In the heart of Montréal’s garment district known as Cité de la Mode, Benisti Import Inc. opened its doors in 1979 to Point Zero on Chabanel Street. The rest is history. Since its inception, Point Zero clothing has wowed the fashion scene with its artful designs and vision to become the #1 Canadian brand name and the largest Canadian producer of men’s, women’s and kid’s coordinated sports and street wear.

Completed in 2007, a new headquarters for Point Zero clothing manufacturers was opened in Montréal. The building covers 120,000 sq ft. Construction cost was $22 million.

Architectural Precast Concrete
Hamish Whitfield, Architect with Karl Fisher Architect, said the firm was happy with the way the architectural precast concrete exterior wall panels turned out. The cornice details they selected were reproduced as drawn at the precast plant. The walls were articulated with the use of horizontal rustications to reduce the scale of the vertical walls to a more human scale. This gave the large surfaces the look and feel of traditional masonry. The exterior finish chosen from samples was a white face mix containing a reflective aggregate, exposed after sandblasting, that lights up nicely at night when the façade is floodlit.

The area of the panels is 46,550 sq ft, consisting of 336 panels – 242 plain – 69 insulated – 25 misc. The face mix was cast using white cement, white quartzite sand and ¼- ½ in American white calcite aggregate. The large panels are erected quickly to help enclose the building fast and speed up the construction.

Client: POINT ZERO
Architect: Karl Fisher Architect, Montréal
Engineer: BCA Consultants, Montréal
Contractor: Divco Ltd., Montréal
Precast Concrete: SARAMAC