Downtown heritage preserved
U of W project mixes historic, contemporary
The University of Windsor has dubbed its planned construction downtown its “heritage projects” for good reason.
Preserving the historic architecture of the three buildings that will make up the downtown campus was paramount in the designs, said principal architect Craig Goodman, of Toronto’s CS&P Architects.
The university hosted an open house at the Windsor Armouries Thursday. Residents got a chance to say goodbye to the armouries building in its current form, and check out the renderings for the new construction.
The design for the Windsor Star site, currently three buildings cobbled together, will maintain the limestone facade on Pitt and Ferry streets of the 1927 building. The columned parapet will be carefully dismantled and replaced once construction on the three floors below is complete.
The design also preserves the outer wall of the 1918 brick building that faces Ferry Street. It will screen a courtyard to the new school of social work and Centre for Excellence in Professional Education, Goodman said.
Everything else at the site will be gutted, replaced with a fully wheelchair-accessible building that includes a glass atrium and rooftop garden.
The exterior of the 1902 armouries will be preserved in its entirety. Skylights will be cut into the roof and a basement to hold music and photo studios and classrooms will be excavated. The 1935 addition to the south of the building will be mainly razed.
The ground floor will be open, with light coming in through glass walls in one corner. “It will be a much more public building,” Goodman said.
The main entrance to the building once faced west, but was bricked in. It will be restored, Goodman said.
“In all these projects, we are trying to restore the features that were there, but have been hidden.”
For instance, under the tin façade of the former Greyhound bus terminal is a limestone art deco gem. It will be restored, as will the old marquee.
It will house workshops for metal and wood fabrication, printmaking, electrical and plaster casting. The south end of the building will include an auditorium for performances.
The two buildings, across University Avenue from each other, will be connected with a pedestrian walkway. The Chatham parkette will be incorporated into the site.
“It’s not just about a building. It’s about creating a whole precinct downtown,” Goodman said.
Construction is expected to begin in the spring. No cost estimates are available since the projects have yet to be put out to tender.
U of W fourth-year student Leonae Nichol, studying visual arts and the built environment, is tying his thesis to the downtown construction. He is researching abandoned buildings in the downtown which could be transformed into student housing. “It’s called adaptive reuse,” he said.
Nichol and classmate Megan Corchis have participated in every session the university had held about the downtown construction. While they will have graduated by the time the new buildings are complete, they wanted to contribute ideas on making the space as productive as possible for the students who will come after them.