# The past and the future on Armstrong Avenue

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2017-07-18

accessory-dwelling-unit, adu, architects, architecture, armstrong-avenue, cities, design, industrial, laneway-house, laneway-housing, michael-taylor, raw, taylor_smyth-architects, uncategorized, urbanism

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![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/cd06344a1f2af1caac20f1d1467cbdf9.jpg)

I spent this evening driving around Toronto with an architect friend of mine looking for laneway houses. (Late summer sunsets have a wonderful way of extending the day.)

I think most people would be surprised by how many of them are hidden away behind our streets. I think of laneways as a forgotten third layer behind our major avenues and smaller streets.

One of my favorite laneway houses, pictured above, is [Armstrong Avenue](http://www.taylorsmyth.com/portfolio/residential/armstrong/) by Taylor\_Smyth Architects. It’s a bit unusual in that it’s exceptionally large for a laneway house (2,200 square feet). But that’s because the building was originally built as a dairy (1912).

What’s interesting about the house is that from the outside it looks rather nondescript. Okay, it looks raw and rundown. Here is a closer photo:

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/1072b3273a36093504f1c274cbec0169.jpg)

But then inside, it [looks like this](http://www.taylorsmyth.com/portfolio/residential/armstrong/). Modern. Clean. Polished. And light-filled.

I’m not suggesting that this should or could become a repeatable model for laneway housing in Toronto. Again, it’s a unique circumstance. But I think contrast is an extraordinary poetic device. And in this case, it speaks to both the past and the future of this city.

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/the-past-and-the-future-on-armstrong-avenue)*