ARCHITECT

The program called for the internal and external renovation of the existing club as well as construction of a new addition which doubled the size of the facility. New to the facility were a cultural library, choir room, six new meeting rooms and a ground entrance foyer to compliment the refurbished banquet rooms, lounge and offices.

The original building was built in the 1920's and had been a social club since it's inception. However, over the years a major structural problem had developed in that the roof trusses had started to spread, thus putting outward force on the exterior bearing walls. The problem was traced to the manner in which the wood pieces of the trusses had been originally connected. But how to correct the deflection which had already taken place? After evaluating several alternatives we had installed a series of steel plates on the top of the exterior walls which were tied to another plate on the opposite wall with a steel cable. These cables were then tightened to draw the plates together. This pulled the walls into their original vertical position and raised the roof truss members back into their correct position. The trusses were then fitted with new joint connectors. 

Another unforeseen problem occurred when we attempted to set a new steel column on the existing masonry foundation. Instead of solid masonry as we discovered that the original foundation had been built with a brick and mortar inner and outer wythe but that the material between the wythes was loose
stone and brick rubble. To provide the necessary bearing for the new steel column we had to remove a section of the original foundation and rebuild it from the footings upward.