WHO: Charles Pachter, 65, pop artist, architectural designer, author, lecturer and historian.
WHAT: A 6,200-square-foot, five-level house and loft space near the Art Gallery of Ontario.
THE STORY: Following a career of renovating old dumps, Pachter eventually landed on the “final dump,” a funeral home turned abandoned Chinese-food warehouse, which he initially converted into an art gallery and event space called Moose Factory, before adding his live-work loft, Pachter Hall, about seven years later.
Pachter hired Canadian architect Stephen Teeple to design the space, which has since won several awards. Carried out with the help of project architect Bernard Jin, the conversion took 18 months, resulting in a private contemporary museum and home that Pachter calls a “temple” for his work.
The lavish interior, decorated by Pachter and a throng of “eccentric relatives,” hosts an open-air atrium complete with a pond and waterfall, a glass elevator leading to the top floor living space and wall-to-wall pieces of Pachter’s staple patriotic iconography-driven artwork.
“It’s a love poem to Canada,” he says. “It took me half a lifetime to be able to have the guts to [build] it, but now that I have it, it’s been really rewarding.”
PACHTER’S NEW CHILDREN’S BOOK, M IS FOR MOOSE, IS NOW AVAILABLE IN
BOOKSTORES. MOOSE FACTORY & PACHTER HALL ARE OPEN BY APPOINTMENT.
SEE WWW.CPACHTER.COM FOR DETAILS.