Legal limitations on the site of Grand Touring Automobiles’ dealership in Oakville, Ont., forced designers to employ a cantilever design for a second-floor showroom that can be seen from the highway. It also glows at night.
At Toronto-based Grand Touring Automobiles, challenging restrictions on land use gave rise to a unique building concept, potentially paving the way for future retail design, the project’s architect says.
The dealership, with high-end luxury brands such as Bentley, Aston Martin, Bugatti and Rolls-Royce, broke ground in early May in Oakville, Ont., in a parcel of land next to the Queen Elizabeth Way highway.
“The site is very challenging, as there were a number of easements that dictated the use of a cantilever design,” said Alex Tedesco, a partner in WeisLGA, a collaboration between the Weis Group, a Toronto-based retail consultancy, and LGA Architectural Partners. An easement is a legal restriction on a land title granting right of use to another party, such as a driveway crossing a portion of a neighbour’s land.
“Dealerships aren’t really shaped like this,” Tedesco said of the Grand Touring Automobiles parcel, “but it was dictated by our constraints.”
That cantilever creates a second-floor showroom that maximizes the dealership’s available space and elevates the portion facing the highway.
“The building itself is a signage piece,” Tedesco said. “At night, the cantilever glows. It’s also a marketing tool because of its vantage point from the highway. It will definitely influence other projects because of the power it possesses acting like a beacon.”
The design of the Grand Touring Automobiles dealership points to a trend where the showroom becomes more like an art gallery than a retail store, allowing the vehicles inside to command attention, Tedesco said.
“In terms of the gallery itself, we wanted a clean look, try to make the car look like a focal point, with spaces as clean as possible,”he said.
