The metamorphosis of a heritage building from 1912

In the fall of 2008, Espace VERRE, also known as the Centre des métiers du verre du Québec, carried out a project to preserve its building—a former fire station built in 1912, and upgrading it to the industry’s standards. The scope of work consisted of restoring the building envelope, consolidating the structure and foundations, refurbishing the concrete slab of the casting room, installing new ventilation and air conditioning systems, improving the heating, fire protection and fire alarm systems, and reorganizing the classrooms, administrative premises as well as the exhibition hall.

As the construction work was highly restricting the occupancy of the building, the scope of work had to be coordinated in a short timeline to ensure that the college courses would be able to start at the beginning of September. The century-old building had its share of unforeseen conditions duly managed, based on their impact on the client’s operations.

Moreover, the project benefited from various government grants for which several conditions, both operational and temporal, had to be met to benefit from the programs.