Smoked glass isn’t for everyone, but when Richard Kuchinsky first saw it in the entry hall of this row house in Toronto’s Midtown neighborhood, it just clicked. “I greatly appreciated that the house was mostly all original, with preserved materials and finishes from the 1977 design,” says Richard. “The large, full-wall smoked mirror in the foyer definitely sets the tone.”

When Richard—who’s a footwear designer, the founder of the Directive Collective, and a midcentury-modern design enthusiast—and his wife, Nicole, bought the home in 2018, they knew they wanted to preserve that original ’70s sprit. They just needed updates that were more conducive to everyday life with their two children.

Before: Entry

After: Entry

“Some areas, such as the eat-in breakfast area, were hardly ever used, and we wanted to ensure we had space for a growing family and my home design studio,” says Richard. “The kitchen in particular was tiny and not suitable for our love of cooking.”

After: Powder Room

Before: Kitchen and Main Room

After: Kitchen

Richard and Nicole hadn’t heard of the original architect, Bernard Rasch, when they first walked through the home, but later research piqued their interest in his work, which appealed to Richard as a designer.

The couple sought an architecture studio that could “understand the balance of new and old we were seeking to achieve,” says Richard, and they tapped architects Maria Denegri and Tom Bessai of Denegri Bessai Studio for the job. “It was a project of its era, the best of the ’70s,” says Bessai of the house. “Rasch was taking the run-of-the-mill planning that you would see in regular Toronto houses, many of them are from the Victorian period, and he was exploding that in a radical way.”

For instance, Rasch gave the home a flat roof (instead of the typical gable and dormer seen in prewar row houses), with pronounced half-circle windows and a 45-degree-triangular tower at the front corner of the facade. “That’s just a chimney,” notes Bessai. While prewar row houses typically have internal staircases in line with the entry, Rasch’s layout places an open-tread staircase horizontal to the door, to underscore the home’s high ceilings. “The perpendicular stair is one of the key elements that gives the house these incredible volumes,” says Denegri.

Before: Kitchen

After: Kitchen

To kick off the design process, Richard provided the architects with an 18-page design brief, complete with inspiration imagery, keywords and themes, and notes on colors and materials—including smoked glass, unlacquered brass, and terrazzo.

The architects started by finessing the layout. First, they opened up the kitchen and enlarged it on the main floor. Then, they converted a sitting room/office connected to the principal bedroom into a new third bedroom, so each child could have their own room, and they reworked the bathrooms.

Terrazzo now appears liberally throughout. “It’s definitely an homage to the period of the house,” says Denegri—from the black-and-white honed tile on the foyer floor, to the large-scale tile with oversize chunks of recycled marble in the powder bath, and the kitchen’s vibrant pink backsplash.

“Terrazzo was always in my mind. It is such a period-specific material, and yet it can be very modern and graphic,” says Richard. “Our expert tiler was able to achieve a very thin grout line with matching grout which makes it almost appear as a seamless, poured terrazzo finish. I love to see it every time I walk in the front door.”

After: Living Room and Dining Room

Details are meticulously considered throughout, from the shark-nose edge of the kitchen counter to the furniture layout in the living room that incorporates Richard’s favorite midcentury pieces. When a structural pier couldn’t be removed in the kitchen, the architects and Richard embraced it, covering it in white subway tile, and adding a bright-red switch plate. “That pier became the fulcrum for me,” says Denegri. “Everything pivots around it.”

Before: Primary Suite

After: Primary Suite

One point of discussion between architects and client was what to do with the original staircase. The existing carpet covered up the wood, and the team debated whether open risers would be a safety concern with kids.

“I fought to preserve the original solid wood treads,” says Richard, which the group did, while restoring the old wood. Now, the staircase is considered by all to be “an anchor for the entire house and the design,” says Richard—combined with the preserved smoked glass and terrazzo tile. “There is a kind of a playfulness as far as the materiality” of the house, says Bessai. “But the modernist bones still show through.”

Before: Family Bath

After: Family Bath

More Before & After stories:

They Saved One of the Last Midcentury Homes in Their Lakefront Neighborhood

In the Caribbean, a Couple Bring a Wooden Prefab Back to Shipshape Condition

They Updated a 1980 Catskills Cabin—by Making It Look Like the 1880s

Project Credits:

Architecture: Denegri Bessai Studio / @denegribessai

Builder: Canfield & Co

Structural Engineer: Kieffer Structural Engineering

Interior Design: Denegri Bessai Studio

Cabinetry Design: Denegri Bessai Studio / Canfield & Co.

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