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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What a beautiful spiral staircase.
another place one wonders about and thanks to you we now know. And a grand piano??? Is it used I wonder
I believe it is, the architect who owns the place, Jason Grossi is also a composer.
Glad to see it being in use, my question though would be, how do you get any furniture up to the 2nd floor or basement? The spiral staircase doesn't look that wide...unless you buy some Ikea furniture and move it piece by piece.
Classy!
This is what I always thought an Architectural Firm's office should be, open, spacious feeling, high ceilings, bright and warm surroundings. I don't know of any other firms in Windsor that have offices that feel like old lofts, But I know this is the kind of setting many architects and Designers in Toronto would have for an Office.
Being a power station, it must have had equipment on the upper floor. Probably there is a freight entrance, or perhaps an open window/hoist arrangement? The staircase is not suitable even to carry a large box up it. Very tight. Nice building, though. The money isn't wasted on new substations. Back then the company understood that the building was a reflection on the company, so money was spent purely to make it attractive, and durable.
gorgious!!
CDM....i beleive there's a firm that has converted an old church on ouellette between hanna and shepard that has done the same thing. i've seen pictures but i don't know where......here i would imagine.
also - Andrew, ever take piucs of the sub station on walker by the van plant? that's a beaut too.
CDM - here's the link
http://internationalmetropolis.com/?p=762
and, my above was supposed to say "pictures" lol