A moment in history
Learn more about One Urban’s purpose-built rental heritage development
One Urban’s latest project is set to be Oakville’s first fully integrated heritage property. Working alongside the Town of Oakville, Canada’s top heritage consultant (ERA) and internationally acclaimed architecture firm (BPD Quadrangle), the building’s design will pay homage to the rich history of past land owners.
Formerly known as “The Wettlaufer House” the property belongs to a heritage site that dates back to 1842, where the historic Village of Palermo was settled. Located along Dundas Street, the former village was an important east-west land route for travellers in Upper Canada.
The Queen Anne style house was built in 1909 by John Marshall and home to George Wettlaufer in 1926, his daughters Rosetta and Charlotte, and son Eckhardt. Eckhardt’s wife, Ethel, was a prominent figure in the community, as a school teacher for Palermo Public School and music lead for the Palermo United Church.
Shown in the presented photo: Town of Oakville Heritage Planner, Susan Schappert (left), One Urban COO, Nick Stillo (middle), and Jean Wettlaufer (right. daughter-in-law of Ethel Wettlaufer)
The property remained within generations of the Wettlaufer family until being sold to One Urban in 2016. For the next 4 years, One Urban and the consulting teams worked toward a building design that both incorporates and preserves the original structure of the Wettlaufer House. "Having lived in the family home since 1964, I had seen a lot of changes to the Village, and it was refreshing to see a developer like One Urban so keen on preserving its roots in such a meaningful way. Palermo, steeped in history, is moving to the future." says Jean Wettlaufer.
Along the way, One Urban was presented with considerable challenges to make sense of scales between the proposed new building and the existing house, as well as avoid compromising the design integrity in either structure. "This project was challenging, but in the end, a very thoughtful and creative solution to conserve part of Palermo’s history within this new development has been proposed and the Town looks forward to its implementation." says Susan Schappert, Town of Oakville Heritage Planner. During the course of construction, the house is to be disassembled, catalogued and stored to ultimately be reassembled into the new structure.
The upcoming building will consist of 131 residential units featuring state-of-the-art amenities including a rooftop terrace, connection work space, full fitness gym, peloton studio, party room, conference room, pet spa, and more. This will be the first of a series of new construction, rental buildings under One Urban’s Multi-Family Rental division.
Growing into the future, this development will be located less than 100 meters from the future Dundas-Bronte Lite Rapid Transit (LRT) transportation hub which will service all of Oakville.