1057 Walker Road, Windsor, Ontario, has been adaptively reused by and for studio g+G. It is a labour of love! The project has been executed completely by our own hands, from restoration of the existing 1912-13 structure to every piece of furniture. The building was originally the main electrical station for the Town of Old Walkerville. It was the first one constructed, named “Substation Number One.” It is also listed as a heritage property in the Province of Ontario.

As with all of our work, we strive for honesty in architectural expression so that all which could be preserved and restored was, even to the extent of healing the rusted away metal sash and glass frames and reglazing with custom sized insulated glass units. New doors needed to be constructed and so, as with every new component that becomes grafted onto an older one, it took its language from the date it was designed using the rules established by the old. It is comparable to writing a new Fugue in the 21st century, using the rules of counterpart established from Bach’s well-tempered Clavier, as composers such as Shostakovich and Hindemith have done.

How materials are used and detailed are further generations of ideas developed from the existing architecture. Wood and concrete are the common elements in the existing building and are developed on all levels. In the lower level we have used glass to introduce colour with glass aggregate in concrete and glass panels – not changing existing materials, but form (glass is made with sand). On the main level we are permitted to now explore steel as the building’s structural system changes from only cast concrete to a hybrid system of load bearing masonry exterior walls with steel and cast concrete slabs.

Interior space planning was determined by the original layout of equipment and feeder stations; for example, placement of where workstations are located. The project won a Built Heritage Award in 2011.