Over to the University of Windsor, where there is truly a great collection of Mid-Century Modern Architecture on campus.
Cody Hall was designed by Johnson McWhinnie Architects, in 1961. It currently serves as a dorm building.
Lots of neat little details on this one…
Actually, the building only houses the International Students Association on the main floor. The rest of the building has nothing in it. It is currently sinking, which can be evidenced by the cracking of the panels on the supports and all around the building (check out the tiles on the 5th picture). Why they house nothing on the top 4 floors and yet have people on the bottom is still beyond me.
Thanks Blair for the clarification. I think a major renovation is coming soon…
There was talk of turning it into offices. It would be more befitting of this city to just knock it down and start over.
On another note, check out the law building some time if you haven’t already. I was in there for the first time the other week and was amazed at the design of it. Very interesting stuff.
The law building has a fantastic brutalist lobby/atrium, if I recall. Cement ramps and everything.
That’s what I was talking about. I had no clue what the design style was, as I only know what I learn here. I thought it looked like the future, as imagined by Star Trek.
I am assuming you are talking about Moot Court? Great space, indeed.
Electa Hall on Patricia St. at the U is a real gem too. There is a conference room on the top floor with near-panoramic views of up and downriver. Unfortunately, I’m told it was given condemned status some years back… though for some reason is still used by students as a common area. If the University spent the money to fix it up, it’d make a sold out profit for the annual downtown fireworks.
I agree Western. One of these days (once the weather gets nicer) a full out photo shoot and documentation of the Campus and its buildings are in order.
For what it’s worth, I have in my notes that Johnson McWhinne was responsibl for a “Four story addition to Electa Hall” in 1962.
Western, to the best of my knowledge Electa still functions as a student residence. It is also the rumored haunted building on campus.
Also, if you go for a photo shoot of the campus, coming up from the basement of the old dramatic arts building either obey the “do not exit” sign, or bring some muscle with you to get the door out unstuck. I learned this the hard way!
Make sure to check out Assumption Church as well – Thats an amazing building on the edge of campus…Has a lot of interesting details on the inside…Thought I hear its falling apart and needs 8 million worth of work….
Oops, I wanted to clarify that, but couldn’t figure out how to edit my reply. Yeah Electa is definitely still a residence, what I meant was that the top floor conference room is condemned from being used as an event area.
That conference room is on top of the 4 story addition you mentioned Andrew. Electa has two sides, Main (original building) and the Annex (1960s addition). I can say for sure that the basement is creepy, quite likely haunted. I work weekends in facilities services on campus and once got to go in the abandoned Electa basement lunch room… apparently Electa was at a time used as part of Assumption College’s Catholic Nun Education Program. The lunch room is filled with asbestos though, and is usually locked… which I suppose is a good thing!
The University Tunnels are something else too!! Mike Beauchamp has a great map of them somewhere on his site. Someday, boy, I’d love to poke my nose down there without getting caught 😉
Cody Hall has ceased to function as a residence twice now–it was reopened a few years back with minor repairs (window replacement, for instance)–but has been closed once again. The stacked, two-storey, atrium style lounges which occupy the center of the building are an impressive feature also. My guess is that Residence Services has no intention of reusing Cody–they are going ahead with a plan to twin Alumni Hall on Sunset Ave instead. Cody–which is a traditional dormitory style building has likely been branded as too expensive to overhaul–despite it’s significant geographic placement on campus.
The lounge you speak of at Electa is called the MacPherson Lounge and was the official Alumni reception center until the later 1990s, as well as being available for various other functions including weddings and banquets–as it has full wet bar facilities and some food prep space. The view is spectacular–and until the mid 1990s the outdoor terrace was also in use. It fell into disrepair first and was closed–followed by the room–which is structurally sound by horribly dated in it’s decor and furnishing. That particular building also has intermittent problems with vermin–a problem that was particularly bad in the MacPherson Lounge. Prior to the construction of Alumni Hall–the Alumni Association planned an overhaul of MacPherson–including a full renovation of the room and the addition of a dedicated elevator which was to be glass-enclosed and located on the north side of the building–affording a view of the river. The facility was to be rennamed in honor of Ron Ianni. Nonetheless this plan fell through due to funding and logisitcs issues.
Electa is quite the place–with a partially intact chapel and confessionals in the Annex section–and a fantastic old Otis elevator complete with manually operated doors in Main.
The neglect of the great MacPherson lounge is one of the drawbacks of a university that doesn’t have the $1.2 billion endowment that U of T has. In my two degree-time at U of W, I only went to one function up there (though I would say the decor was “wonderfully” dated).
