By Nigel F. Maynard

Project: Elmire / Location: Montreal, Quebec / Architect/Designers: La Firme / Photos: Ulysse Lemerise

The Elmire is a condo transformation in a historic mid-19th-century industrial building. Located in a former textile mill and a Campbell’s soup factory, the project by multidisciplinary firm, La Firme, was tailored to the clients’ personalities and passions, including the love of cooking and an interest in geology.

Striking a harmonious balance between Elmire’s modern form and its historical roots in the heart of Montreal’s Plateau Mont-Royal district, La Firme focused on the careful preservation of the building’s original architecture while inserting a refined interior.

The designers exposed as much of the original structure as possible, including massive Douglas fir timber beams, brick walls and multi-functional white oak arches that were an obvious way to delineate boundaries within the unit. These contrasting elements organize the space into a rectangular area for the kitchen and salon, and an L-shaped loft for the master bedroom and bath, with a combination gallery, conservatory and meditative space.

“We were able to take a space steeped in history and to mold it into something that respects its past, but which also lays the groundwork for its future,” says Louis Béliveau, lead designer at La Firme. “Simultaneously, the design is informed by the personalities and lifestyles of the clients.”

The firm introduced extruded volumes within the empty layout in the form of multifunctional white oak building blocks that serve to subtly frame the spaces. One houses the kitchen, while also creating concealment space for a laundry room, a water closet and a coffee nook with its own stainless-steel counter and integrated sink. An L-shaped configuration in the loft area contains a master bedroom, an en-suite bathroom, a multifunctional gallery, a conservatory and a meditative space. In addition to their role in defining the condo’s spaces, white oak cabinets also provide abundant additional storage.

The oak block creates a narrow entrance in an act of spatial compression that pays off with the reveal of the larger space. It hides outerwear storage, a laundry room, a water closet with fixtures by Naoto Fukusawa, and a coffee nook with an integrated stainless steel sink and counter. In the kitchen, it becomes a pantry.

One half of the client couple is an engineer and geologist. The kitchen embodies his love of geology and his culinary passion. As such, the kitchen features a unique labradorite granite countertop with a laser-cut bent stainless-steel counter, which is finished with white oak and Fenix panels. A slightly raised, split-level living room reveals views of nearby Mont Royal, with a pull-out guest bed concealed in a custom drawer to complement the room’s functionality.

In the master bedroom, La Firme designed cabinets with a dual purpose. In addition to traditional clothing and linen storage functions, one of the cabinets houses the clients’ private wine collection. In the adjacent bathroom, primarily clad in tiles, a wall adorned with five slabs of book-matched Calacatta verde marble, with veins aligned to create a subtle pattern, exudes an added level of luxury. In alignment with La Firme’s balance of old and new, a band of glass blocks was installed as a functional retro nod to 1980s design, allowing natural light from the gallery space to permeate the room.

“Our approach extends beyond aesthetics, with a focus on practicality woven into each design decision that we make,” Béliveau says. “For instance, the decision to use oak blocks was a response to our vision for creating a compressed entrance space that would unfold to reveal the grandeur of the interior.”

Beyond traditional, La Firme’s transformation of Elmire is a thoughtful reimagination of space, history and modernity that raises the bar in terms of architectural renovation, the firm explains.

“Elmire stands as a testament to our unique design philosophy of projects informed by personality,” Béliveau adds. “It also distinguishes itself as a model of how modern living can be fully integrated into Montreal’s rich historical fabric.”