Backlane Condos?

Designer Trevor Kruse has a vision for Toronto -- horizontal condominiums for the city's alleys.

1 minute read

March 14, 2005, 1:00 PM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


Visionary designer Trevor Kruse has a "plan to transform downtown Toronto's back lanes into 'horizontal condominium' projects that seems as far-fetched today as the transformation of crumbling warehouse districts into trendy lofts and nightclubs used to -- until it happened.

His idea is to convert the little-used alleyways lined with decrepit garages that crisscross Toronto's downtown neighbourhoods into condominium communities with funky little two-storey dwellings that don't interfere with the big houses on residential streets.

The compact 600-, 900- and 1,200-square foot units would face each other across a strip of hard-and-soft-landscaping, presenting a blank back wall to the backyards of existing homes on the streets, which would not lose any garden space and would be given a parking space underground."

Thanks to John Koch-Schulte

Saturday, March 12, 2005 in The Globe and Mail

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