Rainbow-coloured fins provide solar shading for the west façade of Friends of Ruby Home, a housing and support facility for LGBTQI2S-identifying youth. Photo courtesy Friends of Ruby
To write about a building you cannot visit is a daunting task. When I took on this assignment amid a global pandemic and in an emergency stay-at-home order in Toronto, my anxiety only grew when I looked up the project online and met its bright exterior. The Friends of Ruby Home?s façade?adorned in rainbow-coloured fins?initially set off both intrigue and alarm for me, not just as a monochrome-lover, but also as someone who has seen all too many one-note, pink-washed, queer-pandering projects. But after long Zoom calls with the building?s architect and hearing occupant testimonies, I understood that the true beauty of this building lies well beyond its bold queer signalling. Its success is rooted in the respectful engagement with its community that underpins the design, and blossoms in the dignity and grace that the finished building affords its residents and clients.
Designed by the Toronto architecture firm Sustainable | Architecture for a Healthy Planet, the new facility provides transitional housing, counselling, and a host of other support programs for LGBTQI2S– identifying youth experiencing homelessness and precarious housing in Toronto. Located in the city?s Garden District, near the Gay Village, the donor-funded project consolidates two buildings previously owned and operated b...