Tommy & Lefebvre intends to primarily construct on the existing footprint of the building. However, because the site was an amalgamation of various buildings with various characters, scale, massing, etc., the reconstruction represents an opportunity to rationalize the footprint and design. The proposed building will have the appearance of a two-storey building with an overall height of approximately 8.4 m. The building will be located tight to the Bank and McLeod Street sidewalks with ground floor retail providing a continuous commercial frontage. Office and additional retail space will be located on mezzanines. The main entrance is being proposed at the corner of Bank and McLeod Streets. A curved aluminum screen over the entrance may be used for signage and will assist in acknowledging the building entrance and corner presence.
The large sidewalk level windows on the Bank and McLeod Street elevations will be used to display merchandise and serve to animate the street. A projecting canopy at approximately 3.0 m above the sidewalk will serve to bring the scale of the building down to the pedestrian level. The regular rhythm of the second floor office windows is in response to the early commercial buildings in the District, where the second floor was often apartments.
The main building will be clad in a metric modular brick similar in colour to the original store. The ground floor retail windows will be framed in a black modular brick to highlight the retail aspect of the building. The canopy and curved screen at the entrance will be clear anodized aluminum. A simple cornice will complete the elevation.
The development application documents are posted here:
http://app01.ottawa.ca/postingplans/appDetails.jsf?lang=en&appId=__7NDR8G
The old building:
The proposed new building rendering:
The proposed new building siteplan: