{"id":595,"date":"2025-07-16T17:42:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T17:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/595\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T17:42:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T17:42:04","slug":"a-sublimely-crafted-modernist-masterwork-in-king-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/595\/","title":{"rendered":"A sublimely crafted modernist masterwork in King City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The round front door was dubbed \u201cMoongate\u201d in the architectural drawings.Stallone Media<\/p>\n

The house announces itself rather demurely by twin fieldstone posts capped by coach lamp-style fixtures. There is nothing past the gate but trees. A forest.<\/p>\n

As you navigate the little twists and turns, you wonder why the architect pushed his work so far into the dense lot. With almost 13 hectares to play with, it seems an odd choice. And then the house swings into view, and you gasp. Because he must place it there, you think; there\u2019s no other place this house could exist.<\/p>\n

Partially buried into a berm and rising, gently, out of it is the 5,000-square-foot house that Grant Whatmough (1921-1999) designed for E.M. Saunders in 1961 near King City, Ont.\u2019s Happy Valley. Roof angles zoom off in various directions and clerestory windows hint at the delights to be found inside. Landscaping by J. Austin Floyd (1910-1981), an artful assemblage of rocks, shrubs and trees, combine with Mr. Whatmough\u2019s chunky fieldstone walls to temper the composition, to keep it in line with organic principles established by Frank Lloyd Wright.<\/p>\n

1\/9<\/p>\n

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Except for that circular front door. What a doozy! Called \u201cMoongate\u201d on the architectural drawings, it was penned by architect Herbert Gardiner Cowan in 1963. It makes a unique statement. Mr. Cowan is thought to have attended Taliesin, Mr. Wright\u2019s Wisconsin home, studio and school.<\/p>\n

But open that door, if you will. Likely, you\u2019ll meet Sarah Kavoosi in the foyer, since she is with Re\/Max Hallmark York Group Realty, and is offering the house for sale, priced at $8.8-million.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my previous life, I was a landscape architect,\u201d she told me. She describes the house as \u201ceco-friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see part of it is in the earth,\u201d she said. The architect was \u201ctaking advantage of the energy of the land, [and] not only for the view.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll want to skip the nanny\u2019s quarters, which are down a hall to the right, and trot directly to the lower living room, which connects to an office (with a stunning view) and a family room (with an equally stunning view). And because Ms. Kavoosi understands the power of masterful modernist architecture, she might skip taking you further down the hall to the primary bedroom, to present the pi\u00e8ce de resistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis house doesn\u2019t have first floor, second floor \u2013 none of that.\u201d She makes a beeline for the terrazzo stairs that carry you up.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Bam. Another set of chevron-shaped stairs guides the eye upward to land on gracefully arching glue-lam beams holding up a warm wooden ceiling. Below the beams is a half-circle fireplace set into a terrazzo inglenook. Behind a little door on the wall is a conveyor belt \u2013 much like the one at the Beer Store \u2013 that rolls firewood directly into the area. The beams and fieldstone walls (which thicken as they rise) effortlessly glide past the floor-to-ceiling windows to blur the lines between indoors and out, as all good modernism does. Accessed by narrow, Wright-style openings on both sides of the fireplace, there is another family room with the fireplace\u2019s twin, followed by two bedrooms.<\/p>\n

Walk the other way and you\u2019ll pass a dining table before finding a renovated kitchen and a few more bedrooms. And because it\u2019s fun to switch between levels in this domestic labyrinth, feel free to trot back down to check out the primary bedroom. Naturally, it\u2019s large enough for a pair of armchairs and is connected to a bonus room where yoga or tai chi might take place \u2026 when it\u2019s too cold to do those things on the huge deck, that is.<\/p>\n

Beyond the deck, one might notice there\u2019s a massive coach house on the property and, in the distance, a pond. Should one take a verdant walk to gaze upon the water, one will find a clearing with a stage and a tipi.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

As reported in this space in 2021, information on Mr. Whatmough\u2019s history, unlike some Canadian architects, does exist. After serving in the RCAF\u2019s Eastern Command (Canada) during the Second World War, Mr. Whatmough moved to England and found employment as a naval architect at Portsmouth\u2019s Vosper & Co. While there, he came up with a design for a jet-powered hydroplane, Bluebird II, that would, years later, set a world record. <\/p>\n

Before returning to Canada in 1948, he would serve on the design council for the Festival of Britain. According to a short biography by ERA Architects, \u201cfrom 1953 onward, Whatmough worked independently as an architect in Ontario. His focus was on suburban and estate homes, though he also completed a number of commercial projects. Not satisfied with established building contractors, Whatmough also founded a small construction company to execute his commissions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less is known about his client, Edward M. Saunders, however. I found a tantalizing obituary in the Toronto Daily Star on Jan. 27, 1970 that could be him. D.H. Fullerton pays tribute to E.M. (Ted) Saunders, \u201cone of the best-known personalities in the Toronto investment world\u201d who made his fortune trading bonds after the Second World War. The author describes him as kind, generous and with \u201cgood humour during the dark days\u201d who believed in the \u201chealing virtues of a Shangri-La in the country.\u201d In addition, The Globe\u2019s society pages of the 1950s and 60s often mention a \u201cMrs. E.M. Saunders\u201d as host of many a Toronto Symphony fundraiser at her home at 53 Summerhill Ave.<\/p>\n

4235 17th Sideroad in King City, Ont., is certainly a Shangri-La, if a mostly original, sublimely crafted, organic, open-plan, modernist masterwork is your thing. Come see it before a Hollywood celebrity snaps it up.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit workofarton32acres.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The round front door was dubbed \u201cMoongate\u201d in the architectural drawings.Stallone Media The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[967,76,354,355,49,48,356,75,968],"class_list":["post-595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-architourist","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}