Innovative design minds have come together to collaborate on Urban Capital’s RC3 – Phase Three of the avant-garde River City development in Toronto’s rejuvenated West Don Lands. For the 29 bold storeys of RC3, inside and out, every aspect of downtown living has been thought through with grace notes, extras and fresh-forged modernity. Excitement where it’s wanted and relaxation when it isn’t, the forward-thinking energy of city-living experts such as Graham Hill and Claude Cormier harnessed to make RC3 uniquely and ingeniously liveable.
Graham Hill’s visionary Ted Talk on lifeediting is at 2.2 million hits and climbing,telling people that living with less is acatalyst for a more sustainable andhappier future. In tune with his founding business, LifeEdited, Hill transcends the notion that living large in small spaces is easy to achieve with smart design and technology. With this new development comes RC3’s Graham Hill Collection: cube-within-a-cube transformable design by the man himself available to those who commission RC3’s extra-large units. “I want to think through residents’ needs before they even occur,” says Hill, “and customize with the same kind of maximizing resourcefulness I’ve brought to my own home.” With multiple work spaces, convertible guest quarters, instant dining for 10, discreet storage, private sleeping or not, Hill more than anyone knows how to open up space to every possibility.
RC3 landscape architect Claude Cormier is similarly farsighted, using his trademark imagination and sensitivity to create nourishing, gorgeous outdoor areas that make art of nature and natural art. “I decided to reflect and enhance River City’s angles, not fight them,” says Cormier, as evident in RC3’s seventh-floor glinting lap pool, for instance, and a staircase slicing with gusto into the green roof’s gently sloping lawn. Add a phalanx of playfully outsized planters, adjacent change rooms and a prep kitchen and bar for al fresco dining, and the result is seventh-floor heaven, under the sun or the moon.
At RC3 there are special features for all. For those who entertain, a soaring two-storey common room that building architects Saucier + Perrotte have appointed with every modern party convenience. For out-of-town visitors, an equally chic guest suite. For kids, a fully stocked playroom. For bookworms, a comfy and comforting reading room. For hobbyists, a work room fit for jewellers, woodworkers, or anyone with tools who needs a workspace. For cyclists, bike storage. For electric cars, a charging station. For those who work at home, an office and productivity centre with workstations, a printer/scanner station, kitchenette and boardroom. For those who prefer to work out at home, a 2,000-square-foot fully equipped gym with an airy yoga/aerobics room next door. A pet-cleaning station. A product lending library stocked with all the bulky tools, aids and implements you only use oncein a while.
Living in small spaces is not only a trend, but a necessity in our rapidly densifying urban centres. A piece entitled “Living Small in the Big City” published in the January 2014 issue of Canadian Architect speaks to the developments being made in this regard. View it here at http://www.canadianarchitect.com/news/living-small-in-the-big-city/1002884221/.