Tip Top Lofts

History of Tip Top Lofts

Tip Top Tailors was founded in 1909 by David Dunkelman, a Polish-Jewish immigrant, and grew into a national menswear chain. In 1929 it moved its manufacturing, warehousing, retail and offices into this building by the architects Bishop and Miller, one of the city's best Art Deco designs, with a lobby to match. The company later became part of the Dylex clothing group.

The building stands on land that used to be lake. This stretch of Lake Shore was built on landfill, so the building rests on wooden piles driven through the fill to bedrock. Because the piles sit below the water table, they were still sound when the conversion came, though they had to be strengthened, and new ones added, to carry the six new storeys.

The City designated it a heritage building in 1972. In 2002 Dylex sold it to Context Development, which converted it with architectsAlliance, finishing in 2006. The four original floors are true hard lofts with concrete mushroom columns and big factory windows; the glass storeys above hold most of the two-storey units. There are 256 lofts from about 600 to 2,580 square feet in over 50 layouts, and the restored lobby is one of the finest in the city.

Stories you'll hear

If the front doors look familiar, it's because they played the police station in the TV series Monk.