The Pierce-Arrow automobile was built in Buffalo, N.Y. from 1901 to 1938. Early in the company\u2019s history, it made the decision to build large, luxury automobiles with substance: their first, the Great Arrow, proved its mettle by winning the first Glidden Tour in 1905, an endurance test of 1,770 kilometres put on by the American Automobile Association.<\/p>\n
Twenty-three years later, the car was still highly regarded; The Globe wrote that it had \u201can enviable place in the public mind\u201d and is \u201cas good as motor car brains can devise.\u201d<\/p>\n
First showing the cars in 1920 to Torontonians at 120 King St. E. and then at 684 Yonge St., in 1929 H.E. Givan purchased a vacant lot at 1140 Yonge St. and, on Jan. 13, 1930, opened his glamorous, gleaming, classically proportioned showrooms to the public (by architect William F. Sparling of Sparling, Martin, and Forbes), trumpeting them in a large Globe advertisement as, \u201cthe most beautiful in Toronto.\u201d The newspaper one-upped the claim in a small piece with an illustration, calling it \u201cone of the finest \u2026 in Ontario.\u201d The unnamed author went on to describe the interior as \u201cunique in the treatment of the windows which constitute the whole of the frontage\u201d to provide a \u201cwell-lighted, handsome interior\u201d with \u201cfinely carved oak.\u201d<\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n An advertisement of the Pierce-Arrow building in The Globe and Mail.The Globe and Mail Archives<\/p>\n The exteriors, too, had carvings. Godlike male figures holding tiny Pierce-Arrow cars, winged tires, and an assortment of chimeras (in Greek mythology, a beast with the body or head of a lion), and imps, all by renowned female sculptor Merle Foster, a 1919 Ontario College of Art graduate. The imps, writes Terry Murray in her book Faces on Places, may have been modelled on poor neighbourhood children who lived near the artist\u2019s Walton Street studio in the part of downtown Toronto once known as \u201cThe Ward.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cChildren flocked to her door to see the red-haired grown-up who seemed to make mud pies for a living and occasionally paid kids to pose for her,\u201d she wrote in 2006.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want the chimera wings back in all their glory,\u201d said ERA\u2019s David Winterton with a smile. \u201cThe Staples siding hurt them.\u201d Mr. Winterton is referring to the building\u2019s most recent use as an office supply store that sported oodles of red corrugated siding that unceremoniously rammed into Ms. Foster\u2019s work.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s all restorable,\u201d he continues. \u201cWe\u2019re kind of excited about the digital aspect; we\u2019ve been working with Carleton University [graduates] \u2026 They scanned sculptures at Parliament Hill and then recreated them in their studio using CNC [computer numerical control machining tools] and other 3-D printing [methods] so there\u2019s this technology that exists now that didn\u2019t exist before that\u2019s going to help us figure this out.\u201d <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Renderings of One Marlborough, a new 13-storey luxury condo of 58 residences that will rise from the 1930-era Pierce-Arrow showroom.Audax Architecture<\/p>\n That means ERA will also be able to recreate the lost cornice and multiple gargoyles that were \u201cshorn off by the CBC\u201d (if someone has one in their backyard, however, let this author know \u2013 it will save ERA a lot of trouble!). The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation owned the building, it should be noted, from 1952 until selling it in 1995 (after Pierce Arrow went out of business in 1938, Mr. Givan sold Studebakers until 1942, upon which he leased the building to RCA Victor). The CBC was also the first owner to paint over the lovely two-toned, checkerboard brick that surrounded the arches.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Details of the Pierce-Arrow showroom.Dave LeBlanc\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n In a light drizzle, Mr. Winterton points to the spots where gargoyles will once again perch, as co-developers Pouyan Safapour of Devron Developments and Ian McLeod of Dorsay Development Corp., and architect\/interior designer Gianpiero Pugliese of Audax, nod rain-speckled heads in approval. After decades of neglect, this old automobile showroom is being lovingly restored and will form the base of a new 13-storey luxury condo of 58 residences, to be called One Marlborough. The building will be an homage in cast stone and brick, with plenty of archways that pick up on Mr. Sparling\u2019s Byzantine\/Renaissance Revival building.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that Torontonians are visually sophisticated, and that the two architectures are enhancing and complementing each other,\u201d says Mr. Winterton, who once worked in the New York offices of Robert A.M. Stern, one of the fathers of the New Classical movement.<\/p>\n