James Avenue Pump Station
Photo - Elaine Stocki
Photo - Elaine Stocki
Photo - Elaine Stocki
Photo - Elaine Stocki
Photo - Elaine Stocki
Photo - Elaine Stocki
The James Ave Pump Station was constructed in the early 20th century to provide water pressure to fight fires. The pump station pressurized Red River water to 300 psi to reach fires at higher elevations. The James Ave Pump Station defended the tower and allowed the city to grow vertically. The pump station must be reoriented for the 21st century needs of the city. The machines have lost their function. The pump station is memorialized with a tower. The two structures co-exist and join with new tectonic systems.
Project Designer - Sotirios Kotoulas
Engineer - Hans Boge of Boge Boge Engineers
MAA architect of record - Summer 2013 - January 2014: Otto Cheng of Otto Cheng Architect Inc
MAA architect of record - January 2014 - present: George Cibinel of Cibinel Architects
The James Ave Pump Station will be transformed into a park, a machine garden. The park is public and bathed in sunlight. Submerged beneath the horizon and bisected by a canal, the winter-garden is filled with engines, pipes, pumps, and moss. Dispersed around the park are a restaurant, café, and bar. An elevated perimetric walkway encircles the station to form an exhibition space and an alternate datum to experience the pump station. This intervention creates a new form of park for a sub-arctic city.
Photo - Elaine Stocki
The rendered tower is a materialized volumetric diagram. The images present a concept that successfully expanded the limits of the pump station site 24 storeys vertically.
When it became clear a parking structure to accommodate 250 new rental units was not on the horizon our team revisited our plan b, c, d, and studied them further. The plan b concept places the 8 storey residential complex at the rear of the site and connects with the pump station via a gasket space. Below the residential building is a parking lot for the residents. Parking is also programmed along James Ave. The number of units to parking was almost 1:1. The schemes were presented to Centre Venture in the spring of 2014 and again in August 2014 with a precise pro-forma. Centre Venture rejected the concept to build between Amy and the pump station because 1. It wasn't 24 storeys. 2. The sectional connectivity was not as powerful as the tower scheme. 3. It blocked the view of Sky 2 while it opened the South view to Sky 1. This concept is concrete and structural masonry. The building is clad in brick and glass.
The machine garden celebrates the industrial history of Winnipeg. The new black steel columns support the tower and join the fabric of decommissioned technologies. The architecture becomes a stage set for the city. This public square will become a performance space. It is a grotto, submerged 15 feet below street level.
SOLAR PATH DIAGRAM
ABOVE: JUNE 21 SOLSTICE
BELOW: DECEMBER 21 SOLSTICE
WENDEL DIETTERLIN
FLOOD COLUMN FOUNTAIN
MODEL
CIRCULATION
