YOGA STUDIO WITH A VIEW
Ville-Marie condo fits the bill for home/work life
By the time he was 10 years old, Paul Terni could speak five languages — English, French, Arabic, Armenian and Italian. He came by his linguistic skills — impressive in one so young — because of his upbringing in Alexandria, Egypt. His father was Italian. His mother came from an Armenian family. Terni was schooled in the British educational system and French was the language spoken at home.
According to Terni, his father had “done very well for himself.” Before the Second World War, he was the manager of the Banco di Roma in Egypt and after the war he ran the company that held the franchise for the Coca-Cola Company. In 1956, the Suez Crisis hit and, as Terni puts it, “nationalism raised its ugly head.”
At that point, the family decided to leave Egypt and, by 1962, Terni had immigrated to Canada where he met his Canadian wife. Now retired, he spent decades working in the computer industry. Andrea Terni is a yoga teacher — a profession that affected their choice of
apartment, a third-floor condo in Ville-Marie.
Q How did your work affect your apartment hunting ?
Andrea We were looking for a pied-à-terre because we have a house in the Eastern Townships where we spend part of the week. I didn’t want to have to rent a yoga studio as well. The layout of
the living and dining room was ideal for teaching my classes. As you can see, half of the room is covered in floor mats!
Q You said the view from the apartment attracted you as well?
Paul It did. (He points out of the bay window, which looks out over Sherbrooke Street West, the Collège de Montréal and the
Grand Séminaire with its twin towers.)
Q The towers are pretty old, are they not?
P Indeed they are. They were built in the 17th century.
Q Your bay window must let in a lot of light. Your houseplants are really thriving. Your yellow walls are cheery, too.
A We painted them that colour because I wanted something bright in the living room.
Q What about the flooring ? Is that hardwood?
A No, it’s laminated bamboo. When we bought the apartment back in 1999, the floors were covered in broadloom.
Q Did you have to do anything else to the interior?
P No. The apartment was in pretty good shape. The building itself dates back to 1927, but there was a fire in 1973 and at that point the owners renovated all the apartments and reconfigured the layouts. I think there used to be three apartments on each floor. They all had a maid’s room. After the fire, the owners reconfigured the layout to create four apartments on each floor. By the time we bought it in 1999, the building had been converted into condos.
Q I see your furniture is midcentury, kind of Scandinavian in style.
P Most of it, like the teak bookshelves and the dining table and chairs, came from our previous home in Town of Mount Royal. We have more teak furniture in the master bedroom.
(We walk into the couple’s bedroom, which has Oriental-style rugs on the floor and two-tone grey/green contrasting walls. Standing in front of the walls are a couple of teak chests of drawers. We walk into a second bedroom, which is furnished with a sofa, an armchair, a desk and a chair.)
Q Is this your home office? Or a den?
A It’s our catch-all! Our TV room. Our computer room. Our office. Our mess! It’s a guest bedroom, too. The sofa pulls out into a bed.
Q I couldn’t help noticing that practically every wall in the apartment is hung with beautiful paintings. They almost make your home look like an art gallery! Tell me about them.
P Nearly all of them were painted by an uncle of mine, Oscar Terni, though we do have some other artwork as well. Oscar was my mother’s brother and in the 1940s and ’50s, he was one of the most prominent painters in Alexandria. He had some of his work shown at the Venice and Sâo Paulo Biennales and at the Salon d’Hiver in Paris.
Q After your family left Egypt, did he move to Canada as well?
P No, he didn’t, but he left Egypt for the same reasons as I did — the unstable political situation. He ended up in Paris, where he
tried to relaunch his career, but it was very difficult.
Q I guess it was a very competitive market?
P It was.
Q How did the paintings end up here?
P After my uncle died, his widow in Paris passed them on to me. I shipped over 75 pieces in all.
Q It must be lovely to be surrounded by all this great art.
Would you ever sell any of them?
P We haven’t thought about it in any serious way, but of course, if the right buyer happened to come along…
If you would like your home to be considered for Shelter, please contact hloverseed@sympatico.ca.