House of the Week: $8.4 million for a Bridle Path mansion that’s the ultimate in modern luxury

18 thoughts on “House of the Week: $8.4 million for a Bridle Path mansion that’s the ultimate in modern luxury”

1. Nice, I guess, if you like super modern. It’s so sterile looking – the opposite of comfort in my opinion. Looks more hotel-ish then home-ish.

2. Gorgeous but I do have a design question. I notice all the electrical outlet covers on the beige/brown/yellowish muted walls are all white- I find they really stand out against the walls and interrupt the flow/lines- I just wonder why a designer/architect would let a detail like that pass or is it a design choice? I just think for $8 million white coverings would not be a design choice. thoughts?

3. I think this is the worst one I have seen yet altho without furniture it does look more like an institution

4. this is a mess. good luck finding a sucker for this–try a rich Bay Street type that needs wow factor to get a woman to look at him…

5. It looks more like an office building/shopping mall/school. All that’s missing is a Starbucks and a Parking attendant for that massive underground garage.

6. Does anyone know who the builder is? Or designer?

7. Haha, I love how outrageously over the top this place is. I’d furnish it with finds from the free section on craigslist, throw a party with 2 clowns in the bar area, serve homeless brunch on sundays in the cafeteria and pull a Billy Madison poolside for the summer. Nice one guvnah!

8. Drop dead gorgeous! But it doesn’t look like a home. More like a resort/spa or really cool office space for a small, yet successful business.

9. This needs some good home staging to help potential buyers see themselves in the space. As others have noted, it’s very high-end office-like and sterile when empty.

10. grey – beige. As usual in this city.
    Imagine it in winter without snow, it will fit right in the surroundings.
    This place doesn’t awake any emotion.
    I wish it woul be different.

11. This is one of the most unique properties in the city. There is so much that has gone into this home that it cannot be described with a short article or a few photos. You have to see it in person to appreciate it.

12. LOOKS LIKE BUILT TO LAST A LONG TIME …WOULD LIKE THIS EVEN MORE IF I HAD THE MONEY …LIVEING THE DREAM LIFE IN CANADA..WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PROPERTY TAX ESTIMATE AMOUNT IN BY THE NUMBERS LINK..

13. Cozy digs for an oligarch.

14. Looks like a really cool office building; maybe headquarters to an industrial design/architecture firm. This is in no way a home, though. Looks so uncomfortable

15. HAHA I loved Andre’s comment! Truth of the matter is this home has been on and off the market and even one of the best real estate teams in the city is having trouble moving it, I wish TO life would put some of the better and normal priced homes in that have excellent Wow factor. The biggest issue with modern homes is that they do not have as long a life as most other contemporary homes, and this one is already outdated, hence why it is so hard to sell, the area it is in also doesnt fit with the surrounding homes which are classy and not “over the top” Its going to take some Sultan to buy this.

16. Wow! This house is truly stunning. Unfortunately, based on the majority of comments, it’s apparent that most Torontonians are still very conservative when it comes to adopting modernism in residential architecture. In public spaces, we may appreciate the minimalism of Meis van der Rohe’s TD Centre, the sculptural beauty of Viljo Revell’s City Hall or the the sinuous modern forms of Santiago Calatrava’s Allen Lambert Galleria. However, it’s a shame that these and many other ground breaking modernist movements haven’t infected more of Toronto’s staid and boring residential architecture like it has in more progressive cities like Amsterdam, Mexico City, Madrid, Shanghai, New York, Los Angeles or even Vancouver. Why are Torontonians forever doomed to go home to houses based on architecture styles of the 1800’s and early 1900’s!

    Unfortuantely, most Torontonians look at this house and only see it’s minimalist walls and “cold impersonal” materials palette. That’s understandable because the majority of houses in Toronto are built to enclose us and protect us from our “harsh” climate and the “sub-division views”. What Torontonians don’t appreciate is the concept of minimalism and what minimalist architects and designers attempt to do. Minimalism is not about the materials and walls of the building, but about the space and it’s surroundings. It’s about the natural light that hits the space at various times during the day, uncoloured by “designer paint schemes” and “decorative” embellishments. It’s about the unobstructed view of the ravine from various vantage points throughout this house. In essence, like a picture frame, this house merely frames the natural beauty of it’s surroundings.

    To truly experience the real warmth of this house and it’s ravine setting at the crest of hoggs hollow, you really need to visit it in person. Fortunately, many of us “ordinary citizens” got the opportunity to walk through the house because this summer, the seller had an open house every Sunday for more than 8 weeks in a row… and no, you didn’t need to be a Russian oligarch to get through the front gates, although the 32 camera CCTV security system was probably watching every move all of the vistors were making every second!

17. I think the reason so many Torontonians are so conservative is familiarity. In Europe and Asia (and even Vancouver), the number of existing contemporary residential projects are far greater than what we have in Toronto. As a result, the residents of those cities are “more comfortable” with contemporary residential architecture. So for th majority of Torontonians, the chances of visiting a friend or relative living in a contemporary house is very limited. Therefore, the only chance of experiencing how truly “warm and cozy” a contemporary home can really feel (contrary to all of the previous commentators that feel most contemporary houses are cold and sterile) is to stay in a $750+ per night botique designer hotel like the Park Hyatt Beijing or W-Hotel Mexico City. Unfortunately, for most of us, that’s not an option.

18. Having been born and raised in Paris, France, I think it’s a shame so many North Americans don’t appreciate the simple, uncluttered lines of contemporary interior design. Europe embraced functional contemporary design out of necessity. We don’t live in large suburban sub-divisions and drive eveywhere we want to go. We were forced to maximize evey square metre of space and forced to throw away a lot of clutter. So choosing contemporary design in North America less about functinality and more about choice and experimentation. And how many North Americans have tried escargot, fois gras or les grenouilles jambes…

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