Architectural Spotlight: 7-11 Brock St

Inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s film “The Reservoir Dogs,” this adaptive re-use project in a 100 year-old masonry warehouse will be the latest addition to the North End. Designed by Thier+Curran Architects, each townhouse is designed with its own unique characteristics.

Screen shot 2016-01-29 at 12.30.15 PM

The ultra-modern exteriors will include brick, custom steel, corrugated metal, glass and glass block, but each design will be different. For example, townhouse number 7 will have a two-storey periscope with skylights for additional natural lighting, number 9 will have an entrance foyer tower punctuating the roofline, and number 11 includes a two-storey loft.

Glass block, used for privacy, is just one accent to the southern facades. Custom doors painted different colours (Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink, and Mr. Brown) will have full length stainless steel pulls and a custom artistic finish by local artist David Hind. Townhouse number 11 also includes a large commercial style glass garage to the entrance porch, screened with a wood slatwall for additional privacy.

Screen shot 2016-01-29 at 12.32.01 PM.png

The interiors will be bright and spacious. Reclaimed brick and 14-to-17 foot timber fir ceilings provide the space with a warming, open feel. There will be cork tiling in the kitchen and bathrooms. Bamboo floors will be in the living/dining/sleeping areas and limestone in the foyers. The townhouses also include fireplaces and skylit gallery spaces with wall space for art. Number 11 will have an open ramped gallery to the basement, complete with a skylight.

Townhouse number 7 and number 9 is one bedroom plus den, while number 11 will have two bedrooms. Number 11 also includes surface parking, a basement with safes (one converted into a wine cellar), and an outdoor shower. Each townhouse also has its own private garden.

Each townhouse differs in size:

No. 7: 1,337 sq.ft.
No. 9: 1,416 sq.ft.
No. 11: 1,771 sq.ft with 3,440 sq. ft. private side/rear garden and 1,035 sq.ft unfinished basement

Screen shot 2016-01-29 at 12.30.34 PM

This 100 year-old warehouse was once a machine shop, holding US patents from 1888 until 1905. During the prohibition it was a liquor warehouse (Number 11 has a barrel ramp to the basement and two brick walk-in safes). And in the 1970s, the building was a boiler room.

The project is slated to be complete by spring 2016.

Advertisement

4 Comments

Filed under Architecture

4 responses to “Architectural Spotlight: 7-11 Brock St

  1. Man did I ever drool over that lot when I lived in the north end for a few months back in the summer of 2012…

    awesome to see that happening to that property.. so happy to see it adapted for re-use instead of bulldozed..

    wiked awesome..

    ENB..//

  2. Pat Riccardi

    are all the units sold????

  3. Jason Lloyd

    That’s not a barrel ramp from prohibition. It was installed in the late 70s by the occupants the better access the basement. At that time the access to the basement was a set of stairs in what is now unit #11. The stairs were removed with the creation of the concrete ramp. Most of unit #7 was an addition by the same occupants in the early 70s. This is visible in the photo as block construction vs the brick of the east side. If memory serves, the northeast corner was also an addition. The tongue & groove facade and vertical windows were also installed in the 70s.

    • Thanks for the insight, Jason! This was all sent to me as a Press Release, so that’s the information I was provided. I’ll be doing a post on the building when it’s completed and will be sure to update.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s