Ware Malcomb Announces Construction is Complete on Historic 60 Birmingham St. Industrial Project in Toronto

TORONTO – Ware Malcomb, an award-winning international design firm, today announced that construction is complete on The Birmingham, an historic Campbell Soup factory site redeveloped as a three-building facility to accommodate light industrial and E-commerce uses in the South Etobicoke district near downtown Toronto. Ware Malcomb provided architecture design services for the 398,000 square foot project.

The Birmingham is owned by QuadReal Property Group, a full-service global real estate investment, operating and development company with $67.1 billion in assets under management, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia.  

The Birmingham’s three new buildings range from 157,710 to approximately 120,000 square feet, each with 36’ clear heights. The buildings feature flexible floorplans that can accommodate a variety of uses, while outdoor spaces are carefully configured to facilitate efficient logistics use. The site provides a total of 86 loading docks and 80 truck-level doors, proximity to several highways, and is less than five kilometers from Downtown Toronto.

Frank Di Roma, Regional Vice President, Ware Malcomb’s Canadian region, said the client’s objective was restoring the site’s economic and cultural importance in the community, while preserving its history and art deco architecture. “The factory was one of the anchors of what became one of Toronto’s first major employment districts during the 1930s. This project introduces high-quality modern facilities in an ideal location enabling businesses to reach more than five million customers within a 60-minute drivetime radius.”

Di Roma said the client was committed to make the streetscape attractive to the surrounding community and screen truck loading operations from the residential housing nearby, which drove a challenging aspect of the site design. “Significant attention was focused on the grade differences on the site, the design of retaining walls and associated earth work,” he said.  “A truck court interior to two of the buildings is sunk four meters below grade, while building facades shield the other truck loading area.”  In addition, the southern façade of the historic factory was preserved and incorporated into one of the new buildings, which helps retain the character of the site and the surrounding neighborhood.  

To contribute to sustainability in the commercial space and reduce tenants’ carbon footprint, The Birmingham is designed with several green features, including solar panel rooftops, EV charging stations and solar electric power.  Concrete was used in the truck courts to reflect sunlight and reduce urban heat island effects, while the exterior is heavily landscaped.

General contracting services for the project were provided by Leesswood Construction.

About Ware Malcomb (waremalcomb.com)

Established in 1972, Ware Malcomb is a contemporary and expanding full-service design firm providing professional architecture, planning, interior design, civil engineering, branding and building measurement services to corporate, commercial/residential developer and public/institutional clients throughout the world. With office locations throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil, the firm specializes in the design of office, industrial, science & technology, healthcare, multifamily, retail, and public/institutional projects. Ware Malcomb is recognized as an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private company and a Hot Firm by Zweig Group. The firm is also ranked among the top 15 architecture/engineering firms in Engineering News-Record’s Top 500 Design Firms and the top 25 interior design firms in Interior Design magazine’s Top 100 Giants. For more information, visit waremalcomb.com.