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Carleton Place Heritage Project - Part 2

Interventions

Eliseo Temprano, the current principal architect of the local architecture firm in Ottawa, Pye & Richards – Temprano & Young Architects Inc. was the architect who worked on the condominium renovations in the 1980’s. His firm at the time, Eliseo Temprano Architects Inc., was brought in by structural engineers to help work on the project. He reveals in an interview how his firm got started on the project:Temprano had previous experience in architectural heritage projects prior to the Boulton Brown Mill, with the most significant being the Master Plan for Rideau Hall which is designated as a national historic site and is the official residence of the Governor General of Canada. This project involved “a study of trying to integrate the numerous additions that were made to the building over time and to find a basis to create a master plan for over the next 25 years”. His work at Rideau Hall was successful as most of the plan had been implemented over the course of the project’s timeframe. With his experience in heritage work prior to the former mill, it made him a great candidate chosen to takeover the adaptive reuse project in Carleton Place.

As the mill was over 150 years old at the time of the interventions, there were challenges that needed to be faced with the original design of the building in relation to the scope of project.
The fire of 1970 caused significant damage to the heritage site and ceased milling operations at this location forever. Temprano reveals that the roof structure that was made of wood had been completely damaged, however, the stone was not. His intervention involved an assessment of what had been damaged and how they were going to replace it. He explains, “Generally, where we could, we replaced it with solid wood that mimicked the original structure.” The thought process behind mimicking the original structure even though it was being converted into a new use, exemplify the architect’s conscious thought for preserving the tangible heritage of the building. This includes the original character-defining elements such as the exposed stonework and roof structure.

Another challenge in the design was “the change of use required stairs and exits to satisfy the Ontario Building Code for its new residential use as before it was an early industrial use”. Temprano explains in depth that in residential buildings, the occupancy load is much higher than in an industrial setting, so this requires the building to have more exits, stairs, and walkways that allow occupants to enter and exit the building, which is especially important if there is an emergency such as a fire.

Due to the initial complications of not having a licensed architect for the drawings, the timeframe of the project had been delayed.
In total, the entire adaptive reuse project from start to finish took a year and a half to complete.

If given the opportunity to do more renovations in 2022, Temprano reveals that he would like to “build out additional spaces rather than sticking to the confines of the existing building”.


 

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