487 Lewis Street

 I don't have a precise date for 487 Lewis but an informed guess would place it in the late 1920s. It's visible in the 1928 aerial photos, and newspaper ads for its business tenants start to appear in 1930. This would make it an ambitious example of early cider-block construction in this city.

 In its time, #487 has housed a variety of workshop/store enterprises, including but not limited to gas, oil and lubrication, a woodworker, sheet metal construction, an upholsterer, plumbing and heating, a stationer, and an air-conditioning and refrigeration business. It was last occupied by a gay bathhouse. The east wall, seen above, has borne the handiwork of many local graffiti writers.

 Current work reveals a steel frame (presumably with wood-framed interior walls) and a cinder-block exterior, originally veneered in brick. The view from Lewis Street suggests that the floors were poured concrete.

 I know this might look like a careful and protracted demolition but I've found a City of Ottawa document describing the job as the "exterior/interior alterations on all floors of a 3 retail/office building" at an estimated cost of $600,000.00.