What makes this downtown Art Deco landmark into a vibrant community?

Waterworks works — and then some. Just ask the people who live at the redeveloped industrial site named for its former life as a water treatment facility. 

In an unusual mix of uses, the structure built in 1932 has been transformed into a thriving community hub that combines housing with food, health and social facilities. “It breathed new life into the area,” says Zvonimir Cicvaric, who bought an 11th-floor condo in the midrise residence added to the original heritage building.

He regularly meets up with colleagues at Beatrice Society café, located in one end of the restored two-storey structure on Richmond St. W. And he takes full advantage of the amenities, from the expanded park to the “fantastic rooftop space,” where he meets up with other residents for barbecues or summer movie nights.

Further proof the whole thing works? The project won this year’s GTA best-built community award given out by the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD).

The complex, which opened for occupancy two summers ago, takes up the entire city block between Maud and Brant Sts. on the south side of Richmond. The original yellow brick building serves as a base for the black, porcelain-clad, C-shaped condominium that embraces a courtyard and overlooks St. Andrew’s Playground park.