Bike room, showers, and service-space retrofit

With Pentillion Construction, I coordinated the retrofit of vacated tenant space into building amenity and service areas. The new program included bike storage, lockers, three shower stalls, an accessible washroom, an accessible combined shower and washroom, janitor storage with a mop sink, and a garbage room.

The design had to work for tenants, the landlord, building operations, accessibility expectations, and the service needs of the property. A space like this can look simple once it is complete, but the hidden coordination is what makes it usable.

The challenges with retrofitting an existing building

The retrofit involved fire separations between tenants and floors, subgrade plumbing, new washroom and shower layouts, secure access requirements, mechanical and electrical coordination, and revisions to engineered details so the work better suited the actual space.

The existing conditions mattered. Plumbing routes, wall layouts, access points, service spaces, and fire separations could not be solved independently. Each decision affected another part of the retrofit.

Coordinating consultants, trades, and adjacent work

My role was to coordinate between the architect, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, Pentillion Construction, subtrades, and contractors working in adjacent tenant space at the same time.

I reviewed historical drawings, engineering plans, and architectural layouts to understand the existing conditions and help propose solutions that could satisfy the different stakeholders. The work required balancing design intent with field realities so the retrofit could move forward without creating conflicts for the surrounding construction.

Clean cut finish

The result was a more useful and serviceable set of building spaces. Accessibility, service use, plumbing, fire separations, secure access, consultant details, trades, and active building constraints all had to line up so an underused area could work as dependable building infrastructure.