Sustainable

The team at Sustainable took amazing care of us when we started the journey of creating a larger home. They immediately understood that whereas we wanted to build an addition, we wanted to maintain the existing feel of our home and the “look” of our property from the street. We wanted our home to continue to belong to the neighbourhood. They designed a stunning, smart, seamless, and engaging three-story addition to the back of our small semi. They were absolute heroes, negotiating and maneuvering through the various steps associated with a significant renovation on a ravine property. (Permits!) We love the new rooms that have been added and we can't imagine our home without them. Our home is truly complete now.

Working with this company was an outstanding experience and we are happy to say that in addition to an amazing new home, we have made some lovely new friends. The team at Sustainable is a respectful, kind, and socially conscious group of talented people who hold the needs of their clients first at heart. We trusted and continue to trust them completely.

In 2018, we hired Donald Peckover and the team at Sustainable.TO to design a complete renovation of our ~100 year old Toronto home. They developed innovative design options for us to choose from, provided detailed comprehensive blueprints and worked with us and our great contractors throughout the project. The detailed planning and design work allowed contractors to bid accurately, resulting in a project that was on time and on budget – no scope creep! We were able to move back to our wonderful new home on time and have enjoyed every aspect of our home since. Hiring Sustainable.TO was the best decision we ever made.
Rob and Lisa Tooley

August 28, 2018
Five years ago, we retained Paul Dowsett and his team of professionals at SUSTAINABLE.TO to design our new main bathroom to replace our original bathroom in our large 1926 tudor style home in the Beaches area of Toronto. Paul and his design team worked extremely well with us by listening to our ideas, making helpful suggestions and incorporating them into the final design to ultimately achieve a wonderful renovation outcome.
Since the completion of our new bathroom, hardly a day goes by that my wife does not remark on how much she loves our new bathroom more and more. The large glass shower is particularly spectacular and functional. The custom designed “floating vanity” which Paul and his team designed for us with the assistance of the manufacturer’s in-house designer exceeds our expectations in terms of both beauty and functionality.

We would not hesitate to recommend SUSTAINABLE.TO to anyone who has a large or small renovation project or complete building project.

Below is our original HomeStars review that we wrote in the summer of 2013.

Brock and Elsie Grant
August 28, 2018

“My wife and I were introduced to Paul Dowsett and his team of professionals at SUSTAINABLE.TO by our general contractor. From the outset of our initial meeting, Paul listened carefully and patiently to our ideas and vision for the design of our new main bathroom to replace our original bathroom in our 1926 tudor style home in the Beaches area of Toronto. We found that Paul as the principal architect and his assigned junior colleague, Sean Maciel worked well together and were extremely knowledgeable and easy to deal with in terms of meeting our expectations. Paul proved to have a wonderful sense of design. The project itself was much more complicated than we originally thought it would be because of our desire to have the bathroom totally updated and modernized while maintaining the integrity of the “original style” and architectural features of the old bathroom that would be in keeping with the age of the home. This resulted in a complete demolition of the bathroom and the addition of a heated floor, movement of the plumbing, the design of a “floating vanity” and the installation of a stand-alone shower in addition to a stand-alone bathtub. Paul made excellent suggestions as to updating the floor and wall tiles, lighting, custom designed vanity and bathroom fixtures while maintaining our home’s architectural features.
Paul and his team attempted to incorporate our suggestions into the design wherever possible. He accompanied us to shop for lighting fixtures, vanity finishes and components as well as floor and wall tiles. They were also very helpful in making excellent suggestions to improve upon our design concepts which in turn resulted in our achieving a new bathroom that was both beautiful and functional.
Paul’s greatest contribution and the most time consuming aspect of the design work involved the design of a custom made floating vanity that incorporated all of the practical features that we wanted in this important piece of bathroom furniture including storage and an oversized sink with two faucets. Paul and his team brought considerable imagination and excellent suggestions to the planning and design details that we would not have otherwise thought about that in the end significantly improved the overall functionality of the finished product. This particular aspect of the job involved Paul and Sean working closely and effectively with the vanity manufacturer’s in-house designer. There were many telephone discussions, e mails and meetings among ourselves, Paul, Sean and the manufacturer’s designer to ensure that the final design met all of our objectives and specifications.
Paul’s sense of design, colour and finish was definitive and “right on” in terms of our making the correct decisions that combined functionality with the overall look that we were trying to achieve with our new bathroom. Paul is a real gentleman who is extremely pleasant to work with in addition to being a very talented architect. Finally he is always available via e mail even in the evenings and weekends to review our suggestions and provide us with important input. It was a real pleasure dealing with Paul and Sean and we would not hesitate to recommend SUSTAINABLE.TO to anyone.”
Brock and Elsie Grant
Summer of 2013

My partner and I retained Sustainable.TO for our recent house renovation. I was interested in sustainable solutions for heating/cooling as well as building materials.

