From fleabag strip joint to boutique hotspot, the 58-room Broadview Hotel is nearing the end of a $24-million transformation.

But even before it’s fully finished, sometime this spring, the east-end landmark’s revamp is already drawing architectural praise, recently winning the Lieutenant-Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation. Here’s a look at some of the award-winning restorations at the corner of Queen St. E. and Broadview:

Tower Touches

The rounded, vertical corner, with its curved, elongated bricks, would have been — in 1891 — an advertisement for the prowess of their Toronto-area brickmaker, says architect Andrew Pruss. Many segments of the hotel’s brickwork were crumbling and had to be repaired, or replaced with bricks salvaged from other parts of the building.

A principal with ERA Architects, Pruss says the windows — the bulk of them broken or missing outright — all had to be replaced, as did the rotting wooden sills below them. Prepainted steel sills took their place, their shape based on 1950s pictures of the hotel.

The grey lintels above were likely carved out of Credit Valley sandstone, which was so popular in the Victorian period that it was all but quarried out early last century.

Grade Level Upgrades

The Roman arches at the tower’s base emphasize its weight and provide space for the street-level widow arrays.

Pruss says the original building would have had posts running up the lower segment of each arch with rectangular windows on either side. Over time, the posts were removed and larger, single-window sets were installed. The restoration team chose to stick with the larger versions to provide better sidewalk views for patrons of the new restaurant they’ll front.

The porthole windows above had been filled in and topped with Jilly’s strip-club signage decades ago.

All are a slightly different size, and panes for each had to be custom cut for the restorations. The glass was manufactured in Quebec by Vaughan-based Ridley Windows & Doors Inc.

Fanciful Features

This terracotta relief sculpture is, like the other decorative panels on the building, an original work that would have been specially carved and fired for the builders by artisans at the Toronto Pressed Brick Co., which was based in Milton.

The symbolism of the two faces has been lost to time. But Pruss believes they may represent youth and maturity. “We don’t really know the iconography for sure, but that’s kind of my interpretation.”

The sculptures were fairly well preserved, though filthy with grime. But because terracotta is relatively soft material, hot water alone was mostly used to clean them. Some soiling was left to help highlight the depth of the design and their age.

They are also better sheltered now by new cornices above, which were added to replace the originals that had decayed away.

Topping Things Off

The tower’s pyramid roof was in terrible condition. Parts of its supporting wood had rotted away as water seeped in through the cheap asphalt shingles that had covered it for decades.

All the underlying timber was replaced and slate tiling — like that topping off the original 125 years ago — was installed.

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The cornice that foots the roof was replaced in lead-coated copper, which is more durable than steel and will turn the desired grey.

The slate and the lead-copper combo each have life spans of 75 to 100 years.

West Wind?

Like the other terracotta flourishes on the building — which originally housed offices — the symbolism of this windy fellow is unknown.

“Probably somebody who knows their iconography might come along and say ‘oh well, clearly that is the west wind,’ ” Pruss says. “I’m not really sure myself.”

What is certain is that all the building’s panels will be bathed in subtle LED lighting to highlight them at night. The lighting “just grazes the surface, but is very dramatic on them. The faces really pop from them.”

Strategically and unobtrusively mounted on the building’s new sills and cornices, the small lights will also highlight the archways and other features of the revamped facade.