An architect’s summer home: Downtown looks in a cottage context

January 30, 2014
By John Bentley Mays, Special to The Globe and Mail

For Torontonians enduring the city’s early January weather, next summer must seem impossibly far off. The worst of the winter is, more than likely, yet to come; and many weeks will pass before we can confidently stow away snow boots and mitts once and for all.

But the very bleakness of this time of year makes it a good moment to think forward to what’s waiting for us in a future that is not, after all, so very distant – things such as swims in lakes, barbeques on the deck and other pleasures of the warm months. And, of course, many Toronto people enjoy love cottage life.

Toronto architect Charles Gane is looking forward to April, when he will open up his 2,000-square-foot Georgian Bay cottage for its first complete season. More…