© GBCA 2025
401-405 Yonge Street
Working for KingSett Capital, GBCA revived this historic three-storey brick building, preserving not only the heritage materials and details, but also the fine-grained streetscape character that once defined many of the commercial streets in Toronto and is now being lost due to the development of the prime retail space along Yonge Street.
The Outcome
Built in 1873, 401-405 Yonge Street is a well-preserved example of nineteenth century commercial architecture – the rounded window openings and sculptural rooftop cornice being characteristics of the Renaissance Revival style of architecture. In remarkably good condition for a building of its age, GBCA’s scope of work for this project included both the new construction behind and within the original building, and the restoration of the heritage fabric. A modern steel-frame structure was carefully inserted allowing for the subsequent removal of the aging wood structure.
Unlike so many historic buildings throughout the city that are now dwarfed by new development above an historic facade, this development conserves the nineteenth-century scale, not only in terms of height, but also in the rhythm of the shopfronts, which were recreated using archival documentation. Upon completion in 2015, the buildings polychromatic brickwork, which had been hidden for years behind layers of paint, was revealed and the original wood cornice was restored.