TRANSFORMATION Eyesore Becomes Eco-friendly Home Former Drug House Now a Modern Live/work Infill Once Leon Goldman’s neat and tidy neighbourhood grocery in 1911, the two-storey brick store cum apartment block on Avenue C North became known as the “driveby pharmacy” in its declining years. Drugs and money changed hands with alarming regularity. The neighbour’s fence was routinely kicked down so as not to obscure the pay phone on the corner where drug buyers would call in their arrival. When the drug house was razed and the tiny 30’ x 60’ lot repossessed, the neighbourhood let out a collective sigh. When Crystal Bueckert and Martin Bennett bought the weeds-and-garbage infested property in 2007, neighbours once again peeked out of their windows. Now they like what they see. Building customized homes on urban infill lots with an existing infrastructure, and incorporating green elements and living and working in the same space, is a new wave of sustainable home design. This approach is revitalizing urban areas one tiny footprint at a time. In the Bueckert/Bennett case, the design variances for
Photos: Kevin Greggain
Crystal Bueckert and Brian Bennett’s new home took a year to design and the results certainly show it.
the house on the non-conforming lot required an appeal to the City. As an architectural designer and artist, Bueckert and Bennett, also an artist, offered what they describe as an innovative prototype for the City to develop other nar-
Photo: Courtesy Crystal Bueckert
The original house.
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