Heaslip House, University building in downtown Toronto, Canada
Heaslip House is a 1939 office building at 297 Victoria Street, designed by Chapman and Oxley for Canadian Breweries' O'Keefe Brewery. Its five-storey limestone-clad facade, with a carved panel above the main entrance, was retained when the building was renovated and expanded in 2005 with glass and copper elements.
The site held a public school until at least 1880, demolished by the 1930s. Canadian Breweries, owned by E. P. Taylor, hired Chapman and Oxley to build a head office for its O'Keefe Brewery there, completed in 1939. Toronto Metropolitan University, then Ryerson Polytechnic Institute, bought the brewery site in 1966; renovations of Heaslip House finished in 2006.
The building serves as home to a continuing education school where adult learners take courses in a variety of fields. People of different ages use the space to develop new skills and advance their careers.
The building is centrally located downtown and is easy to reach on foot. Visitors should know that the spaces are mainly used during daytime hours for classes.
The 2006 renovation kept the 1939 limestone facade of the O'Keefe Building while adding a glass and copper upper structure. The architects cantilevered the new floors over Devonian Pond, the former brewery site that becomes a skating rink in winter.
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