The historically-significant commercial and manufacturing area south of Trinity Bellwoods Park continues to gentrify. In that setting, this existing 3-storey warehouse and industrial building and its former uses grow increasingly less compatible. The new building owner is proposing an adaptive reuse that thoroughly rebrands the building while highlighting its heritage industrial features, including large open spaces, high ceilings, abundance of light and simple detailing.

Constructing two new stories on top will retain the existing building and those signature features while adding 1,370m2 of floor area to increase rental space. The goal is also to create a presence more in keeping with the locally established market of tech companies and ad, design and other creative industries. The initial proposal calls for creating a publicly-accessible function such as a cafe or restaurant to serve both as an amenity for building tenants and as a social condenser within the neighborhood. The outdoor roof-top space would be highly flexible to be used for patron seating, growing vegetables used by a restaurant and/or a wide variety of other uses.

While the core building and its character are retained and enhanced with simple minimal detailing in the background, the design adds an active stair which pushes out to engage the street, create a canopy for the main entry and establish a new identity for the address as a whole.



visualization by Norm Li