Paul Dowsett and his team, specifically Donald Peckover, provided a great design with both passive and active sustainable systems (cross-ventilation; operable windows placed to draw hot air up and out in summer while also providing natural light; green roof; HRV/ERV; radiant heating) and incorporated sustainable building materials.

Paul and Donald were friendly and easy to work with and very knowledgeable about different options. They were also able to suggest several general contractors that are familiar with green building.

Overall, we are very happy with our house and the services provided by Sustainable.TO. We definitely recommend them!

We needed our beautiful new home adapted for accessibility reasons. Paul and his team came in and undertook a review and produced a design solution that was better than I had ever expected or anticipated. The team was easy to deal with and listened to all my suggestions and input. After obtaining our variance approvals, we are now in the process of interviewing contractors and making arrangements to be out of the house before construction to begins. Highly recommend this design group. Many Many thanks.

We selected Sustainable.TO to be the architects for our second story addition and could not be happier with our choice. Prior to our engagement, they came by for a site visit to discuss some of our wants, and some things we could do with the existing structure to increase the sustainability of the renovation. Once we started the job, they came prepared with several preliminary floorplans for us to choose from, and then further developed those with our personal needs in mind. Their ability to navigate the City of Toronto’s permitting and adjustments processes was incredible, and saved us a huge amount of trouble, as they were able to head off issues before they became problematic.
After we received our permits, the staff at Sustainable.TO remained incredible to work with. Steve (our architect) was available to answer structural questions with our builders and our engineer, and Kelsey (their building scientist) was always at the ready with answers to any questions about the best products to use, or best practices on how to use those products. They worked with us both on-site and over email to provide quick, well informed answers to the most important questions related to our build.
We would not hesitate to recommend Sustainable.TO to anyone looking to undertake a large renovation. Not only does our house look incredible, it fits our exact needs perfectly and was designed with a sustainability front-of-mind. You couldn’t ask for a better partner in a home renovation than the staff at Sustainable.TO.

We worked with Paul and Donald to convert our multi-unit house to suit our family’s needs. The main floor now gives my father-in-law privacy, with a senior-friendly bathroom, a bedroom and living area. The new kitchen and dining area at the front of the house, where we all can come together, offers a place for my father to interact with the rest of the family. This suits our need for large family gatherings and our need to be able to retreat into our private spaces. Everyone is happy. We are also pleased with the exterior insulation and overclad. We noticed the difference this has made; the exterior walls felt warm in the winter months. We upgraded the heating system. This included radiant flooring which the whole family enjoys. Paul and Donald, thank you for your creative solutions and listening to our needs!

Paul Dowsett and Joel Anderson helped me when I decided to renovate the main floor of my home. With their help we took out a wall and changed to an open plan main floor. They provided all the required plans and permits in order to enable this renovation. I am extremely pleased with the end results!

I have worked with Sustainable TO for several years on various commercial projects, large and small. Paul and Donald are creative on design issues and thorough in their knowledge and attention to the rules and processes which affect each job. Our primary engagement has focused on a Heritage property, circa 1867, which is quite a challenge. Paul and Donald really know their stuff.

Brendan Wood
Brendan Wood International

The Sustainable.to team assisted us with transforming a 1906 downtown red brick heritage commercial building into an updated and sought after retail space on the ground floor and a wonderful 2600 sq ft residential unit above and to the rear. Paul and team are great listeners and collaborators. They balanced the heritage designation, zoning bylaws, building code, budget, sustainability and vision. The STO team proposed a third floor that changes everything including a south facing outdoor room that doubles as a passive heat source, quite brilliant. The building won the Collingwood Heritage Award in 2017.