Drywall is going up, the studwork's being done and the drilling for the geothermal system is about to begin on the refurbished seniors facility at 717 Broadview, just south of the Danforth.
The $10-million project, designed by
Raw Design for
Toronto Community Housing and
Woodgreen Community Services, is about halfway done, with a December completion date scheduled.
"It's been a challenging project," says Raw principal Roland Rom Colthoff of the 1970s brutalist brick structure. "It was quite a well constructed building for the time. It wasn't great building science, but there was some good building."
Built as an institutional building, with rooms for seniors and shared facilities, including bathrooms, the new interior is being restructured to build 69 apartments out of the previous 200 rooms, adding a facility for Woodgreen programs on the ground floor and in the basement, as well as turning part of the parking lot in back of the building into a community garden.
Colthoff also expects the new design to deliver a 25%-40% reduction in energy consumption, in part due to the geothermal heating system.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Roland Rom Colthoff
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