Custom Residential Design & Renovation
Spotlight
Clovelly Cottage
Adjacent to the open expanse of Georgian Bay, three modest cabins were dramatically transformed to enhance the qualities of their island setting. The primary cabin’s kitchen replaced a covered porch dramatically opening the main living space. An addition provided a utility room, washroom, and mudroom, while a timber-framed screened porch, and a large, glazed sitting...
Lytton Park Ravine Residence
This spectacular ravine site in Lytton Park had a complex and unresolved architectural pedigree. The original residence, a compact 1940s stone cottage, received an ambitious but compromised modernist addition in the 1970s. ERA was asked to stitch the two eras and architectures together into a more cohesive whole. ERA’s custom residential studio excelled at finding...
Caledon Log Cabin Restoration
Underneath layers of siding, on what appeared as a forgotten agricultural outbuilding, hid a 150-year-old log cabin. ERA was hired to assess the viability of restoring the existing structure and reimagine it into a private artist studio hideaway nestled into a rustic landscape estate. To better understand the heritage of the site and the structure...
Hamilton House
Working with the young and savvy family, ERA designed a functional addition and associated alterations to the Stockbroker Tudor house. Built in 1937, modifications to the registered historic home needed to blend seamlessly blend with the Tudor exterior and the clients’ clear and established vision for the interior. Centered around a large kosher kitchen, the...
Rosedale Ravine House
Built in 1912, this Arts & Crafts Eden Smith-designed home had seen a number of renovations and alterations over the course of a century. The owners acquired the residence and proposed extensive improvements to the interior. Their goal was to enjoy the benefits of a historical home updated for contemporary living, completely redesigning the full...
South Rosedale Residence
This property is situated in Toronto’s historic South Rosedale Heritage Conservation District. ERA worked with the owner to design a replacement house that better complemented the streetscape, architectural forms and materiality of the neighbourhood. Taking important architectural cues from nearby Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne residences and carefully analyzing eaves lines, roof forms and fenestration,...
Hudson Valley House
This stately 1850’s farmhouse in New York’s Hudson Valley was fully restored and updated in 2021. ERA worked closely with the owners to design a contemporary addition to the historic house, while ensuring that the architectural prominence of the original was preserved. The addition is connected by a glazed link, allowing views to penetrate through...
Barronsbrae Cottage
Barronsbrae is a fine example of the rustic early 20th century cottage type found in Pointe au Baril on Georgian Bay. Purchased by its current owners in 2020 from a descendant of the original owner’s family, the cottage was in an advanced state of disrepair. ERA worked with the new owners to preserve its historic...
Captain G.E. Morden House
Built in 1858, Captain G.E. Morden House is an example of an original residential estate built during the time of settlement in the Town of Oakville. The building’s historical value is rooted in its past as the home to Oakville’s Morden family from 1900-1947. Captain George Handy Morden owned and operated several Lake Schooners and...
Algonquin Great Camp
This vast lakefront site with an ensemble of historic log buildings was reconstituted as a family compound after an intervening period as a children’s camp. ERA refurbished the interior of the main lodge to highlight its expressive log construction details. The staircase’s intricately detailed log work gives the cottage a rustic, ranch-like feel, and complements...
Historic Camp
This early historic Pointe au Baril cottage was a quintessential cottage type, later expanded to include a tower belvedere and outbuildings scattered over the island’s rock outcroppings. ERA’s design work overhauled the main cottage by reorganizing the living and sleeping spaces through the elimination of an underused second entrance and the addition of a new...
Mid-Century Retreat
Comfortably nestled among this island’s trees, the existing 1950’s family cottage was sprawling and in need of a significant overhaul to improve its comfort and appearance. ERA redesigned the space to bring in more lake light and in so doing flaunt the massive stone fireplace and expose the previously hidden, beautiful, soaring wooden roof. A...
Osler Slope
On a large farm surrounded by forest, horse trails and fields, this site was chosen for its stunning views of both Osler Mountain and Georgian Bay. To capture the views east toward the water, ERA designed an inverted contemporary spit-level residence: living spaces on the upper floor with the bedrooms below. Rational volumes and carefully...
Off-Grid Island Cottage
This family had summered at Pointe au Baril for decades, enjoying much of this Georgian Bay island. On a ruggedly beautiful site with expansive lake views, ERA designed a simple set of airy spaces that responded to the landscape, while leaving a light ecological footprint in this new, off-the-grid cottage. Living spaces are cool and...
