This former power station at 1057 Walker Road was designed and built by the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario in 1914.
It was known as Hydro Sub Station Number 1, and was in service until 2002 or so, when it was decommissioned by EnWin.
The blueprints for the building, refer to it as the “Windsor & Walkerville Municipal Transformer Station”.
This building is one of a long line of attractive and architecturally interesting Hydro Substations.
After nearly 90 years of service in supplying power to the surrounding area (and before that, the Town of Walkerville), the building was declared as a surplus property, and luckily the property was purchased by someone with vision, and not one of the surrounding land speculators who have done nothing to improve the Walker Road corridor.
The building as yo can see has been rehabbed and re adapted for office use. The building is today home to a local architectural firm called Design Studio g+G Architects, you can check out their website here.
One of the coolest features of the building is this original cast iron spiral staircase.
A view back towards the main floor from the top of the spiral staircase.
The building contains three floors including the basement. The second floor is currently empty and you can really get a feel for building by looking at the brick, steel (from the Canadian Bridge Company in Walkerville), and poured concrete, it is truly an amazing building.
Finally this graffiti is located on the ceiling on the second floor. Keep in mind this is a good 20 feet up there… So W. Scott, if you’re out there, I hope you enjoyed your nap 32 years ago…
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Aaron
I did know about J.P. Thomson adaptive reuse of an old church. I heard about that two years ago. I just like the look of the old industrial space with exposed brick, hardwood floors and an unfinished ceiling.
I do think that J.P. Thompson and associates did a nice job renovating the church.
ah,
i agree about the reuse of the industrial buildings and exposed brick. i'd love to turn the old sub station across from by old house into a home. that's on here too.....hanna and elsmere.
Aaron, have you lived there a long time? I seem to remember an IGA store on Hanna E. back in the early 70's...
ive driven past many times and been curious about what it looks like inside.. thanks for the look andrew. i think this is a great office and its nice to see this kinda of development in the area!
I lived in Toronto for many years and have seen many buildings downtown where there old brick and beams were exposed, this included shops, restaurants, offices and condominiums. At the beginning of this year I visited a new area of Toronto call the Distillery District.
Follow the Link http://www.travelandtransitions.com/interviews/distillery_district.htm
This is a great model of adaptive reuse in the Downtown Toronto area of old industrial buildings. I wish Windsor could adapt with some of the old Factories and Warehouses around the city.
cdm... too bad we lost a few good ones on walker just recently!
CDM- I have also been to the distillery district a couple of times...most recently this past summer. My sister lives in T.O and she brought me there the first time. Man, was I floored at what they turned it into! It looks as though you stepped through time and not much has changed. The buildings are beautiful and the roads are still the old brick that were probably the original streets. Glad I took some pictures this summer of the place!
Wow, isn't it amazing how much more interesting Windsor's old architecture was compared with the crap we put up today. I miss the more urban feel Windsor had a generation ago and the colourful characters you would meet every day.
Awesome re-use. Love the staircase!
there's a 'transformed' mini power station at 1086 Lauzon near Little River, home to Prime Lighting Design. It's particularly striking at night.
Some time ago, I posted that the former St Thomas the Apostle Church on Edgar near Lauzon was under the wrecking ball, but it's actually being revamped to a funeral home.