Building Conservation
Spotlight
Parkwood Estate National Historic Site: Greenhouse Conservation
Oshawa’s Parkwood Estate was erected in 1915 as the home of automotive industrialist Colonel Sam McLaughlin, who had a keen interest in horticulture. Designed by the leading establishment architecture firm Darling & Pearson, the estate included five greenhouses, with additional greenhouses added over time. The estate is now a National Historic Site. After the property...
National Arts Centre
Situated in the heart of the nation’s capital on Confederation Square, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre (NAC) displays a robust Brutalist geometric form, evoking the image of a fortress for the arts. Built between 1964 and 1969 as one of the federal government’s centennial projects, the NAC was designed by Fred Lebensold of the Montreal-based architecture...
St. Hilda’s Towers Transformation
St. Hilda’s Towers is a not-for-profit senior care community located in the Dufferin and Eglinton neighbourhood, providing more than three hundred units of affordable housing. Since 2017, ERA has worked with St. Hilda’s Towers and the City of Toronto to scope and implement a long-term stewardship plan, beginning with renewing the towers to be more...
The Selby
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...
Gorsling House
This historic Prince Edward County house was stripped of its original interior details. Luckily, significant elements were salvaged and made available to the new owners. In close collaboration with the client, ERA restored the residence’s formal layout and re-incorporated the salvaged woodwork back to its historic locations while the newly-designed staircase incorporated the original newel...
Silver Birches
Built between 1906-1912, Silver Birches is a well-loved landmark on the remote north shore of Mackinac Island in Michigan. The Lodge is a rare example of an Adirondack-style Arts & Crafts log hotel and is included on the State Register of Historic Sites. After withstanding a century of extreme Lake Huron weather, Silver Birches and its...
Fashion House Condos
The Fashion House Condo is located at 570 King Street West in a neighbourhood formerly characterized by factories including small retail shops, a brewer, tailor, railway switcher and carter. The project incorporates aspects of adaptive reuse conjoined with new construction: a designated heritage building that formerly housed the Toronto Silver Plate Building and new infill with...
Consumer’s Gas Showroom
The Consumer’s Gas building was designed by architect Charles Dolphin and was completed in 1931 as a retail showroom and demonstration kitchen for gas appliances. Its façade incorporates the use of uncommon materials, such as Tyndall stone from Manitoba and cast aluminum. The latter is used in sculptural features including relief panels on both street-facing...
The Broadview Hotel
The Broadview Hotel is a landmark building at the northwest corner of Queen and Broadview in Toronto’s Riverdale neighbourghood. It functioned as a community hub for businesses, clubs, and athletics, as well as a site for public meetings. The building was completed in 1891-92 for oilman and soap maker Archibald Dingman in the Romanesque Revival...
Imperial Plaza
The Mathers and Haldenby-designed Imperial Plaza Building at 111 St. Clair Avenue West is a 21-storey Modernist building constructed in 1957 as the executive offices for the Imperial Oil Company with landscape design by Dunington-Grubb. When it opened, it had a 20th floor observation level that was the highest point in Toronto. The property is...
Little Trinity Annex
The properties at 399-403 King Street East, known as the Francis Beale Buildings, were constructed in the mid-19th century in the Georgian style. In the late 19th century they came under the ownership of the Little Trinity Church community and were used for commercial purposes before eventually falling into disrepair. Little Trinity Church was able...
Mirvish Village
Honest Ed’s and Mirvish Village have been fixtures of Toronto’s Bloor and Bathurst neighbourhood for more than 60 years. The famed discount retailer, and public realm created by Markham Street’s adaptive reuse as a cultural and commercial enclave in the 1960s, evolved through the influence of the Mirvish Family and neighbourhood communities, including the Afro-Caribbean...
St. Lawrence Market North
The St. Lawrence Market North Building is the sixth establishment in what has been a series of market buildings; their construction spans nearly two hundred years, making this site is one of Toronto’s more historically significant. It is both the first official market and seat of civic government. ERA Architects is engaged as heritage architect...
Senate of Canada Building
Constructed in 1912 as Ottawa’s Union Station rail terminal, the Senate of Canada Building has undergone significant transformations over the last 100 years. Designed by Montreal architectural firm Ross and MacFarlane, the building is an excellent example of the Beaux-Arts railway station tradition popular in the early 20th century, bearing many similarities to New York’s...