Yeah the decor is very nice. The SOLID wood chairs are still very impressive, but the carpeting looks pretty withered away. The outdoor portion of the hall is, as described above, in terrible disrepair. Wooden planks rotting and such. It would be quite the place if restored..
I think the Alumni Society probably gave up on the place once they got their new Leon Z. MacPherson lounge at Alumni Hall south of Wyandotte.
Cataloging the buildings at the University would be a fantastic project Andrew, something even book worthy (you’d have a buyer here!). I’d really love to know what firm designed MacDonald & Laurier Halls and what else (if any) they contributed to around the region.
I was working for an electrical contractor a few years back and got to have my first look at the MacPherson lounge. For whatever reason, I never realized it existed until then, but it’s definitely a great space (if a tad run-down) with an incredible view. Even better, we got to go up on the roof which was a treat indeed. The view from up there is mindblowing.
I sometimes wonder if there was a factory that did nothing but build college dorms in the late ’50’s and early ’60’s. Although I like Mid Century stuff, it can look very generic if not well executed……
I spent four academic years living and working on campus–lived in Mac, Tecumseh (demolished), Cartier, Mac (again), Clark and Electa. Mac and Laurier are nearly (but not quite) identical–there are subtle difference and Mac, for the record, has a few more architectural “flourishes” of it’s era. The dining hall–Vanier Hall–the twin rooms on either side of the servery–those were truly, madly and wonderfully dated when I started at the U of W in 1993–it was worth a visit just to see the brown and orange drapes. I got a nasty teal and chrome 90s reno that it’s now stuck with.
I shouldn’t have slammed the old MacPherson Lounge–I like it a lot–the carpet and window coverings are in the roughest shape–but agreed–the color scheme and furnishings are pretty cool in a 70s way.
Can’t believe my old dorm is now dormant…went to U of Windsor in the fall of 1988 and spent my first year at Cody…Jeff(Geoff) Maguire where are you??? The old place is still up but our room is empty…where are you now?
I live in Electa Hall this year… The top floor (the old McPhearson lounge, now called the Eagle’s Nest) is still used by students. The balcony however is no longer in use as it is dangerous because it’s rotting. The basement is very creepy. I want to write a fictional book set in Electa Hall, but I need to know where I can find a decent history of the building. Does anyone know where I could find one?
What a shame to learn of the imminent demise of Cody Hall. I lived there during its first three years – a welcome change after having spent one year in the old St. Mike’s Hall across the way. My last year in Cody, I and Bill “Scar” Scarfia (from Rochester N.Y.) were prefects on the fifth floor, with our private office, attached bedroom and private bathroom. Back then it was the very latest in college residence design and comfort, especially with those two double-storey central lounges, not to mention the main downstairs lounge off the lobby.
I noticed fences around it with a trailer inside that said Jones Group Demolition. I don’t understand why a solid concrete 5 story building built using a lot of taxpayer dollars now has to be demolished. Why could it not be repurposed and renovated? Why is this University always demolishing buildings and building new when it could mostly likely rehab existing buildings at a much lower cost to taxpayers. I’m a taxpayer who pays 30% more per litre in gas than someone in Detroit because gas taxes are so much higher, a 13% sales tax (which will most likely go back up to 15% when they get rid of the penny as I’m reading several editorials and articles in today’s Windsor Star) while Michigan pays 6% sales tax among many other taxes that are much higher in Windsor than Detroit. And this is how my taxpayer dollars are wasted? I have to express my community outrage at a complete waste of taxpayer funds by this university.
Someone said earlier it’s sinking, but I don’t see it from the outside and if there are cracks, the rebars inside the concrete will still hold it together.
They are going to demolish this building and then come back for more public money to build new when a lot of taxpayer dollars could have been saved simply renovating this one. How much taxpayer dollars will they spend to tear it down? A million? Why couldn’t the Medical Faculty have been moved into this building instead of building a new one at the other end of the campus at great taxpayer expense? I bet you next year they are going to tear down the old engineering building when the engineering department moves into the new one instead of repurposing the old engineering building for something else. Then they are going to ask taxpayers to foot the bill for a new building when another faculty opens up or wants a new building. This is ridiculous!
Welcome to Windsor with their infamous world leading University of Utter Waste of Public Funds and Fiscal Mismanagement.
I attended UW (just after it transmogrified from Assumption) for two years – Sep 65 to May 67, and lived in Cody Hall the entire time. Sad to see it is gone: was the reason that the foundations were insufficient, or was the building full of asbestos?
I lived in Cody Hall for my 2nd and 3rd years of University late 60’s, early 70’s and my first year in Huron Hall-1968/69. Alas, they have torn down some of my earlier memories. Even one of my residences at the University of Toronto has been demolished. Ah well, c’est dommage, mais c’est la vie.