This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

A Vermont vacation home designed by a Toronto architect for a Toronto couple is literally a bridge to the past: in its form, resembling a 19th-century covered bridge, and to the family’s memories.

So it’s little wonder that Jim Connacher’s voice breaks when he talks about parting with the place where his four boys and their families would gather each Christmas. The maverick Bay Street dealmaker, nicknamed the piranha in the heady 1980s for seizing high-risk investment opportunities, is now 85; his wife Mary, at 84, is too ill to travel any more.

And so the glass and trussed architectural stunner that Jim Strasman envisioned into life across an actual creek is on the market for $22.5 million (Canadian).

Strasman recalls the summer day in 1990 when he surveyed the 97-hectare Stowe property with the Connachers, who had expressed an interest in building a home near a treeline atop a sloping meadow.

“We were walking up there and turning around to have a look at the view of the mountains and the valley, and I heard some water trickling, so I quietly walked off to the left and noticed a little creek flowing through the property,” said the founding principal of Strasman Architects Inc.

“And I yelled back to them because they were still standing at the top of the meadow, and I said, ‘Guys, this is where the house has to be.’”

The fact that he was pointing to a creek didn’t faze the Connachers. Jim Connacher, once chief executive officer of Gordon Capital Corp., was unconventional in practice, and the couple had previously hired Strasman to design a ravine home on St. Clair Avenue East that was unlike any of the neighbouring residences in Moore Park.

The Connachers immediately embraced the concept: a 445-square metre, two-level span that would echo the quaint covered bridges of Vermont’s countryside. They began sourcing local craftspeople to build furniture and features like a spiral staircase that would match the unusual esthetic.

“You have this view of the mountains, the meadow, the pond and the creek,” said Strasman. “You’d be an absolute fool if you didn’t respond to those things and design the house in such a way that takes full advantage of what the site presents, because you’re not given a site like that every day.”

The Connachers had been piecing together the property since 1974. They were big skiers: they would regularly pack their four boys into a Volkswagen van and make the seven-hour trek for a ski weekend in Stowe. The new place had to be all-season and overcome some pretty serious geographical challenges.

Strasman, already internationally recognized for his work on a bridge-like cottage on Stony Lake near Peterborough, spent months building models and making drawings. The main living space, with kitchen and dining room, would stretch the length of the second level, encased in glass and with supporting trusses fabricated in Quebec.

“It has transparency, but it also has the comforting feeling of security in that you see the muscles of the structure,” said Strasman.

A sunroom had to be added to extend the structure over to solid ground. Bedrooms, laundry, and full bath were placed on the first level; the garage was tucked into the landscape.

It was completed in 1994 for just under $1 million.

Besides its uniqueness, what is special is how current and contemporary it remains, said the LandVest real estate brokers selling the place.

“It’s quite a remarkable feat to be able to have a 25-year old house feel as if it were designed two years ago,” said Wade Weathers, who together with Meg Kauffman began showing the house to buyers last Saturday.

The house is part of what is listed as the Deerwood property. Included in the $22.5-million asking price are woodlands, trails, five ponds, a tennis court, an orchard, a guest house and a caretaker’s apartment. Bridge House’s custom furniture comes with the deal.

Weathers and Kauffman acknowledge the property is at the upper end of the Vermont market. They describe the potential buyer as possibly from out of state or country, and likely a ski enthusiast looking for a family compound.

“It’s really a legacy property that’s just so unique that I think (it could be a) family like the Connachers, who put so much time and energy into creating this really special sanctuary,” said Kauffman.

The buyer, said Strasman, will have to adjust to the fact there aren’t many blank walls. Traditional adornments like wallpaper, curtains or paintings would find precious little space to hang. “In this case, the wallpaper is the countryside, and the art is the house and the furnishings in it.”

Strasman hopes whoever buys Bridge House will treat it, architecturally, with respect.

For Jim Connacher, the attachment is more emotional, tied to what the home represents rather than just the design.

“I’m very fond of it,” he said, noting how Mary loved to garden and planted the flowers that hug the creek.

The couple’s Moore Park mansion is gone too, sold years ago. Home is now a condo in downtown Toronto and family is scattered. For a man who built a career on making tough decisions, this one seems particularly heartbreaking, “but,” he said, voice wavering in resignation, “I can’t do anything about it.”

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com