Owner Cian MacNeill dug up a St. Catharines street twice to upgrade the water line for the renovated Helliwell Hall brewery and concert hall, and the attached Di's Pizza Pies.Nataschia Wielink/Nataschia Wielink
It’s definitely not sexy standing on the roof to look at a boiler, a glycol machine and an RTU (rooftop unit with heating and cooling equipment). And with the December winds whipping in from Lake Ontario to the north, it’s also rather inhospitable.
Inside the newly christened Helliwell Hall Brewery and Concert Hall in St. Catharines, Ont., building owner Cian MacNeill is also keen to show the unsexy water sprinkler system as well as the insanely elaborate basement plumbing and trenching that needed to occur in the historic 1870 building before the beer (and sexiness) could begin flowing.
“We had to upgrade to a six-inch waterline, so we dug up St. Paul Street twice to do that,” says the Oast House Brewers co-owner while shaking his head at the inconvenience he caused. “What people don’t see is that basement, and that back roof, and everything we’ve done on that back roof, and the amount of work on money on that; that was a lot of the pain, and where a lot of the nonsexy money went.”
That “back roof” is over a generous stage area – “It’s always been a great live music area too and that’s how I remember it,” he says – which will be populated by both local and far away talent, and it required, basically, a steel building-within-a-building to be dropped in along with the new roof to keep it all from falling over.
The materials-rich brewhall interior is elegant and understated.Nataschia Wielink/Nataschia Wielink
But make no mistake, thanks to Mr. MacNeill’s assembled team of architect Nick Yamich and engineer Dave Stacey of Quartek Group (located just a few doors over), Ian Rydberg of Solid Design Creative and millworker Ryan Mallette of Ramm Design, there are more than enough salacious architectural and design details to inject life, get tongues-a-wagging and open wallets in the Garden City.
For the older folks, it’s an exterior terrazzo apron – now walled in to prevent further weathering –sporting the two words “Diana” and “Sweets” along with an old hex-tile floor that are making the biggest waves. From 1920 to 1996, the portion of Mr. MacNeill’s building that now houses Di’s Pizza Pies was home to the beloved diner/sweet shop/soda fountain Diana Sweets, which sported a row of gumwood booths into which generations carved their initials. For the new pizza shop, not only was the original flooring saved (it also carries into Helliwell Hall), the exterior signage’s new, white, corrugated surface and retro font pays its own loving tribute to the local eatery.
“This is part of a trend that we’re seeing in the redevelopment of our downtown where investment is coming to our city and transforming our core while maintaining a connection to our storied past,” wrote St. Catharines mayor Mat Siscoe to The Globe in an e-mail.
For Cian MacNeill, however, the extra expense was just about being a good local boy: “I’ve been in Niagara my whole life … raised in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and went to high school in Denis Morris in St. Catharines.”
The portion of MacNeill’s building that houses Di’s Pizza Pies was home to the beloved diner Diana Sweets from 1920 to 1996.Nataschia Wielink/Nataschia Wielink
Hopefully, the time and effort spent on the rest of the exterior will be appreciated as well since, just a few years ago, passersby were assaulted with a visual jumble of signage for takeout chicken, a giant beer mug advertising Kaz’s Pub, and below that, red and yellow storefronts. Worse, the heritage brick, keystones and cornice had been painted over in greenish-beige and mossy greens.
So, says architect Nick Yamich, it was clear what needed to be done to bring a more sophisticated vibe to the building: “It was a mishmash, even the signage band that was there … we had salvaged brick from the inside to patch up the façade to give it coherence [and] bring it back to what it looked like a generation ago.”
And because of the musical history of the area, it was decided to add an old school, neon-lit marquee over Helliwell Hall’s entrance while painting out the adjoining two-storey building to the south in black, where the Oast House bottle shop is located (interestingly, the two-storey and three-storey buildings have been connected for over a century, as can be seen in historic photos of the Woolworth’s that set up shop here in 1914).
MacNeill says he aimed for the space to have a New York-feel.Nataschia Wielink/Nataschia Wielink
Inside, patrons will be treated to an elegant, understated, materials-rich interior that uses colour sparingly – such as the rainbow tile under the bar stools or the neon sign that announces the location of the washrooms – and instead allows brick, wood and metal I-beams do the heavy (visual) lifting. And then, of course, there is the pièce de résistance: the enormous glass box that surrounds the row of gleaming fermenters, bright tanks and brew kettles that dip all the way down into the basement. Take a sip, press your nose against the glass and learn about beer making … or about engineering and design, since it took a Herculean effort of playing with millimetres to shoehorn it all in.
Interestingly, the mood changes toward the back. Here, structural columns were moved to give customers an unobstructed view of the band – the raised, wood-clad stage helps also – and numerous acoustic panels keeps the sound where it belongs (and not up into the apartments above). For intimate gatherings there are private rooms; one features the Diana Sweets floor, and the other an amazing barrel-slide that was found neglected in a corner of the basement.
“What we wanted to do was bring that big city feel, like a place you would normally see in a New York or Toronto, to St. Catharines,” finishes Mr. MacNeill, “and I feel like with [this] level of detail that’s the feedback we’re already getting.”