Tall Order: a 2,000-square-foot tower in Corktown with almost no interior walls
Tall Order: a 2,000-square-foot tower in Corktown with almost no interior walls
The People: Julie Dyck, a 43-year-old jeweller, and Michael Humphries, a 44-year-old mobile app designer.
The Place: A 2,000-square-foot tower with two home offices in Corktown.
Dyck and Humphries were living in a converted storefront near Queen and Parliament when they noticed a For Sale sign on a 25-by-25-foot lot next door. This was a decade ago, and they weren’t quite sure what could be built in such a tiny space, but Dyck has a DIY bent and was determined to figure it out. She enlisted the architect Drew Hauser, a childhood friend, and together they designed a five-storey glass, brick and steel structure. The house has almost no interior walls—aside from those that surround the two bathrooms—which makes it feel surprisingly large.
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- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Tall Order: a 2,000-square-foot tower with two home offices in Corktown
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- The stairs <br /> were made from <br /> old-growth logs reclaimed from <br /> the bottom of Georgian Bay.
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- The wooden divider doubles as a table extension, which allows for big dinner parties—or, more frequently, games of Ping-<br /> Pong (it’s close <br /> to regulation size).<br /> <p><br /> The floor lamp, from Thailand, is made from moth cocoons.</p>
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- The gas fireplace was fashioned from bricks left over from the exterior.
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- The couple spend most of their time in the summer in the rooftop garden, where they have an incredible view over St. Paul’s Basilica Parish and their Queen East neighbourhood.
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- The kitchen island, countertops and backsplash were all crafted from marble salvaged from First Canadian Place.
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![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/style/great-spaces-tall-order-corktown-tower/&title=Tall Order: a 2,000-square-foot tower in Corktown with almost no interior walls&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/great-spaces-tall-order-05-624x624.jpg&description=By Lucy Dusko and Peter Saltsman | Photographs by Derek Shapton
The People: Julie Dyck, a 43-year-old jeweller, and Michael Humphries, a 44-year-old mobile app designer.
The Place: A 2,000-square-foot tower with two home offices in Corktown.
Dyck and Humphries were living in a converted storefront near Queen and Parliament when they noticed a For Sale sign on a 25-by-25-foot lot next door. This was a decade ago, and they weren’t quite sure what could be built in such a tiny space, but Dyck has a DIY bent and was determined to figure it out. She enlisted the architect Drew Hauser, a childhood friend, and together they designed a five-storey glass, brick and steel structure. The house has almost no interior walls—aside from those that surround the two bathrooms—which makes it feel surprisingly large.
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