Adaptive Reuse, Accessibility & Additions
Spotlight
1 Spadina Crescent
Originally home to Knox College, and eventually occupied by one of the world’s first insulin manufacturers and a military hospital, the Gothic Revival building at 1 Spadina Crescent has a rich history and is a major city landmark, terminating views north from Spadina Avenue. ERA worked with NADAAA between 2011 and 2017 to oversee the...
Bridgepoint Health: The Old Don Jail
Completed in 1864, the Old Don Jail was the last work of one of Canada’s most respected early architects, William Thomas, and the largest building project in Toronto’s history at the time. Like much of Thomas’s late work, the jail was conceived in the Renaissance Revival style popular during the mid-1800s which draws inspiration from...
The York Club Landscape
ERA’s Landscape Architecture department was engaged to prepare designs to enhance the York Club’s storied dining courtyard garden and adjacent outdoor spaces. The proposed landscape improvements coincided with the new kitchen expansion and interior accessibility upgrades (also led by ERA). Set amidst a mature tree canopy in the south lawn of the club, and enclosed...
The York Club Renovation
Since 2019 ERA has worked closely with one of Toronto’s oldest private clubs. ERA brought its multivalent expertise to provide full architectural services for the renovation, accessibility upgrades and kitchen expansion of Waveney, the historic (and heritage designated) Romanesque Revival Gooderham Mansion, home of the York Club. ERA worked closely with the Club’s Renovation Planning...
Bijou Cottage
The Bijou Island compound, which includes a historic main cottage, a secondary cottage, a bunkie, and a boathouse, is nestled deep within the archipelago on a tiny island of just 0.6 acres. The first phase of the project focused on overhauling the main cottage. The new owner wanted to improve the cottage’s layout, make it...
Canada Life London: Barrier-Free Upgrades to the North Entry
The landmark Canada Life Building in London, Ontario occupies a prominent city block to the south of Victoria Park. The site is bounded by the busy streets of Dufferin Avenue to the north, Wellington Street to the east, Queens Avenue to the south, and Clarence Street to the west. Architectural details, in Beaux Arts style,...
The Brighthouse Farm
The 100-acre Anderson-Brighthouse farmstead contains a farmhouse and barn built in 1867, a series of out buildings, and an eight-acre clearing nestled amongst a dense forest. After a successful interior renovation of the farmhouse, the owners engaged ERA as lead architects to convert the barn into a 100-person multi-purpose event space, that, according to the...
GoodLot Farmstead Brewing Co.
What started as a hops farm in 2009 evolved eight years later into the GoodLot Farmstead Brewing Co., and with that came the need to adapt some of the existing barn buildings. With sustainability at the forefront, ERA led the renovation of one of the barns on the 28-acre farmstead property, converting the vacant building...
Yonge and Charles (Shoppers Drug Mart)
Rehabilitated and updated for its continued commercial use, the Shoppers Drug Mart building at Yonge and Charles Streets combines a new timber structure with a renewed and rehabilitated heritage façade. The original Barron’s Grocery building has long been part of an established commercial area in central downtown Toronto. Designed by G.W. Gouinlock for grocer Robert...
The Kwong Centre for Mental Health & Wellness
In 2010, ERA was retained by ARK Inc. as Heritage Consultant for the adaptive reuse and integration of the Thomas Wilson House (1889–1890) into a modern-day facility for mental health and wellness. The conservation approach included the retention and restoration of the original portion of the Thomas Wilson House, and the removal and replacement of...
Canadian Pacific Railway Building
ERA is collaborating with Partisans and H&R REIT to envision the reinvention of the 1913 heritage-designated Canadian Pacific Railway Building at 69 Yonge Street, part of Toronto’s first skyscraper ensemble at the corner of King and Yonge streets. Designed by the renowned architects Darling & Pearson, the building housed company offices, a topmost telegraphy floor,...
University Commons, University of Alberta
In a collaborative effort, ERA Architects and GEC Architecture successfully undertook the large-scale redevelopment of the historic Dentistry Pharmacy Building at the University of Alberta. The project aimed to create new teaching, academic, and administrative spaces while preserving the building’s cherished historic features and enhancing its sustainability and energy efficiency. The Dentistry Pharmacy Building held...
Loblaws Groceteria at West Block
Opened in 1928 as the office headquarters and warehouse for Loblaws Groceterias Ltd, the building was designed in the Art Moderne style, with brick-and-stone details incorporating repetitive vertical elements, terminating in decorative limestone caps at the parapet, to counteract the long and low building mass. The site was chosen to take advantage of the freight...
Sunnybrook Cenotaph
Sunnybrook evolved from its origin in 1948 as Sunnybrook Military Hospital into an internationally recognized health sciences centre and home to Canada’s largest veterans’ care facility. Originally designed as a gateway monument framing the entrance to Sunnybrook Military Hospital, the Sunnybrook Cenotaph today is a fixture in the hospital’s identity for passersby on Bayview Avenue...
