b'PROJECT PROFILEExpressway actually passes overhead, supported by footings that extend two storeys below the street. We built right up to the side of it, says Rob Ramsay, senior vice president of development with Capital Developments, which was brought in by Wittington to manage the project. We had enough real estate to the north that we could build a satisfactory parking lot.OLD AND NEW Since the City had identified the building for architectural and historic value, ERA Architects Inc. was charged with helping to conserve historic features while allowing for a new use of the space. The building itself could have been repaired, but the exterior envelope was very decomposed, and water was able to penetrate into the building, says ERA principal Scott Weir. Following the Parks Canada Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places, we evaluated a number of methods of doing this. The exterior skin included some bronze decorative elements that were already in storage, and areas of limestone and brick. We did drawings with PICCO Engineering, measured all the elements of the building and numbered all theTHE REMODELLED BUILDING INCLUDESstone pieces on the faade. HISTORIC EXTERIOR ELEMENTSCracked elements were repaired and stone and bricks were47 and 42 storeys, because certain floor numbers, sometimes disassembled and stored in a dry facility. Then the remainderthought of as unlucky, were skipped.)of the original building was demolished, the site was excavated and an entirely new building was constructed to match the oldIts supposed to be light and to be in the background so its envelope, with the addition of four extra, smaller storeys. not competing with the historical part of the whole project. The only thing that differs from the other buildings in this block is the Finally, the faade was reinstalled on the areas visible fromdynamic relation between residential and commercial spaces, Bathurst and Lake Shore. In addition, 300-year-old hemlock usedsays Titka Seddighi, associate director with IBI Group Architects in the 19th-century Queens Wharf was excavated, remilled andCanada Inc. Usually the commercial spaces are all on the ground used as a ceiling finish in the retail galleria, and salvaged bronzefloor. Here, the West Tower, starting from the second or third floor decorative elements and lettering were reinstalled. The challengedown, is all commercial, and a commercial building to the north was to get the original brick and stone back into position on theside extends under the Gardiner. There are a lot of expansion new bones. It was real artisan work, hand to brick and it requiredjoints and overlap of different cladding materials where they quite a bit of structural and metal work, Grossi says. Imaginemeet each other. Especially adjacent to a heritage building, its doing that with a creek below you and a highway above you important how they relate. youre operating in a sandwich between two immovable objects.The entire West Block Redevelopment Project, which opened Meanwhile, Concord Adex was developing two new condominiumofficially on September 11, is now home to a Loblaws store, towers on land immediately to the north of the Loblaws warehouseShoppers Drug Mart, Joe Fresh, offices for more than 1,100 building, most recently occupied by Amsterdam Brewery. IBIworkers and 886 residential units. But Grossi says the reclamation Group Architects Canada Inc. designed a 41-storey East Towerof original elements, now attracting the attentionand Instagram and a 37-storey West Tower, each with two levels of mechanicallikesof the newest generation of area residents, is thepenthouse at the top. (The LakeShore Towers are being sold asbest part. THE ORIGINAL LOBLAWS GROCETERIAS COMPANY BUILDING WAS A STATE-OF-THE-ART WAREHOUSE THAT SERVICED LOBLAWS STORES ACROSS ONTARIO. IT BOASTED INTERIOR ELECTRIC TRAMS AND PNEUMATIC TUBES FOR COMMUNICATIONBUILDERSDIGEST Quarter 3 202025'