Printing Factory Lofts

History of Printing Factory Lofts

The company goes back to the Toronto Lithographing Company, which opened on Wellington Street East in 1878 doing lithographs, engraving and electrotypes. It moved several times, lost its Jordan Street plant to fire in 1895, rebuilt at King and Bathurst, and in 1909 became Stone Ltd. under William Stone. In 1917 it merged with its big Toronto rival, Rolph, Smith and Company, to form Rolph Clark Stone, later described as one of Canada's largest graphic arts companies.

This plant at 201 Carlaw dates from 1913, when Rolph, Smith and Company commissioned it, though it first shows on the tax rolls in 1916. Its long Carlaw front is in the Classical style, with a central entrance between two-storey fluted columns with Corinthian capitals, and the sawtooth roof gave the artists on the two-acre factory floor steady north light. Nearly 400 people worked here when it opened. The City added it to its heritage inventory in 2007, protecting the front, the lobby and its grand staircase; you can still see the ghost of the Rolph Clark Stone sign over the door.

Beaverbrook, now Averton, converted it between 2008 and 2010 with the architects Chandler Graham and Montgomery Sisam. They kept three facades and large parts of the factory, rebuilt the sawtooth skylights into two-storey lofts on the top floor, added an eight-storey glass tower in the middle of the site and stacked townhouses along Boston Avenue on an old rail spur, and hid two levels of parking under landscaped courtyards. It won the 2011 Paul Oberman Award at the Pug Awards and an honourable mention at the Toronto Urban Design Awards.

Stories you'll hear

“Built for the Toronto Lithographing Company in 1878.” The company dates from 1878, but this building is from 1913 and was built for Rolph, Smith and Company.