Buildings

École Belmont

Address:525 Belmont Avenue
Use:Educational
Original Use:Educational
Constructed:1953
Other Work:Classrooms and gym added in 1986
Architects:Prain and Ward
Macdonald Cockburn McFeetors Architects (1986)
Firms:Prain and Ward, Macdonald Cockburn McFeetors Architects

Design Characteristics

Suburb:Jefferson, Seven Oaks East
  • Tucked into an irregular lot near a CPR line, the kindergarten to Grade 5 French immersion school benefited from some creative thinking when it came time to add to the original six classrooms; the front jack-knifes to create an embracing entrance at the intersection of the old and new wings
  • Original construction was simple with a frame of steel and wood, a wood roof deck, a flat roof and walls faced in a red brick; the glass block windows, typical of the time, have been closed in and stuccoed over, leaving only the shape and vertical strips on the far ends behind
  • What is distinctive to the design are the broad eaves, carried down on triangular brick-over-steel buttresses in a sort of fin that delineates each classroom
  • The eighties addition on the east side is denser, with few windows and little detailing, slightly higher and made of the same red brick as the earlier section