St. Thomas Lofts residences

Waterdown, ON

Year completed – 2010

The church was the former St Thomas Catholic Church which was sold when the church built a larger newer facility in another part of town. It was converted with the help of a federal and provincial government sponsored affordable housing program. The building contains 7 residential units on 3 floors.

We had to insert the new 3rd floor structure within the original 2 storey high nave area and work around making the existing high windows work within this multi-story framework without disturbing the exterior walls too much and using an existing structural system to avoid costly structural modifications.

The challenge was planning window and door heights in the upper levels and at the same time accommodating the ornamental arches of the church roof within a functional floor plan. We ended up with spaces with wonderful 10 foot high ceilings and enormous windows.

On the outside new dormer windows in the roof are the only real clue that the former church is being used for other purposes.