to building his dream home in the driveway at 22 Grange.
"I said, 'I've got one chance to do this right,'" he says. But turning his visions of Pachter Hall into reality "cost twice what I thought it would."
The rear warehouse is still Mr. Pachter's gallery and studio space. It's joined to the house by a hallway, while an outdoor courtyard with a fountain in the centre is situated between the two. Inside, a glass elevator moves slowly up to the second and third floors. (The first two floors both provide a sitting and gallery space.) The third floor is Mr. Pachter's private loft overlooking the street, complete with bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and office.
