CAMBRIDGE – Grand House, which towers over Ainslie Street in the Galt core area, has been given a new lease on life.
“It will be nice to see this place full again,” said Tiara Marie Aponte Hernandez, the Grand House’s manager.
Hernandez was the last person to occupy the 4,900-square-foot building and after several years aboard became its caretaker after the student co-op, which built the unique structure, put it up for sale in October 2012.
It has since been purchased by Mississauga entrepreneur Nadir Ansari and it will continue to provide housing for students at the University of Waterloo’s school of architecture in Cambridge.
Students will occupy a dozen of the residence’s 14 bedrooms this September. Hernandez will keep one bedroom for herself and use another as an office.
“This is a great place to live, but it’s not for everyone,” Hernandez said. “You have to be ready to live with a large group of people and be ready to help out around the house.”
Students living in Grand House will live there from semester to semester or sometimes for just several weeks depending on their studies.
“Most of their time is actually spent at the university,” Hernandez explained.
Grand House was purpose built in 2008 by a group of architecture students. It sits on a steep hillside lot on the fringe of the Galt core.
The property was purchased from the City of Cambridge. Students, working with a number of contractors, then designed and helped build the stilted three-storey residence.
Ansari is no stranger to the Grand House. He is CEO of Isherwood Geostructural Engineers and first became involved with Grand House during its construction, when the students were trying to solve issues with the building’s foundations.
Apart from its hillside location and its prominent stilts, Grand House is unique in that its walls are made of straw bales.
The eco-friendly structure also incorporates recycled materials including old doors and a maple hardwood floor that was a basketball court in a former life.
The building has a rainwater recovery system to run its toilets, in-floor radiant heating, and uses products which give off little in the way of off-gases.
Along with its 14 small bedrooms, there are four bathrooms and a large kitchen/dining room and lounge with a fantastic view of the Grand River and the Galt core area.
In addition to the new ownership, Hernandez said there is a new spirit of co-operation at Grand House.
“Nadir has been great to work with,” she said.
“With Grand House he sees opportunities to cultivate talent or simply to have a business opportunity that serves the architecture students. It is definitely a labour of love, rather than a financially-focused venture.
“But it’s still a business and he sees long-term value. He loves the idea of using Grand House as a platform for student projects.”
Among those projects are:
• Creating a scholarship for students in financial need.
• A scheme to have the students come up with a business plan and designs to improve the landscaping around the building.
• Encourage students to design and build furnishings and other fixtures for use in Grand House.
Hernandez said there is also another project that Grand House is looking to undertake that will be of benefit to the surrounding neighbourhood.
“This property once belonged to the city and it had a staircase that was used by people in the neighbourhood, Hernandez explained.
“Even after the house was built people keep using our staircase, so now we are going to be looking at ways to create a staircase for their use.”
