Pumphouse
Pumphouse
Pumphouse
Pumphouse
Pumphouse
Pumphouse
Pumphouse
Pumphouse
Pumphouse
When Winnipeg’s James Avenue Pumping Station closed in 1986, the 80-year-old complex was destined for demolition. Fortunately, efforts to preserve the historic facility — which housed the equipment needed to operate a high-pressure water system for firefighters — paid off, and the building was spared the wrecking ball. Yet the place sat empty. Over the past 40 years, at least 17 attempts to adapt and revitalize the building were launched, though none ultimately resulted in an architecturally feasible or financially viable project. Enter 5468796 Architecture.
The innovative firm reimagined the property through the lens of pro forma development. By flanking the historic complex with mid-rise residential buildings, 5468796 gave the site a financial lifeline. It was a careful balancing act. To maintain sightlines to the historic pump house on a constrained plot — and open up a more generous public realm — the architects lifted the new volumes on slender stilts, introducing space-saving skip-stop corridors and exterior stairs to maximize the floor area above.
The residential buildings comprise dual-aspect “shotgun apartments” that use century-old nail laminated timber (NLT) technology as a floor and ceiling structure. And although the new volumes rise far above the original pump house, their careful massing and neo-industrial character celebrate the older building — with good reason.
5468796 treated the pump house as a “found object,” maintaining the massive on-site machinery while leveraging the capacity of the interior gantry crane structure to introduce a “floating floor” suspended above the heritage pumping equipment. The new floor plate is home to a striking office space as well as a restaurant. While immersive views of the machinery below immediately draw the eye, the designers also carefully carved new skylights into the roof of the building to fill the interior with light.
Rooted equally in heritage preservation and financial reality, 5468796’s architectural problem-solving delivers a distinctly adventurous take on adaptive re-use. In lieu of simple preservation, the designers honour the site’s history while introducing a boldly contemporary — yet distinctly contextual — new architectural vocabulary.
Team: Johanna Hurme, Colin Neufeld and Sasa Radulovic with Emeil Alvarez, Pablo Batista, Ken Borton, Jordy Craddock, Donna Evans, Teresa Garside, Ben Greenwood, Ralph Gutierrez, Ainsley Johnston, Jeff Kachkan, Matthew Kurtas, Kelsey McMahon and Shannon Wiebe
By flanking the historic complex with mid-rise residential buildings, 5468796 gave the site a financial lifeline.
