ARCHITECTURE / ADAPTIVE REUSE / HOUSING
A building that accommodates lives in motion.
McDermot Block / North Elevation
Original Drawings of 290 McDermot
II / TECTONIC INVENTIONS
Intervening within the existing timber structure: model studies, reuse of NLT floor elements, and a new interior balcony condition.
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3d Model + Structural Analysis
1/4" = 1'-0" Scale Model
01 / THE GLENGARRY BUILDING
The project begins with the Glengarry Building at 290 McDermot Avenue, a 1910 warehouse in Winnipeg’s Exchange District. Its brick envelope, deep floor plates, and substantial heavy-timber structure offer both the character and the constraints for an adaptive-reuse housing proposal. Historical drawings, site documentation, and structural analysis establish what can be retained, transformed, and opened to new life.
02 / TECTONIC INVENTIONS
Rather than treating the existing structure as an obstacle, this phase makes it the material of invention. Through physical studies and iterative models, portions of the original nail-laminated timber floor construction are reworked into interior balconies and layered communal thresholds. The ambition is to bring light, movement, and spatial generosity into a dense warehouse without erasing its inherited fabric.
03 / HOUSING LOOPS
The housing research considers prosperity, dignity, fraternity, and precarity as overlapping conditions rather than separate housing markets. It asks how one urban community might support people through changing stages of life. Distinct dwelling types are linked by common spaces, shared resources, and the possibility of remaining in the same neighbourhood as needs change.
III / RESEARCH
The work tests housing as a long-term social infrastructure. Precarity recognizes periods of instability; dignity considers the need for privacy and independence; fraternity creates places for mutual support; and prosperity is understood as shared access to everyday resources. Together, these loops propose a more resilient kind of urban life.
01 / PRECARITY
Room for changing circumstances.
02 / DIGNITY
Autonomy within a shared address.
03 / FRATERNITY
Everyday encounters and collective care.
04 / PROSPERITY
Amenities and resources held in common.
IV / STRATEGY
Hybridization brings the housing loops together through linked apartment typologies, generous common rooms, and shared circulation. Rather than separating young adults, families, and seniors into different buildings or life stages, the proposal imagines transitions within one enduring intergenerational neighbourhood.
A social condenser built around intentional fraternity.
V / PROPOSAL
The Glengarry Building becomes a framework for varied dwelling types and collective space. The design works between its retained masonry and timber fabric, new interior connections, and spaces for exchange. A wider vision for the McDermot Block extends everyday life toward rooftop recreation and shared neighbourhood amenities.
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Exploded axonometric / retained structure and new interventions
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LifeCycle Loop
2026
Fourth-Year Architecture Studio
loopStudio / Lancelot Coar
290 McDermot Avenue, Winnipeg
ALL PROJECTS
PROJECT READING
Read together, the plans, exploded axonometric, and long and short sections describe one continuous transformation: retain what gives the warehouse identity, make selective structural openings, and insert a flexible, intergenerational domestic life. The building’s second life is both material and social.