GRAPHĒ: How They Pulled It Off: Multigenerational, Accessible Living in a Century-Old Home

When a couple in Toronto needed their space to accommodate a wheelchair, Omar Gandhi was up for the challenge, adding an elevator concealed by custom millwork and more.

Welcome to How They Pulled It Off, where we take a close look at one particularly challenging aspect of a home design and get the nitty-gritty details about how it became a reality.

For Omar Gandhi, principal of Toronto- and Halifax-based Omar Gandhi Architects, a renovation for longtime friends and homeowners Savtaj Singh Brar and Jaspreet Dhaliwal created an interesting challenge: merging accessibility and style in a heritage-style home, the clients’ 1905 Arts and Crafts bungalow in downtown Toronto. The original plan called for a refresh of their century-old home, but Gandhi had to pivot just a bit, as it would now need to accommodate Brar’s mother, Simerjeet, left partially paralyzed from a stroke in 2013.

The kitchen features custom millwork that cleverly conceals the elevator.

While this could prove challenging from some, Gandhi and his team are well-versed in designing for those with disabilities. Their work for Peggy’s Cove, a Nova Scotian landmark, has earned praise for its accessible viewing platform and wayfinding trails. "That project was a catalyst in this part of the country of how we think about accessibility as a fundamental piece of design," he says.

So when Simerjeet decided during the pandemic that she wanted to move closer to family, she made the move from Gandhi (and Savtaj’s) hometown of Brampton, an inland suburb, to the three-story residence, thus changing the direction of the design.

The large deck opens out from the kitchen and leads to the yard—and the lift off the porch allows Simerjeet to use the yard, too.

Today, the 2,500-square-foot home is fully accessible, featuring Simerjeet’s suite on the second floor, an elevator, and a lift on the back porch. "What started as a simple renovation became a full gut," Gandhi says. Plus, "nothing was straight," creating a unique challenge when reimagining the heritage-type home’s more traditional layout with a softly curving stairwell and elevator.