Density on a Dime

With the unique perks of urban living—such as hopping the train or walking wherever you go, and having an endless supply of restaurants and shops right outside your door—come the unique demands for urban residential design. Many residential buildings in large cities are functional or beautiful, but only those with the highest budgets offer both livability and distinguishable design. When you add the laundry list of municipal codes and guidelines, few architecture firms deliver on budget. But Toronto-based TACT Architecture is one of those firms that does.

Specializing in mid- to high-rise condo buildings in the GTA, TACT has achieved aesthetically appealing and highly functional design at an affordable price. “The success of our practice inherently lies with the ability to work with our clients to achieve noteworthy architecture while meeting tight financial constraints,” says principal Prishram Jain. “Our approach is that well-designed condominium buildings can also be within industry-wide standard budgets.”

Most of TACT’s clients aim to achieve as much density as possible. The trick is balancing this while maintaining a distinctive architectural style. Many firms produce drab-looking buildings because they focus exclusively on the municipal requirements or limitations presented by an urban site. Not TACT. The firm manages to maintain the architectural intent at no additional cost premium.

Although TACT is able to produce architecturally significant buildings, that doesn’t mean it dives into each project on a mission to make it as eye-catching as possible. The firm first assesses the developer’s needs in terms of size, functionality, and must-have features for the building, and then creates an aesthetic to accommodate those objectives. “Private-sector residential condominium architecture is among the most challenging of architectural typologies,” Jain says. “It is almost entirely economically driven. In our experience, if an architectural treatment on a residential building is not essential to the building design, it will most likely be value-engineered out.”

Sometimes a client’s criteria call for a very subtle aesthetic. One of the firm’s recent projects, 2 Gladstone, a 55-unit, 8-storey residence building designed for Streetcar Developments, is a case in point. TACT learned that the project could not overshadow the historic Gladstone Hotel, located across the street.

“Our response was to literally step back and away from the prominence of the tower of the Gladstone Hotel,” Jain says. “By freeing up the corner of the site, it allowed the Gladstone Hotel to assert its prominence. The massing, proportions, and materiality take their cues from the hotel without being overtly referential or pastiche. As a result, the nearly completed building engages in an architectural dialogue with the Gladstone Hotel.”

TACT’s commitment to high-quality, development-focused design can also be seen in its work with Urbancorp Developments, one of the largest developers of residential condominiums and townhouses in Toronto. “Urbancorp is pioneering large-scale high-rise projects in Toronto that are entirely heated and cooled using geothermal technology,” Jain says.

As TACT Architecture continues to design residential buildings throughout Toronto, the firm focuses on responsible urban design while keeping cost in mind. For Jain, who is also president of TACT Development Inc., a sister company to TACT Architecture, cost-effective building and quality architecture should be symbiotic.

“[Through] the balance between a strong, consistent architectural aesthetic and ability to generate revenue … we acquire the discipline to design with development in mind and develop with design in mind,” he says. “We have narrowed the gap to a point where we can design for others as we would for ourselves, and develop for others as we would for ourselves.”