New life for empty and historic downtown Windsor buildings

[Magnatomicflux]

Looks like the holes will start being filled in Windsor's core within the next year, as the University and St. Clair begin moving upwards of 2000 students into underused and empty building in the downtown core.

The buildings include the Windsor Star's historic office block on Ferry Street
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...08.14,,0,-9.55

The 110 year old Windsor Armouries on University Ave , east of Ouellette
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...209.58,,0,-6.4

The former Transit Windsor bus terminal across the street.
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...22.68,,0,-4.01
She's ugly now, but there's a beautiful streamlined building under there. Hopefully, she'll be restored to her former glory...seen here in Andrew's IM
http://www.internationalmetropolis.com/?p=258

The former TD bank at Victoria and University is also being eyed by St Clair.
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...25.32,,0,-3.58
They have renovated the building across the street, looking north, into a media arts center.

The Capitol Theater is also being looked at by new tenents....non school related however
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...07.32,,0,-5.12

And finally...this big ol' dead zone is poised to be turned into an aquatics center

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...,50.95,,0,2.56

Who knows with the way this city works. But I hope it all turns out for the best.
Here's the article from the Star:

http://www.windsorstar.com/news/wind...899/story.html

[Doma]

This is really exciting for Windsor!



"The upshot of Monday’s announcement: the downtown will see its current school population of 1,400 St. Clair College students and faculty boosted by up to another 2,000 people. A large sports facility will fill an equally large hole on the west side of the downtown, and foot traffic will increase substantially in most of the core.


And a half dozen aging, underused and unproductive buildings will find new purpose that will inject new life into the downtown – perhaps enough to spur additional private investment in the downtown and around its edges.


If it all works out, Monday could be a turning point as historic as the buildings involved."

Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/Downtown+...#ixzz1NmKIHo49

[canuck]

Good news magna! This shows how a concerted effort in revitalizing and protecting the built environment through smart reuse can actually make Windsor's downtown grow. There is plenty of opportunity if institutions that are on an upward swing invest in the city's built heritage instead of contributing to sprawl. Bravo!

[Lowell]

What a great idea and wonderful news. I really like the old Armoury And it will be nice to see it and the others recycled. The youthful residents are sure to add a lot of street life.

[windsor_shane]

we have a forward thinking mayor, he knows that its going to take more than a chrysler bailout to revive this city.. its too bad as soon as anyone wants to invest a penny into the core of the city [[and not the suburbs) everyone jumps up and down...

i'm happy to see articles like this... good stuff!

[GOAT]

I agree WindsorShane.

Now what is missing in the above post by Magnatomic_flux?

Residents! This is all and good but the city is missing out on being able to create a new neighbourhood from scratch. Without residents a downtown cannot and will not be sustainable. "Tourists" and local visitors will not be able to change that.

[Magnatomicflux]

Agreed GOAT. I would rather see the space for the aquatics center be used as planned a few years ago...with an urban village. Retail on the bottom, apartments/condos on top. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's quite a bit of apartments above the stores along Ouellette...no? This hot pink building sitting around doing squat for years could easily be turned into, if it's not set up already, into apartments.
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...81.08,,1,-6.74

Same goes for the old Windsor Music Cafe. I can't tell though if people already live up there
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...,66.45,,0,0.41

They could also start filling up the old Studebaker shop if it's still not selling
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...217.48,,0,5.46

What's in the upper floors of the Canada Building? Is it offices or is it empty?
Or this across the street...what's in here?
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...4.75,,0,-18.55

Or the TD bank that was just abandonned at Wyandotte and Ouellette.....convert the upper two floors and make the first retail.

Hell....we could convert half of this 3/4 empty building into apartments!
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...97.05,,0,-27.9



I dunno....just throwin' things out there.