Background:
Villa House has a rich history dating back as a Folk Victorian character home in early 20 century something as a single-family dwelling for a wealthy coal merchant.
An addition was added during the 1930’s to facilitate more space. During the late 1950’s, the home was jointly purchased by three Polish immigrant families, who modified the building to single bedroom apartments and lodging rooms to accommodate new immigrants.
My involvement:
My name is Wolfgang Schoor. I am a degreed University graduate akin to a masters from the University of Waterloo, with a focus in Construction Ergonomics’ and Universal Design for cold climates. As well, I am a certified construction superintendent, and certified as carpenter and joiner in Germany and Canada…along with other related certifications.
The numeric order shown on the illustration depicts proximity of rental units within the building.
I, became involved with this building in the 1990’s, continued its use and began with planning and initiating specific ergonomic, safety and social improvements.
The Villa House has been modernized to be compliant with the Municipal By-Laws and the Ontario Fire Protection Act. Mandatory standardized building code compliances and life safety, electrical and early fire warning systems have been seamlessly integrated to the Villa House.
Additional work and independent research related to buildability, livability and affordability, building performance and tenant behavior has been conducted by me since then. A portion of this ergonomic research has been published internationally and publicized locally.
The illustrations below show the early planning stages for physically manipulating the built environment of Villa House.
Summary of Villa House future development:
The pictures above show a bird’s eye view of what my visual perception looks like. I will continue to further develop Villa House to its fullest potential with an ad-on cost related to expenditure. I have a City of Thunder Bay building services committee of adjustment approval for the addons as shown in the picture. A building permit is required.
All of the future development needs and needed a building permit. The roofed over stair cover has an approved building permit, and work for this development will be done in early summer 2025.
The development and design work for the addition, the building permit application is in the works, approval for this work may be by April of 2025, and work for the same may start during the summer of 2025. If you have any questions, please get in touch with me and ask for more detail.