The Shanley is a new eight-storey purpose-built rental building adjacent to downtown Kitchener, Ontario. The mid-rise design features sculpted volumes and various step-backs as the building climbs, tempering the overall massing to respect the scale of the neighbourhood.

Occupying a former industrial site, The Shanley adds rental housing to a residential enclave near the Kitchener GO Station. The buff brick exterior, which honours the area’s architectural history as well as the existing residential fabric, features half-inch insets to create dynamism along the façades. In a larger formal gesture, we articulated the façades by breaking them up to create “house-scale” pieces that communicate visually with the single-family homes nearby. The building also includes townhouses with front doors that open directly onto both Shanley and Duke Streets.

From the outset, one of our chief priorities for The Shanley was to achieve Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification. In keeping with Canada’s changing demographics as well as evolving provincial and federal legislation, we sought to design a rental building that integrates enhanced accessibility and aging-in-place principles. We implemented rigorous accessibility measures throughout the common areas as well as within a variety of residential suites that were designed specifically to accommodate people with disabilities.

Images: MOT + Superkül