Modern studio apartment with a bed, TV, small kitchen, wooden floors, and minimalist decor featuring framed art and neutral colors.

Gallagher Senior Residence

Burlington, Ontario

Gallagher Senior Residence is an 8-storey seniors’ apartment building at 1022 Gallagher Road in Burlington’s Aldershot community, designed by Lima Architects Inc. The building provides 140 suites across approximately 72,120 square feet of gross floor area on a corner site with frontage on both Gallagher Road and Plains Road East.
  • Project name: Gallagher Senior Residence
  • Address: 1022 Gallagher Road, Burlington, Ontario
  • Building type: Seniors' apartment building
  • Height: 8 storeys
  • Residential units: 140 suites
  • Floor area ratio: 2.33:1
  • Parking: 48 vehicle spaces and 64 bicycle spaces, one underground level
  • Status: Under design and approvals

Project details

  • Client: Private Owner
  • GFA: 72,120 sq. ft.
  • Budget: TBD
  • Architect: Lima Architects Inc.

The brief: housing for people who want to stay in Aldershot

Halton Region is aging faster than it is building for. Residents who have spent decades in Aldershot are reaching a point where the family house no longer works, and the options within walking distance of the neighbourhood they know are few. Our client asked for a building that answers that specific problem: purpose-built seniors' housing, at a scale the surrounding streets could absorb, in a location where residents keep their doctor, their pharmacy, their church, and their friends.

Modern studio apartment with a bed, sofa, TV stand, kitchen area, abstract wall art, light wood flooring, and a large window with a city view.

The site: a corner that faces two different neighbourhoods

The property sits where Gallagher Road meets Plains Road East, which means it has to hold two conditions at once. Plains Road East is a designated intensification corridor and can carry height and activity. Gallagher Road behind it is quieter and residential in character. We placed vehicular access and the single level of underground parking on the Gallagher Road side and kept the massing disciplined toward the neighbourhood edge, so the building presents its taller, more urban face to the corridor and its calmer face to the street it shares with houses.

A nursery room with cribs, a white armchair, play mats, a high chair, a fridge, cabinets, and a wallpaper featuring a nature scene. The room is well-lit and organized.

The design response: restraint as a planning strategy

At 8 storeys and a floor area ratio of 2.33:1, this building is deliberately smaller than what the Plains Road corridor now permits. That restraint was a choice. Seniors' housing succeeds or fails on whether the surrounding community accepts it, and a proposal that overreaches spends years in appeals that its future residents do not have.

The efficiency shows in the plan rather than the envelope. One hundred and forty suites in 72,120 square feet works out to roughly 515 square feet per unit including all circulation and common area, which is compact by any measure. Achieving that meant a tightly organised floor plate, short travel distances from elevator to suite door, and amenity space concentrated where residents will actually use it rather than dispersed for marketing purposes. For a resident using a walker, the distance from the lobby to the front door matters more than the square footage of a lounge nobody visits.

Modern office reception area with a long dark front desk, light seating, round coffee tables, large windows, and greenery visible outside.
Modern reception area with a front desk, chairs, glass coffee table, and large windows showing trees outside. “Gallagher Residential” sign is mounted on the wall behind the desk.

Parking and mobility

One level of underground parking provides 48 vehicle spaces alongside 64 bicycle spaces, with vehicular access from Gallagher Road. The reduced ratio reflects the reality of the resident population and the site's position on a transit-served corridor, where Burlington Transit service along Plains Road East supports a car-light building in a way a conventional suburban ratio would not.

Project status

Gallagher Senior Residence is currently under design and approvals. Applications for an Official Plan Amendment (file 505-09/26) and a Zoning By-law Amendment (file 520-10/26) are under review by the City of Burlington, following a pre-application community meeting held in October 2025.

Lima Architects Inc. designs seniors' housing, retirement residences, and mid-rise residential buildings across Burlington, Halton Region, and the Greater Toronto Area.