Take a tour of ongoing renovations at Cambridge's Old Post Office

The Old Post Office on Water Street in Cambridge will combine the historic with the innovative once reconstruction work is completed next spring.

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The post office, which was built in 1885, is being reimagined and will become the newest branch of the Idea Exchange next June. The project will cost more than $12 million. 

Parks Canada announced in May they will chip in $830,000 to pay for specific heritage elements, including the restoration of the bell and clock tower, masonry work on the exterior of the building, stained glass windows and the roof.

The team behind the project gave a tour of the construction site on Thursday to show how work is progressing on the national historic site.

Slobodanka Lekic, manager of building design and construction for the City of Cambridge, said the construction at the site is 65 per cent completed.

'Cannot have a better building'

Lekic said there was an inspection by Parks Canada officials two months ago.

"Their main chief architect was so impressed with how they finished the building. He looked at every detail and he [congratulated us] so many times," she said.

Lekic has worked on a number of historic buildings and she said she really enjoys the work and gets satisfaction doing it.

"It's a national historic site — we cannot have a better building than this one," she said. "It's really so significant."

Future use of space

Helen Kelly, CEO of Idea Exchange, is already planning how to use the space.

As she led media through a tour of the building, she painted a picture of what will go in the spaces that are still very much under construction.

"As we've gone through the floors, I've said things like, 'Well, we've got stacking chairs in this area so we can clear this away and use it in a different way,'" she said. "We've designed all of our spaces to be highly flexible."

The building will include a restaurant, learning labs, a classroom, a family discovery centre and an outdoor terrace that overlooks the Grand River, among other features.

"June is actually just right around the corner," Kelly said the site will be open to the public next summer.

"Now we're asking ourselves about programming decisions because we want there to be a wow factor — not only when people walk in the building and see this amazing architecture and this wonderful structure, but what they're going to find out about 21st [century] technology," she said.

"So on opening day, what does that look like? We want there to be a wonderful wow factor, but we also want there to be a wow factor in six months."