An exhibition of 546’s work has opened at the University of Toronto’s Eric Arthur Gallery. Using models, texts and images, this intense, little show tells the stories of 12 multifamily residential projects by 546. It doesn’t get much more grittier, in urban Canada anyway, than the sites the firm has been asked to design housing for. They include oddly-shaped nooks and crannies in Winnipeg’s grid, the edges of industrial areas, high-crime neighbourhoods, streets owned by sex traffickers. The typical combination of difficult locale and tight budget – the clients are often non-profits or public agencies – would seem to invite, almost inevitably, residential designs that are very ordinary. But 546 is different that way.James Brittain