Does Layout Matter

Does layout matter? Absolutely. The most sought after suite in any city is what I call the WIDE SHALLOW. What is the WIDE SHALLOW? Simply put, it describes a floor plan layout that is wider on the glass side and shallower on the suite depth, offering the most desirable characteristics of maximum glass and light with an optimum use of square footage. Essentially, it is the most efficient and desirable floor plan possible.

The project that best exemplifies this is the King Charlotte, one of my projects at King and Spadina. Usually, a developer has little choice over a project floor plate. Often because of the land dimension and city planning rules that cut into a floor plate, floor plans suffer terribly. At the King Charlotte, we were lucky. The floor plate was a perfect long, thin rectangle surrounded on four sides by glass. This allowed us to deliver the HOLY GRAIL of floor plans – the WIDE SHALLOW.

You will note two things: tons of glass and great proportion to the suite given that the 2 bedroom is 842SF and the 3 bedroom is 962SF. Both of these suites offer the same amount of living space found in a more box shaped unit of significantly larger square footage. Additionally, wide-shallow two and three bedroom suites allows for a split bedroom plan, where bedrooms are at opposite ends allowing for maximum privacy.

What does this mean to you? You save money! All condos in Toronto sell on a “price per square foot.” These suites feel 200SF larger than they are. You save over $100,000 by increased by space efficiency.

It is now quite common for developers to create 2 bedroom suites at 650SF-700SF, and 3 bedroom units at 750SF-850SF. They are doing this because they think investors want to squeeze more people into a unit. Additionally, city policy is forcing developers to create more 3 bedroom suites. This is a false economy, in the end, a floor plan has to stand the test of liveability and many of these absurd minimally-sized 2 + 3 bedroom units will fail that test.

I believe that we need to create living spaces that work. That is why at the King Charlotte we have created 2 and 3 bedroom plans that work wonderfully at what they are supposed to be; spacious, affordable, stylish homes to actually live in. Check out the wide shallow suites at www.kingcharlotte.com.