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April 27 - May 4,2003 |
Open Plans of Unit A
New architecture firm seeks public input in cityscape design.
By Mark Curtis
Originally Published: 2003-04-20
The patriarch of television's The Brady Bunch notwithstanding, the working life of an architect is largely a mystery to most members of the general public, but three Toronto architects want to change all that.
Stewart Adams, Jeff Latto and Francesca Piccaluga formed their Unit A architecture firm last fall and a month ago set up shop, quite literally, in a storefront on the edge of Toronto's rough-around-the-edges Parkdale neighbourhood. "We want to make the design process a little bit more public," says Latto, who worked with Adams at the Toronto office of international architecture firm HOK. Adams and Piccaluga are partners in life as well. (Piccaluga is the daughter of Francesco Piccaluga, who along with brother Aldo are local legends for bringing an unparalleled level of detail and precision to Toronto architectural projects in the 1970s such as La Fenice restaurant and the revolving dining room at the CN Tower. They continue to work today.) All three principals of Unit A have practised architecture for a dozen years or more. The name Unit A was chosen for its understatedness and implies that as the firm grows, more 'units" will be added.
Not content that passers-by and clients visiting their spartan 700-square foot office at Dundas Street and Ossington Avenue will see a more transparent design process (the space is the former home of a Vietnamese fashion emporium in this eclectic neighbourhood), Adams, Latto and Piccaluga are also strongly advocating the ramping up of the quality of Toronto's civic architecture, a quality which Adams notes has dropped off noticeably in the past 20 years, citing Metro Hall as an example. The architect says that while the citizenry of Toronto of many generations ago would have been pleased to know that the local government was planning a new civic building for their environs (think the R. C. Harris water filtration plant circa 1930), citizens in recent decades have lost faith in city officials and developers to create civic buildings and spaces which are anything more than economically driven. (City Hall, of course, was one notable exception.)
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