TIME: 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Description
Once a productive industrial building, the Bailey Broom Factory was abandoned when RAW encountered it, leaving a valued heritage structure on a complex brownfield site in Kingston. RAW had been looking for a foothold in the city, and the Broom Factory became the focus when we understood how the community had fought to save it. There was an opportunity for mutual benefit: RAW needed a place to put down roots, and the building needed care, investment, and purpose.
What followed became much more than a restoration project. Through adaptive reuse, evolving partnerships, and openness to opportunity, the Broom Factory developed into a flexible community hub supporting cultural, commercial, and creative uses. The architecture provided the framework, and people and programming gave it life.
This presentation will share the practical and less predictable lessons behind that transformation, including heritage restoration, brownfield conditions, funding opportunities, project feasibility, ownership, and the realities of taking on development risk as architects. It will also explore the role of programming and partnership in giving architecture sustained life beyond construction.
The Broom Factory offers a case study in architects becoming active placemakers. It asks what can happen when we move beyond designing buildings for others and take an active role in creating, owning, programming, and participating in places ourselves. As traditional aspects of practice continue to change, our ability to build relationships, connect people and opportunities, and cultivate the life of our communities becomes increasingly important. The aim is to encourage architects to see adaptive reuse not simply as a technical challenge, but as an opportunity for meaningful and rewarding city-building.
To learn more about the Broom Factory, visit the project website: https://www.broomfactory.ca/
Learning Objectives
- Recognize how architects can originate adaptive reuse projects by identifying underused buildings, reading community signals, and defining a compelling purpose early.
- Evaluate the real-world viability of architect-led development, including heritage constraints, brownfield considerations, hidden soft costs, and early risk management. here
- Structure partnerships and programming relationships that animate architecture, including how to align incentives, roles, and decision-making as uses evolve.
- Design and steward flexible, durable places over time, using ownership mindset and post-occupancy feedback to strengthen placemaking outcomes and practice credibility.
Presenters:
Jon Jeronimus, Architect and Partner, RAW Design Inc.
Jon Jeronimus, OAA, is an Architect and Partner at RAW Design and leads the firm’s Kingston office. His early experience in construction continues to inform a pragmatic approach to architecture, grounded in an understanding of how buildings are made, financed, delivered, and ultimately used. Over his career, Jon has worked across a broad range of project types and scales, with particular interests in material exploration, adaptive reuse, housing, public space, and the relationship between architecture and community.
His work increasingly extends beyond conventional architectural practice into development, ownership, and placemaking. Jon played a central role in the acquisition, design, redevelopment, and ongoing evolution of Kingston’s Bailey Broom Factory, where RAW is both architect and owner. The experience has reinforced his interest in how architects can take a more active role in shaping the places they work and live, and in the relationships and partnerships that give architecture lasting relevance.
Pricing:
Licensed OAA Members: $42.50 + HST
OAA Interns and Students: $32.50 + HST
Non-Members: $63.00 + HST
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