Tower Renewal & Deep Energy Retrofits

ERA was the Architect of Record for a multi-phase modernization project at the St. Hilda’s Towers in partnership with the City of Toronto and WoodGreen. St. Hilda’s has been a cornerstone of its community for the past 40 years, providing affordable housing for seniors at the heart of the new Eglinton LRT corridor. Made possible...

Gordonridge is ERA’s third project with MLSE Foundation developing place-based recreational spaces with community stakeholders, providing youth and adults a safe space to play and access a variety of sports within their neighbourhoods. In August of 2018, ERA began working, as lead architect, with key project partners MLSE Foundation, Jumpstart, and Toronto Community Housing on...

Toronto Community Housing’s Lawrence Orton campus is a 336-unit complex completed in 1969, which houses more than 1,000 residents. It was selected by TCHC for their landmark “ReSet” program, which directs comprehensive capital repair and social reinvestment at a campus scale to revitalize the most challenged sites in their portfolio. Since 2014, ERA Architects, in...

In partnership with Corix Utilities, Halsall Engineers and Informa Market Research, ERA conducted a comprehensive assessment of the opportunities of implementing a Tower Neighbourhood Renewal program at Toronto Community Housing’s Moss Park apartment complex in downtown Toronto. The result was a feasibility study that balanced social, environmental and economic objectives, based on a nuanced understanding...

Regent Park is the largest social housing neighbourhood built in Canada’s history, with a layered history of development through several eras. Since 2005, it has been undergoing extensive revitalization, moving towards a more mixed-use and mixed-income neighbourhood. To celebrate the neighbourhoods history, Toronto Community Housing Corporation commissioned ERA to design a commemoration strategy. The strategy’s...

Working together with the owners of 35 Walmer, a considered program of architectural and landscape rehabilitation was developed and led by ERA Architects that worked with the identified heritage features to preserve and renew this iconic architectural asset, designed by prominent Toronto modernist architect Uno Prii. The project restored the postwar building and landscape to...

Macdonald Block is a modernist government complex consisting of four office tower buildings connected by a two-storey podium that houses eleven ministries of the provincial government. These buildings are connected by an outdoor courtyard, designed in the 1960s by Sasaki, Strong and Associates, which is recognized as a significant cultural heritage landscape. The buildings dating...

Following a process of nearly two years of research, public consultation, policy development, and advocacy in partnership with ERA Architects, the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal, United Way Toronto & York Region, Toronto Public Health, and the City of Toronto, the Residential Apartment Commercial (RAC) zone was approved by  Toronto City Council by-law in 2013 and the Ontario...

ERA Architects, in joint venture with SvN Architects and Planners, has completed the deep energy retrofit of 4301 Kingston, a 419-unit complex completed in 1968 in east Scarborough which houses more than 1,000 residents, and owned by Toronto Community Housing. The project improved tenant health, comfort, and safety, while reducing utility consumption and GHG emissions...

The Ken Soble Tower Transformation is a ground-breaking project rehabilitating a post-war apartment tower in Hamilton, Ontario. The achieved goal meets Passive House standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a staggering 94% and lays the groundwork for industry-wide, ultra-low energy retrofits needed to maintain and upgrade thousands of apartments across Canada. “Ultra-low energy retrofits...

Catalyzed by a talented group of local youth, the Ridgeway Community Courts transformed an under-utilized parking lot and sidewalk boulevard into a vibrant multi-sport court and community space for drop-in recreational programming. ERA led the collaborative design process, which worked closely with the community to bring this much-needed resource to the Ridgeway neighbourhood of northwest...

The 1969 high rise apartment at 100 Spadina Road contributes to a body of distinctive modernist work by Estonian-born Canadian architect Uno Prii. Intrigued by the dynamic formal possibilities of reinforced concrete, Prii used his dual engineering and architectural training to create graceful, curvalinear forms that maximized their structural potential. Similar to a number of...