Dawson Richardson Building

• the building's full occupancy of its mid-block McDermot Avenue lot in the Exchange District east of Main Street
• its physical and visual relationship to other older historic warehouses and commercial buildings, especially its role in maintaining a continuous built edge between the six-storey Galpern Building to its immediate east and a series of two- and three-storey structures to its west

Key elements that define the building's modest neo-Gothic styling include:

• the elongated rectangular massing composed of brick facades with a flat roof
• the main (south) facade with the superstructure resting on an tall, smooth-cut stone foundation
• the large rectangular windows throughout featuring brick lintels and smooth-cut limestone sills, some with four-over-four panes with mullions to complement the brick
• the recessed main entrances with stained-glass top lights, including the centred double doors and the secondary (east) entrance
• the details, including the understated brick cornice with insets dropping to the pilaster tops, the ornamental brickwork of the main facade's spandrel panels, the smooth-cut square and diamond-shaped limestone accents and lower-level belt course, etc.

Key elements that define the building's purposeful interior details and finishes include:

• the informal open plan with floors organized by a grid of rough-hewn wooden columns
• the details, including the exposed brick party walls, the large return staircase with a simple wooden balustrade, etc.