Toronto’s King Edward Hotel (“The King Eddy”) opened in May 1903 as the city’s first “palace hotel” to rival hotels in New York and London and boasted “absolutely fireproof” construction. Two notable architects, American Henry Ives Cobb and Toronto’s E.J. Lennox, were responsible for the design of the original 8-storey hotel building, which features a bold, Beaux Arts design in limestone, buff brick, and highly ornate architectural terracotta.

Since 2009, ERA has served as prime consultant on a number of interior and exterior conversion and restoration projects at King Edward Hotel, including the conversion of the 3rd-5th floors of the hotel into luxury condominium suites. Floors 3, 4, and 5 were last used as commercial office space in the 1980s and had been unoccupied for the past twenty years. They were subsequently stripped back to their bare steel columns and concrete floors. ERA oversaw the construction of 140 residential suites within these existing spaces, with a total floor area of approximately 100,000 square feet. All 1970s metal windows were replaced with new wood sash windows and residential balconies were added in the large light wells.

In 2013, ERA was engaged in a multi-phase, multi-year conservation project to repair the full height of the masonry walls and perimeter of the hotel to insure a further 50 years of life. ERA has also overseen the refurbishment of 300 guest suites, as well as the grand public spaces at the ground and 2nd floors, including the main lobby Rotunda, the Sovereign Ballroom, and the Vanity Fair ballroom. Construction was completed in the summer of 2015.

The Crystal Ballroom, one of the later projects at the hotel, started in 2016. ERA worked on the interior renovation of the double-height Ballroom, including the pre-function areas at the north end of the 17th floor and the 18th floor balcony at the north end of the ballroom with its associated bar, kitchen, and washrooms. The interior renovations totaled approximately 14,000 square feet.