Oakville Museum Coach House [+VG Architects (The Ventin Group Ltd.)]
Nominated for the Peter Stokes Restoration Award: Small-Scale/Individual/Small Business for restoring the picturesque coach house at the historic Erchless Estate
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The May 2022 reopening of the picturesque Shingle Style Oakville Coach House, built in 1901, marked the completion by +VG Architects (The Ventin Group Ltd.) of the restoration of the Erchless Estate, a cultural heritage property designated under the Ontario Heritage Act. This fine ensemble of historic buildings overlooking Oakville Harbour includes the Italianate residence (1858) of the town’s founding family, restored as the Oakville Museum by +VG in 1991. The Coach House boasts a steeply pitched cross-gable roof with irregular slopes, eyebrow dormers, bell-cast and bowed projections, shingled cupola, and bay window and mullioned windows
Following an archaeological investigation, deteriorated elements were replaced in accordance with Parks Canada standards. The project is a much-anticipated addition to the museum’s cultural and heritage programming capacity, and a welcoming feature on the publicly accessible cultural heritage landscape.
The project mandate was to create a new programming venue for the museum and restore the gardener’s cottage; strengthen links and enhance visual access to the Coach House; enhance the presence of the Coach House in the museum campus; harmonize the landscape design with the larger park, river, lake and road settings; integrate path systems, wayfinding and visual accessibility from within and outside the museum campus; protect the archaeological and cultural heritage significance of the Coach House and surrounding grounds; change the building’s use from storage to assembly occupancy; and bring the building up to current accessibility standards. +VG’s alterations and additions conformed to all applicable Parks Canada’s Standards and Guidelines, following the accepted heritage practice of restore first, repair next, replace last. Replacement was in-kind, compatible, distinguishable, based on sufficient physical evidence, and documented.
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