Walker Power Building – In need of a facelift
I walked to the Walker Power Building today and was sad to see more broken windows and yet more ads stuck to the side of the building for Big Tony’s and The Drive magazine. I can’t help thinking there should be a better use for this wall that gets viewed by so many cars on a daily basis from Riverside Drive.
It’s practically in the back yard of the Arts Council Windsor & Region and a historic Walkerville building. I thought it would be a great welcome beacon for Walkville if only it had a better face to welcome people going by. There has to be a better creative use for this historic building which is in need of our attention. So many historic buildings continue to be destroyed in this city. Even if some change could come to that wall alone, I think it would make a big difference.
Walkerville is celebrating it’s 150th year and they recently had a celebration in Walkerville where a movie was supposed to be shown in a parking lot on Wyandotte. I couldn’t help thinking that even this wall would of been a wonderful location to show the film on since it has a nice grass lot beside it. Anything would be better than the repetitive misuse in my opinion by The Drive magazine.
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I’m curious about how those ads starting appearing in the first place. I think they only popped up once the building was vacated, and I agree, there are many, many other things that could be done with that wall!
I think we definitely need to add this to our map.
My understanding is that the cost to restore is high. Just waiting to drive by one day and its gone without any impute from the community.
On my site Andrew said:
“The building isn’t condemned. It’s in violation of the fire code, and the fire marshall gave the owners the choice to bring it up to code or evict the tenants. So… Now it’s empty.
The building is for sale but the owners are dreaming, asking well over $1 million last I heard…”
I was sad to read that they’re asking so much for the building though. The condition of it is really fading now. Especially with so many windows being broken, and many top floor windows are open, allowing the weather inside. It would be good to add to the map I think.
I guess it’s really up to convincing those who currently own it (privately) that we can… urm.. come up with aesthetically pleasing fixes that would ultimately help them sell the building.
A million is completely insane, but since nobody has budged on buying, the owners could find our proposal suitable to their needs…. whatever that proposal may be.
If there’s any pressure placed on the owners of this building I think it should be to tear it down. The plot the building is on and the large surrounding area that seems to be in some sort of abandoned parking lot pergatory should be turned into a sculpture/green oriented park for all ages.
I don’t think there is a need to preserve much of Windsors walkerville vistory with buildings like this. Especially since, as more time passes, there seems to be higher chances of corporations coming in there and building big-box stripmall villages or something instead of a park. Making me feel that if we dont decide what to do quick enough corporate “developers” will decide for us.
“Windsor vacancy rate six times national average” … we’re up to 14.6%.
I saw that today too Justin. Imagine if we only had money to buy some of these places that are going for so little money now, and turn them into amazing creative spaces. Not that it will happen with the Peabody though.
prime real estate…hence the over $1 million asking price. i heard from someone that hiram walkers was suppose to be taking their silos down in the near future. so that would make way for a clear view of the riverfront.
I know what you mean about that wall. Chris and i have long thought that a really cool mural welcoming everyone to Walkerville would be a perfect addition to it. We do know the owner. The hard part is getting the money for such a thing – an expensive proposition – and one that we haven’t had the time or energy to pursue. The Walkerville BIA is once again looking at ways to distinguish the entrances to Walkerville so perhaps this idea may come to reality.
For stories on the peabody building and peabody bridge (this is the Walker Power building btw) go to our site: walkervilletimes.com
and yes, we had thought about projecting movies on that wall too. another great idea!
thanks Elaine, i kept calling it the peabody building since i forgot the name and saw it being included in the description of the old building from andrew’s site. i’ll try to update it to the proper name now.
i walked by it again today and was sad to see it’s condition fading. andrew told me today that the silos across the street will be torn down in the near future too.
RE: Elaine
I know that the DWBIA has a grant program for facade facelifts.
Does the Walkerville BIA have anything like that set up?
Imagining quickly…
(showing Santa Clause Conquers the Martians (1964, public domain))
(WHY)
And we should consider projecting onto the silos before Hiram Walkers tears them down.
I remember Mike B. wanted to put up his own parody of those The Drive posters too. But never did. I looked at them closer today, and looks like they used masonry nails with washers.
I posted a couple old photos I took on my site also:
http://photo404.com/?p=50
Darren>
The poster I was going to put up was this: http://mikebeauchamp.com/dump/drive-osama2.jpg
Mike
ah yes, thanks for the image mike. i wonder if anyone would of noticed : )
Put it up!