Adaptive Reuse, Accessibility & Additions

Located in the heart of the Old Montreal heritage site, the “Îlot Bonsecours” is a group of four historic buildings, notably the Calvet House and its annex, the Davies Store and the Viger House, which have been combined in recent decades to become the Auberge Pierre du Calvet, among others. In addition to those, there...

The former Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH), founded in 1893, was designed by the London architect Henry Saxon Snell in the Scottish neo-baronial style. Located on the slope of Mount Royal, it was intended to be a place of healing close to nature and far from the industrial city, in accordance with the theories of the...

The site, once owned by the City of Toronto, operated as a public market from 1837 to around 1900. The Water Works Buildings were designed in the Art Deco style by City Architect, J. J. Woolnough and completed in 1933. The construction project was part of a plan supported by federal, provincial, and municipal governments...

The University College Revitalization project brings new life to the University of Toronto’s central architectural landmark, the Romanesque Revival University College, designed in 1852 by architects by Cumberland and Storm.  The updates to the National Historic Site respond to the demands of 21st century academia, renewing facilities to expand use and create a more inclusive...

The Bombardier Centre for Aerospace and Aviation, Downsview Campus, expands and adaptively reuses a historic building that was once the centre of aviation manufacturing and design in Canada — transforming it into an innovative learning institution for Centennial College’s Aviation and Engineering Technology Programs. The new campus includes teaching, research, testing labs and learning spaces for...

After remaining unused for many years, Phillips House now has a new life as North York General Hospital’s centre that provides outpatient mental health care for children and adolescents. The property is located north of the hospital at Sheppard and Leslie. While the house and grounds, designed by Mathers and Haldenby Architects and Edwin Kay,...

The Paradise Theatre is a surviving example of Toronto’s hallmark 20th-century theatres, complete with distinct Art Deco styling specific to the World War II era, with abstracted classical and geometrical elements. Opened in 1937, the Paradise Theatre was designed by Benjamin Brown, one of the earliest Jewish architects in Toronto. Situated prominently between Dovercourt and...

The Cornell Campbell Farmstead is a local landmark and a remnant of a period of agricultural significance in Scarborough’s history. The property retains an intact farmstead with historical associations of the Late Woodland period (AD 1300-1500), and 19th to early 20th-century farming practices and settlement patterns. ERA Architects in joint venture with HOK were retained...

The Kingsmill’s Department Store building in downtown London is now home to Fanshawe College’s Schools of Information Technology and Tourism, Hospitality and Culinary Arts. Located on 130 Dundas Street, previously 126-132 Dundas St, the building is an important cultural landmark for the city and was built in 1865. Its current façade is composed of both...

Historic farmstead properties are a common sight throughout small, rural Ontario. The large acreage lots often contain a combination of built structures and landscape features, including the brick farmhouse, the wood-framed barn, outbuildings, silos and mature trees. In 2017, ERA was approached by Cambium Farms to think through how their 1873 barn, currently operating as...

Ottawa’s Booth Street Complex — bordered by Booth, Norman, Rochester, and Orangeville streets in Little Italy — was acquired in 2012 by Canada Lands Company from the federal government. The conditions of the transfer required that best efforts be made to conserve the heritage character of the former federal heritage buildings, and that the spirit...

The Gooderham Mansion is a landmark building on the corner of Sherbourne and Selby Streets in Toronto’s St. Jamestown neighbourhood. Now a mixed-use space, the top two floors of the building are used as amenity space for The Selby, a purpose-built rental tower developed by Tricon Capital. The ground and basement floors house a restaurant...