Ontario Construction News staff writer
The City of Ottawa has converted a vacant downtown office building into a 140-bed interim housing facility for asylum seekers, a move officials are calling a creative first step in addressing the city’s housing and homelessness crisis.
The project, on the second floor at 230 Queen St. just blocks from Parliament Hill, marks the city’s first conversion of an empty office building into residential space. The conversion was completed at a cost of $5.6 million, and the city has secured a 10-year lease on the building.
“Turning a vacant office building into transitional housing is exactly the kind of creative solution that we need right now,” Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said lastThursday. “We are facing a real crisis in our city, a housing and homelessness crisis, and this shows one more step toward making progress in tackling that.”
Ottawa-based CSV Architects led the design for the conversion, which transformed three floors into living quarters. The facility includes modular walls to create separate rooms, each furnished with a bed, a storage locker, and a chair. Residents will have access to shared kitchens, shower stalls, laundry facilities, meeting rooms, and office spaces. A coworking space has also been established on the ground level.
CSV principal noted the complexities of converting a commercial building into a residential one. He said the project required careful consideration of humidity and airflow, which is why the design incorporates communal kitchens and showers rather than individual apartment units with separate plumbing.
During construction, crews discovered historical elements of the building, which once housed the Capitol Cinema that closed around 1970. Hood mentioned that beams believed to be part of the old movie theatres were found in the ceilings, and the new atrium was built where the box office formerly stood.
Downtown city councillor Ariel Troster said the new facility will provide newcomers with secure temporary housing and access to office space, helping them to avoid the shelter system and focus on building their new lives in Canada.
The completion of this project comes months after the city abandoned a controversial plan to house refugee claimants in large tent structures in the suburbs.
With files from The Canadian Press.
