No guts, no glory, as they say. Work to turn the former head offices of Imperial Oil Canada at 111 St. Clair Avenue West into Camrost-Felcorp's Imperial Plaza condominiums has now gutted former mechanical floors in the centre of the building. We are afforded a peek at the work which aims to restore the building to glory by Riva Finkelstein, who toured the project recently. First though, a couple of shots of the stately international style building from a bit further north, to remind you of its location in the city.

111 St. Clair West from the north, image by Craig White

Mechanical floor detail at 111 St. Clair West, from the north, image by Craig White

…and in we go!

Interior of former mechanical floors at 111 St. Clair West, image by Riva Finkelstein

Interior of former mechanical floors at 111 St. Clair West, image by Riva Finkelstein

Interior of former mechanical floors at 111 St. Clair West, image by Riva Finkelstein

Looking out from former mechanical floors at 111 St. Clair West, image by Riva Finkelstein

Looking out from former mechanical floors at 111 St. Clair West, image by Riva Finkelstein

The building features commanding views over the city from its perch in Deer Park, overlooking the skyline from atop the Lake Iroquois escarpment - the long east-west rise best known for the Avenue Road hill south of St. Clair. Built to a very high standard by Imperial Oil for its head offices in the mid-1950s, the building's design by Mathers and Haldenby Architects was a runner-up for the new City Hall at the time. The heritage-listed building's lobby is adorned by prized mosaics created by York Wilson called 'The Story of Oil.' The mosaics will be preserved and incorporated into what Camrost-Felcorp intends to be a high-end restaurant, and a gourmet grocery store.

Imperial Oil lobby with York Wilson's The Story of Oil, image by Craig White

New St. Clair frontage of Imperial Plaza with planned restaurant

Up top in the building's crown will be a number of 3-storey sky-penthouses with outstanding views.

Sky Penthouse view overlooking Toronto's Skyline at Imperial Plaza

While Onespace Unlimited architects work on the adaptations to the structure, luxury residential specialist Brennan Customs Homes is working on interiors and architecture of the Sky Penthouses, and The Design Agency are responsible for suites in the rest of the building along with the extensive amenities.

We will be back soon to look more at the Sky Penthouses and the amenities. In the meantime, if you would like more information on the project, you will find many facts, renderings and plans in UrbanToronto's dataBase entry, linked below. To join in on the discussion of the building, choose a related Forum thread link, also below!