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A PR IL 2016 | 89 The Breithaupt Block PHOTOGRAPHY BY LANGEN STUDIOS INC./COURTESY PERIMETER DEVELOPMENT CORP.; PHOTOGRAPHY & RENDERING COURTESY ROBERTSON SIMMONS ARCHITECTS INC. The Breithaupt Block by LAURIE JONES S teeped in industrial history, The Breithaupt Block in Kitchener- Waterloo's downtown core is a unique combination of old-world building sturdiness and new age technology with the primary tenant in the 225,000-square-foot, two- building complex being Google. "Kitchener-Waterloo is a German- settled town and before the war, the town was named Berlin," says Jason Martin, partner with Robertson Simmons architects inc. "There is a lot of German heritage and Mennonite settlements in the area, and many of the street names are German. The three buildings of this project are on Breithaupt Street, hence the project is called The Breithaupt Block." The first building in the cluster of many on Breithaupt Street was built in 1904. "Other buildings were added on over time and the most recent building was done in 1954," says Craig Beattie, founding partner, Perimeter Development Corporation. "Perimeter acquired the lands and buildings in late 2009. At that time our vision focused on the fact that it was good real estate located in the heart of Kitchener-Waterloo. From a very basic high-level standpoint, location was the most important part and we could tell the buildings had great bones. Even though they were in pretty rough shape, and we inherited over 1,200 tonnes of old machinery from the auto parts manufacturing company that had been a previous tenant; we knew we could work with it." Part of that work included making a deal with a specialized recycling company in Brampton, Ontario to remove the equipment. This took a full year to complete and get the empty building back to clean walls. "Then in late 2010, we did a joint venture with Allied Properties REIT, one of the largest owners of brick and beam office spaces in Canada," says Beattie. "They acquired a 50 per cent interest in the project from us and have been great partners ever since as both partners share similar visions for doing quality work." The development team moved forward on the first four-storey, brick- and-beam building, doing sand blasting and selective demolition to prepare for modern day office layouts. "Once that work was done, we started to rebuild. We included a new entrance lobby, mechanical and electrical systems, elevators, washrooms and other work that took the building fairly well along so prospective tenants could see what the finished product might look like. At that point, we were able to start the leasing process," says Beattie. "After securing approximately 35,000 square feet of office leasing with other clients, we began discussions with Google. They had a large requirement of space that dovetailed with finishing off a lot of the four-storey brick building. They ended up taking almost 200,000 square feet," Beattie adds. Around the time Perimeter started talks with Google, they had just put the finishing touches on some designs for the front two-storey building in the complex. "We always had a vision of doing a high-profile building that would be the entrance to the Kitchener downtown core," Beattie explains. "We wanted to explore adding some height to the existing building to have a stronger design impact. We worked with Robertson Simmons to look at various options including one-storey, two-storey and three-storey designs. Eventually we settled on the three-storey addition that was most striking to us." The chosen design has more than created a strong impact for the area with the addition of a three-storey glass addition on the heritage industrial base. "We put a reveal or beltline at the third floor level, then the two-storey glass box above was a reinterpretation of a typical Class-A office building to make it a little more exciting," says Martin. "The plan also includes a glass bridge between the old brick building and the new building. The bridge connects the fourth floor of the old building to the third floor of the new complex." The basement level was raised to allow access for the creation of 54 underground parking spaces. The team shared the design for the building with Google, who was in the process of securing space in the other buildings, and they decided to make an even bigger commitment by leasing the entire front building, which was close to 100,000 square feet, says Beattie. 12:17 PM 2:23 PM

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