Cornerstone Community Housing

Cornerstone Community Association is a not-for-profit organization that helps individuals and families in Durham Region move from homelessness to independent living. As part of their mission, Cornerstone was seeking to develop additional housing in a lot adjacent to their existing location on Bloor St, Oshawa.  J.J. McGuire assisted Cornerstone as Construction Manager, working closely with the organization and the design team. 

The 21-unit, 3-storey building includes 15 standard 1-bedroom units, and 6 barrier-free units, with a main entry lobby, elevator, and central laundry facilities on the ground floor. Interior finishes were selected to align with affordability goals, and the façade utilizes EIFS cladding in a combination of panels and specialized individual bricks to bring a clean, modern style to the building exterior.

The site, which was formerly a parking lot, is adjacent to Cornerstone’s neighbouring building to the east, and single-family homes to the west. The constrained site presented a number of challenges including a significant change in grade. A concrete retaining wall was constructed along the west side of the property to manage grade changes and J.J. McGuire worked closely with the City and commercial neighbours to the south to arrange site access and egress and parking. Extensive coordination with sub-trades to organize just-in-time delivery for materials to address the lack of staging, design assist, logistics planning, budgeting, valve engineering, and other activities vital for securing funding. The team structured the contract to convert from CM to CCDG 2 for the implementation phase to help Cornerstone achieve their funding from CMHA. J.J. McGuire helped Cornerstone bring the project in under the initial tender budget, and in line with funding available.