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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, March 26, 2015 | 4 Holcim Estate restoration earns Ontario Heritage Award by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver Staff The Gairdner family's country retreat was an elegant home with beautiful views of Lake Ontario. Its well-manicured lawns played host to social gatherings in the 1940s and 50s. But by the time the City of Mississauga purchased the property and hired Oakville's ATA Architects Inc. to restore it a few years ago, the grounds were overgrown and vandals had broken windows and stolen any usable material from the house. The Holcim Waterfront Estate had been abandoned for three decades. Its last owners had used it as office space, dramatically altering the home's original interior. ATA's mission was to restore the Great Depression-era estate to its former glory while modernizing it to make it a viable site to host weddings and other events while meeting all current building codes. "Melding together the old and new and making it all work, it takes a lot of detail and a lot of care," said ATA principal Alex Temporale. "I think it was a project that required love and attention and it got that attention from everyone involved." That love and attention to detail was rewarded with a Lieutenant Governor's Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation, which the Oakville company shared with the City of Mississauga and Brampton landscape architecture company Baker Turner Inc. Temporale said heritage projects can be The Holcim Waterfront Estate in Mississauga, which once belonged to the Gairdner family, was restored by Oakville's ATA Architects Inc. The local firm shared a Lieutenant Governor's Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation for the project with its partners, the City of Mississauga and Brampton landscape architecture company, Baker Turner Inc. | photo by Tom Ridout - courtesy ATA Architects Inc. more challenging because of the number of different groups involved. In this case, the project involved various departments from the City of Mississauga, the Mississauga Heritage Department and, because the property bordered on the lake, the Halton Conservation Authority. "Everyone has thoughts of what is important to them," Temporale said. "You have to bring everyone to the table and get a consensus, get everyone to support what you're planning." Because it had been converted to office space, little of the original floor plan remained. ATA used photographs of the original house to "recreate, but not replicate" the interior. Temporale said the goal was instead to give it the same character and ambiance as the original. ATA also preserved and restored the main curved staircase and the second-floor library. Among the challenges was making a threequarter century-old home accessible without detracting from its original character. That included installing an elevator, which was achieved by replacing a secondary staircase. "You want to maintain some important elements of the past in buildings such as that," Temporale said, "but you have to do it in a way that it will still play an important role in the future of the community." Another challenge ATA faced was the house was not large enough to accommodate large weddings. While an addition could have been built, it would have detracted from the original symmetrical design of the house. Instead, it was decided that a seasonal tent would be used to connect the main house and a coach house, which was converted to washrooms for outdoor events, allowing both buildings to retain their original appearance. The restoration of the grounds' landscape not only returned it to its original state, it also allowed the city to incorporate it into its park system. Temporale said because of the collaborative nature of the project, it was fitting that the award was shared. "When you have a team approach and everyone is working together to the same end, those kinds are the kinds of teams you look for when you're doing a heritage project," he said. "When you're able to restore a building and give it new life, it's really appreciated." Voted the Best in Oakville We Invite you to find out why! Call today for your personal tour. We'd love to have you join us! Retirement Living 380 Sherin Drive, Oakville, Ontario (905) 847-1413 www.vistamere.ca At Its Best