25 North Dr., Toronto
Asking Price: $15,550,000
Taxes: $27,030.77 (2024)
Lot Size: 143 by 593 feet
Agents: Cailey Heaps and Stephanie Newlands, Heaps Estrin Real Estate team
The principal bedroom in the home at 25 North Drive in Toronto. The home is for sale, with an asking price of $15,550,000.Silverhouse Real Estate Photography
The backstory
There’s a certain comfort and warmth in the familiar. Steeped in childhood memories, family values and laughter, this is a house that the owner, Jordan Morassutti, knows well. The property was acquired more than 40 years ago and has stayed within the family ever since.
He moved to 25 North Dr. with his parents and brother when he was just two years old and lived there until he was 19, before heading off to college at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he completed his undergraduate degree.
Along with his brother, Mr. Morassutti is a co-founder of North Drive, a real estate development company named after the street of his childhood home.
Seven-and-a-half years ago, shortly after the birth of his daughter, Mr. Morassutti and his family, including his wife and two children, moved back to his childhood home where they lived for a few years before deciding to renovate.
Mr. Morassutti says he and his wife were drawn back to the property because of the unique nature of the landscape that spans nearly two acres. A ravine wraps around the house and mature trees drape over it, making it feel cozy, private and away from the city.
The 42-year-old recalls fond memories when thinking of his time spent in the home as a kid; learning to swim in the backyard pool and learning to play tennis in the court on the property. In the redesigning of his home, Morassutti wanted to recreate this feeling for his own children.
“We wanted the kids to look back on their childhood and have fond memories of playing soccer in what felt like an art gallery,” he says, “That was the primary element of what we look to do in terms of renovation”
The house today
Before renovating, the architect and the owners walked through the house and identified spaces that were suited for extensive redesign.
“We sort of shared with them early design ideas,” Trevor Wallace, founder and principal architect of Reflect Architecture explains. “A lot of it actually stemmed out of their art collection and things that were appealing to them outside of the realm architecture and interior design.”
The redesign took special care to provide ample space for the family's love of art.Silverhouse Real Estate Photography
Holding a deep appreciation for art, it was important to Mr. Morassutti and his wife that the space could accommodate a shifting and growing collection of pieces. To emulate the feel of an art gallery, Mr. Wallace made sure there was sufficient wall space and thoughtful lighting throughout the house.
Instead of tearing down and building completely new, Mr. Wallace and his team made minimal changes to the layout to preserve the structural integrity of the house. Mr. Wallace said renovations took about a year, mostly because many of the changes required deep attention to detail including installing baseboards made of stone that had to be cut off-site.
The Morassuttis wanted a refined and sophisticated playfulness to the house, opting to change the Tuscan design of the existing structure to a more Belgian-inspired modernity.
The kitchen features elements handcrafted in Belgium.Silverhouse Real Estate Photography
The Obumex kitchen, handcrafted in Belgium, is where Mr. Morassutti and his wife enjoy hosting their guests. The kitchen features a 15-foot island that sits under a skylight gable that was preserved from the original house.
The main level is framed by natural vistas and many of the rooms feature high ceilings and well-lit corridors, adding to that airy and clean art gallery feel.
Upstairs are four additional bedrooms, each complete with an ensuite.
The lower level features a saltwater pool, a full-mirrored gym, recreation room, kitchenette and a full bathroom. The tennis court sits sheltered by mature trees about 400 feet away from the house.
“I like the idea of a home as an escape and a place to feel comforted and certainly we achieved that here,” Mr. Morassutti said.
The best feature
The sculptural staircase is the focal point of the house.Silverhouse Real Estate Photography
The focal point of the home is undoubtedly the strikingly sculptural white staircase.
“We wanted a real showpiece,” says Mr. Morassutti, “But showpiece, not in your typical showroom sense, but something that you could also comfortably live in.”
Mr. Wallace describes this part of the renovation as being the most challenging and simultaneously rewarding to design due to it being a pre-existing structure.
“We didn’t have the fortune of starting from scratch,” Mr. Wallace says, “We had to really peel it apart and work with that existing structure and figure out how to wrap it in a way that gave the space an evolution, a meaningful change, without having to completely reconstruct the entire staircase.”
“It’s something that you experience daily,” says Mr. Morassutti. “The feeling of joy and whimsy as you’re walking up and down it is something that we’ve really enjoyed as a family.”
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