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After two years of construction, one of downtown Toronto's historic landmark churches, The Cathedral of St. James, is preparing to reopen its restored and modernized 1909 Parish Hall and a 34,000-squarefoot glass and steel addition.
The $17 million project included a masonry contract calling for some brick replacement, repointing and repairs to terra cotta details at windows and doors to the 1909 Parish Hall, says Andrew Pruss, principal of ERA Architects Inc., the heritage consultant to architectsalliance, the project's architect.
The hall's brick and masonry structure sustained damage over the years from rain, natural expansion/contraction, freeze/thaw cycles and settlement.
Some of the damage, however, was manmade, caused by Portland cement-based mortar repair jobs in the 1950s-1960s by well-meaning masonry contractors. The highstrength mortar caused the soft historic brick (which was fired at lower temperatures than today's much harder brick) to spall and crack over time.
"We had to remove all of the Portland mortar and repoint with soft lime mortar," says Sam Trigila, principal, Clifford Restoration Ltd., masonry contractor for...