Location, location, location is the old saying about what matters in real estate. But what if you combined location, with architecture, and terrific views, as Joseph (Joe) Medwecki did at 190 St. George St.?

The building, at the corner with Lowther Ave. in Midtown Toronto (yes, it’s the one with the pointy balconies), has been featured in architectural books and was No. 7 on a National Post list of top ten condominiums in Toronto. Jack Batten, in his book The Annex, called it “one of the winners in elegant appearance” among towers that from the 1950s onward marched up St. George St. from Bloor St. W.

I once wrote that it is rare for the public to know the names of designers of apartment buildings (or condos, I’ll now add). “How many apartment-house architects, anywhere, can this be said of? Gaudi in Barcelona; maybe Friedensreich Hundertwasser?” Perhaps Uno Prii, in Toronto?

Like many Spacing readers, I like multiple-unit dwellings and think some are very good as architecture and as homes, including 190, which is why I live there. Its distinctive look may be familiar but it’s not likely you have heard of Joe Medwecki, who died in Toronto on Nov. 10, 2025, at age 98.

Shy and reserved, Medwecki once told an interviewer, about 190, “The building speaks for itself,” insisting, “I have nothing more to contribute.” However, tempted to tea and cookies in an upper-floor suite by a group of residents, Medwecki told them all about their 12-storey, 70-unit “home,” erected 1970-1972 on the site of one or two Annex mansions.

From the second floor up, balconies wrap around, with the apartments enclosed in double-pane floor-to-ceiling glass. The end posts are placed outside, letting window extend into the corners. See-through metal railings allow air, light and views through while giving privacy from below.