THE SUITE LIFE
The plan behind the Randall Residences was to bring a touch of Paris — and a lot of luxury, with interiors by Drake’s designer — to Oakville
If you’re a tourist in Paris, Old World architecture rewards the act of looking up. Scrolled iron balconies, cornices jutting off walls, arched windows fronting chic apartments — such flourishes, extraordinary to most North American visitors, are to the French the norm.
“Their buildings have substantial detailing,” says the architect Richard Wengle, who runs an eponymous architectural firm in Toronto.
Our contemporary steel- and-glass approach, he says, has nothing on Beaux-arts, the architectural style popularized in Europe in the latter half of the 19th century. That’s why, when it came to designing the Randall Residences, opened this past fall in southeast Oakville, Wengle turned to Paris — and Le Petite Trianon, a small château near the Palace of Versailles — as an inspiration.
The proportions felt right: luxurious and low- pitched, the Randall, built by Rosehaven Homes, contains 36 units, starting at $ 2.4 million and ranging from 1,807 to 2,586 square feet. All but nine have been spoken for.
“Beaux-arts architecture is timeless because it’s classical but not too fussy,” says Wengle.
“It relates well because it’s only a four- storey building and yet it’s a whole city block.” The challenge he faced, he explains, was how to design the building “so that it’s not a mega- block without life on it.”
The answer: animate the facade. To do this, Wengle chose protruding cornices atop columns, formal corner colonnades, recessed archways, limestone details and — an especially luxurious detail — black granite pavers for the sidewalk. Alongside stately symmetrical windows, metal lanterns and coach lighting that casts night lighting upward, the effect is striking.
It didn’t come cheap. A contemporary design would have been more cost- effective, Wengle says. “A developer would normally go right to the lot line, fill it up, max out your revenue,” but the developer — Marco Guglietti — “encouraged us to spare no expense. They gave up space on the ground floor just to create the colonnades,” adds Wengle. “That’s where the building undulates. There’s light and shadow and life.”
This was about creating “a legacy building for Marco,” says Wengle, describing the developer “as an inspirational force on the project.”
No less cushy are the interiors. Celebrity designer Ferris Rafauli brought his A- game. No biggie — he finessed Drake’s sprawling mansion on the Bridle Path and counts Wayne Gretzky as a client.
For The Randall interiors, the designer has emulated the feel of an opulent custom home. “I wanted to create a warmth and a luxuriousness that was the exact opposite of what most would consider condo living,” Rafauli said in an email interview.
In part, that comes from the units’ “beautiful traffic flow, soaring ceilings, grand spaces,” he said.
Push open an oversized door and in most of the suites spill out into a generous rotunda lobby. Underfoot, the circular, hand- cut patterned marble- and- granite floor is eye- catching. Up top, crown detailing provides ceiling interest.
The space, said Rafauli, “is intended to be dressed in flavourful artwork.”
Back inside, the kitchens are what you’d expect to find in a luxury home: Rafauli has joined forces with the team at NEFF Kitchens to design the cabinetry; there are heavily veined marble islands on turned feet and chef-style Wolf appliances.
Indeed, many buyers have sold their houses to move here, according to Linda Metcalfe, purchase and legal manager at Rosehaven Homes.
“These are people at the top of their field, they’re retired, they don’t need a large house anymore,” she says. “They do a lot of travelling but they don’t want to downsize.”
Another type of buyer Metcalfe is seeing in the building: “entrepreneurs who are moving up.”
Both demographics have been attracted to the large suites and the level of luxury, she says. “They don’t want your typical small condo. They want to feel like they have space to entertain.”
“It’s all turnkey,” adds
Metcalfe. “Just move in, unpack and you’re good to go.”
Back outside, on a stroll past the building, both residents and locals will find there’s plenty to see.
Available suites at The Randall Residences start at $2.4 million.
The sales centre is located at 137 Trafalgar Road in Oakville. Call 905- 849-1033 or visit randallresidences.com.