OBJ Writer: David Sali
What does it take to transform a 60-year-old Brutalist government office tower into a place people are proud to call home? For Linebox Studio, the answer lies in embracing the puzzle. Our second office-to-residential conversion in Ottawa's downtown core, 360 Laurier Ave. W., in collaboration with CLV Group, is a masterclass in adaptive reuse architecture: preserving the building's precast concrete structure (and its considerable embodied carbon), reimagining dead-end floor plates as amenity spaces, and engineering creative solutions for windows, plumbing, and natural light where no residential architect would have thought to look. The result? Nearly 140 new rental homes added to Ottawa's housing supply, with 28% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a new build of comparable size.
Office-to-residential conversion isn't a straight line, it's a complex, evolving design challenge that demands ingenuity at every turn. From uncovering asbestos on day one of demolition to negotiating a year-long encroachment agreement just to add windows to the building's west façade, every obstacle became an opportunity to design smarter. Linebox's approach working with the bones of the building rather than against them is how we turn aging, underutilized office stock into vibrant, livable communities that strengthen Ottawa's downtown core. Read the full story in the Ottawa Business Journal.
https://obj.ca/long-road-to-converting-360-laurier-ave-into-apartments/