August
10
2010
By Greg Sacks
By the age of four you already knew the secret to travelling well—a Sesame Street puppet sang it to you everyday. It's all about the people in your neighborhood. On a recent wander through Toronto's Cabbagetown I met some locals preserving (and displaying) their own neighbourhood.
Toronto housing, like most things in Toronto, can be fairly described as humble and upon first encounter even accused of blandness. Aside from Gehry's AGO, Libeskind's crystal and Will Alsop's painted box on stilts, the city has few architectural bragging rights. But that's okay—our fine city is a slow charmer rather than a bombshell. Take for example Cabbagetown—the largest continuous area of preserved Victorian housing in North America.
Starting in the 1830s as a landing pad for immigrants, Cabbagetown has gone through dramatic cycles of growth and decline; it's a forever-changing neighborhood that has always catered to both rich and poor alike. At its core you'll find a rather tony neighborhood of doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs, living in sprawling mansions or the neighboring workmen's cottages whose sobre facades bely the now luxurious appointments within. With so much heritage to preserve, the demand for renovation is high. Enter Kendall & Co.
Kendall Williams has been a Cabbagetown design fixture for over 10 years, at one point working on five different homes on the same street. As his business quietly grew by word of mouth, he came to befriend many of the local residents, and observed their penchant for showing off their homes. On April 10th he and partner Kevin Kung opened up Kendall & Co—half design studio, half retail shop located in the heart of the Parliament Street retail drag. While prices vary (funky décor items cost less than $20 while full custom builds cost over $300,000), the idea is always the same—intelligent, local, environmentally sustainable design for people who love to entertain.
That entertaining spirit extends beyond just close friends next month; for a voyeuristic look into some of Cabbagetown's heritage gems, don't miss the Cabbagetown Tour of Homes on Sunday September 19th.
Greg Sacks lives in a humble (but never bland) house in Toronto, where he dreams of a $300,000 custom build of his own. Until that day, you can contact him here and check out our trip planning site for more inspiration. Or follow us on Facebook and Twitter (if you're more social network savvy than Greg is).