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First, I imagined an eight-year-old client, and then went looking for the perfect tree.

As I walked, my gaze flicked from one tree to the other: Is the crotch low enough but not too low? Is the bowl nice and wide? Are there minimal branches to get in the way?

I found a few, including Leslieville's famous Maple Leaf Forever tree and another beside Captain Fluke's mausoleum at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, so I contacted three architecture firms I've come to admire over the years - Brown + Storey, Agathom and Sustainable - to ask if they would design a fictional tree house as a sort of springtime present that we could all enjoy.

My thinking, at that stage, was that by finding the best tree possible and pairing it with some of the city's best architectural minds, I'd end up with three soul-stirring images to inspire anyone who may be thinking of building a tree house this year.

And then I threw half that plan out the window.

The perfect tree wouldn't guarantee a great tree house. Rather, an imperfect tree - such as the kind most of us have in our backyards - probably would, because the best architectural designs come from overcoming a challenge. Besides, when I called the city to find out what was involved, the nice man kept asking me questions about my specific lot and the tree I was planning on using. So, rather than explaining to him that I was building a theoretical tree house, I just started telling him about, well, the big maple in my backyard.

And you know what? It's not a bad candidate. With a trunk circumference of 54 inches (137 centimetres), it's plenty sturdy. While it does sit a bit close to the property line - at 19 inches (48 centimetres) to the fence it just squeaks past the foot-and-a-half rule - the lowest crotch "V" is at 5 foot 8, which doesn't seem too high for a ladder. Also, since I learned that the top of any structure I build cannot exceed a height of five metres, this means there's room for a good ceiling height.







Other items to consider: The tree should be no less than six feet (1.8 metres) away from the main dwelling; to avoid having to obtain a building permit the tree house should be less than 100 square feet; when I do figure out that square footage, I must add that number to the square footage of any other buildings on my lot (a shed or gazebo, for example) and then add that total to the square footage of my house. The final figure should not exceed 33 per cent coverage of my lot size. Since I'm terrible at math, I'm glad I'm not actually building anything.

Other points: If the tree is on a ravine lot (which I do not have), the tree may be protected by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and therefore off-limits. Also, the City of Toronto Urban Forestry Services' Private Tree By-law means that every tree, no matter where, cannot be "injured" without first obtaining permission (a detailed application form can be found online).







So, with all of those things in mind, here is the brief I have given to the three firms involved:

•To be safe, design the structure so that it "hangs" a little into my yard. Please don't place any windows on the side that faces the neighbour. While I was told I don't have to get a neighbour's permission to build a tree house if it adheres to all zoning by-laws, it's always a good idea to play nice (remember that pirate ship tree house that made headlines in British Columbia a few years ago that was ultimately taken down because of a neighbour's complaint?)

•Keep the floor area to 99 square feet or less.

•Although the permit office recommended I check with the Urban Forestry people no matter what, let's see if it's possible to build without the use of nails or screws. Can the structure wedge itself into the tree's nooks or crannies or be held by cables of some sort?

•The client: An eight-year-old boy. He's asthmatic and slightly chubby so he can't climb rope ladders. While he has a lot of friends on the street who will visit him here, he also loves to sit alone and think about flying saucers. In fact, he would probably like some sort of lookout where he could hunt for them, or at least look at the stars. Rather than read comics, he likes to draw his own, so it'd be nice if a part of the tree house could be very private.

•If the budget could be kept to $2,500 or less (materials, since labour on this sort of thing is always free) that would be great.

Since Kim Storey grew up in Chatham, Ont., surrounded by the striking modernist architecture of her father, Joe Storey, and she and husband James Brown now share a part of their studio space with legendary Toronto modernist Jerome Markson (who started practising in 1955), I expect a strikingly modern design from this duo (or trio).

The same holds true for Adam Thom of Agathom. While clearly a man with an architectural vision of his own, his father was none other than the British Columbia wunderkind Ron Thom, who gave us Massey College. Despite the serious lineage, Mr. Thom is also a man in touch with his own inner child (see the column in January on the silly and inspiring live-work space he and his Danish wife, Katja have created for themselves), so it'll be interesting to see what springs from Agathom's drafting board.

It will be interesting, too, to see what architect Paul Dowsett of Sustainable produces. One of the "greenest" architects around, I wonder if he'll give our eight-year-old a zero-footprint place with a solar panel to power a reading lamp, or materials that can be easily recycled when the little boy grows up?

Oh, and he will grow up, by the way. He might even grow up to write a column called the Architourist. And if one of those designs really speaks to him when it's published in the April 16, 2010, edition of Globe Real Estate, you may see him at the lumberyard the very next day.

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