222 Jarvis Street is an office building on

Jarvis Street Jarvis Street is a north-south thoroughfare in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, passing through some of the oldest developed areas in the city. Its alignment extends from Queens Quay East in the south to Bloor Street in the north. The segment s ...

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada. The inverted-pyramid-shaped building contains ten

storey A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). T ...

s and was completed in 1971. Constructed of pre-cast concrete skinned in dark brown brick veneer, it was designed in the

Brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...

style by architect Maxwell Miller as the head office of

Sears Canada Sears Canada Inc. was a publicly-traded Canadian company affiliated with the American-based Sears department store chain. In operation from 1952 until January 14, 2018, and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, the company began as Simpsons-Sears� ...

, a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

chain. It has of gross floor area.

History

The property was sold in 2007 to the Ontario Realty Corporation,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

's publicly owned real estate services agency. At that time, Sears Canada relocated its head office to the

Toronto Eaton Centre The Toronto Eaton Centre (corporately styled as the CF Toronto Eaton Centre since September 2015, and commonly referred to simply as the Eaton Centre) is a shopping mall and office complex in the downtown core of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is ...

. The building was once connected to the adjacent building now known as the

Merchandise Building The Merchandise Building is a loft conversion of a former warehouse located in downtown Toronto on Dalhousie Street, near the campus of Toronto Metropolitan University and the Toronto Eaton Centre. Built in various stages from 1910 to 1949 fo ...

, a former department store warehouse, which has since been converted to loft apartments. The

Government of Ontario The government of Ontario (french: Gouvernement de l'Ontario) is the body responsible for the administration of the Canadian province of Ontario. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown—represented in the province by the lieutenant governor� ...

chose 222 Jarvis Street as a model to show that older buildings can be retrofitted to significantly reduce a building's

carbon footprint A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, place or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Greenhouse gases, including the carbon-containing gases carbo ...

. The government expected to spend $100 million on the project, including the installation of a

green roof A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage ...

, with the objective of achieving

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction ...

(LEED) Gold status for the building. It was renovated to be used as offices for four ministries: Ministry of Government Services (in 2014 this Ministry was split into the Ministry of Government & Consumer Services and the

Treasury Board Secretariat The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS; french: Secrétariat du Conseil du Trésor du Canada, SCT) is the administrative branch of the Treasury Board of Canada (the committee of ministers responsible for the financial management of the fe ...

), Energy and Infrastructure, Research and Innovation, Economic Development and Trade, and Training, Colleges and Universities. The renovation was completed in the fall of 2011. The retrofit was undertaken by

WZMH Architects WZMH Architects is an architectural firm established in 1961 and based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally known as Webb Zerafa Menkès Housden (after Peter Webb, Boris Zerafa, René Menkès, and Warwick Housden) the company's name was changed t ...

, and is claimed to be as one of the largest retrofit projects in North America. It was completed under the Government of Ontario's Toronto Accommodation Plan, a ten-year plan to reduce the carbon footprint of most Ontario government office buildings in Toronto. A new two-storey glass atrium extends from the main-floor lobby and part of the second floor east toward Jarvis Street to bring in more natural light. The building has an escalator system that runs from the basement to the ninth floor. A skylight was cut into the roof to allow light into the centre of the building. Green initiatives include reusing, recycling and diverting materials away from landfill, a green roof, reflective roofing materials, a

photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...

solar rooftop panels, an energy monitoring system, daylight and occupancy sensors for lighting control, rainwater harvesting, and limited parking capacity, access to public transit and bicycle storage to encourage use of alternative modes of transportation.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Toronto Office buildings completed in 1971 Brutalist architecture in Canada Ontario government buildings WZMH Architects buildings Inverted pyramids