A mixed-use property with an innovative design in Winnipeg’s Exchange District has been named one of the top five buildings in the Americas in an architecture competition.
Pumphouse, designed by Winnipeg’s 5468796 Architecture Inc., is a finalist for the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP).
The prize recognizes projects that redefine design excellence, innovation and social impact in North, Central and South America.
“We are absolutely thrilled to see Pumphouse recognized as an MCHAP finalist,” says 5468796 Architecture co-founding partner Sasa Radulovic in an announcement.
Until 5468796 Architecture decided to take on the project, the pumping station had been slated for demolition after numerous attempts to revive the property. The pumping station is located not far from the Red River, which flows through the Manitoba capital.
Pumphouse is a redevelopment of the James Avenue Pumping Station, which was built in 1906.
Until 5468796 Architecture decided to take on the project, the pumping station had been slated for demolition after numerous attempts to revive the property. The pumping station is located not far from the Red River, which flows through the Manitoba capital.
Radulovic and his colleagues started working on the 119,000-square-foot project in 2015.
Two interventions made the project viable, he says.
One was using the rails of the pumping station’s overhead gantry crane to support a new floor of flexible office space that looks down on the machinery below.
The other was proposing a thin residential apartment block on the 40-foot sliver of land between the pumping station and the street.
These decisions, plus adding another apartment building on the other side of the pumping station, made the project financially viable.
The first phase of the project was renovating the pumping station and adding office and retail space to the upper level in 2017.
In September 2020, Pumphouse East, a 28-unit apartment block, was completed.
Pumphouse West, a 65-unit multi-use block with 1,600-square-foot of commercial space, followed in 2023.
The rental housing buildings, which are on either side of the pumping station, are so situated that they preserve public access and sightlines. Inside, the massive, turn-of-the-20th-century pumping equipment is visible through glass wrapping on the ground floor.
“The way the new and old buildings are configured on the site brings back the long lost art of city building, with streets, courts, laneways and pedestrian paths crisscrossing the site and enabling the city to engulf the buildings,” says Radulovic. “The buildings are really good examples of the mid-rise housing that is touted as a principal solution to housing crisis.”
This is the eighth time Pumphouse has won an architectural award and the third time 5468796 Architecture has been recognized by MCHAP.
It was shortlisted in the prize’s emerging category for the Old Market Square Stage in 2014, and for OZ Condominiums, a 25-unit residence in Winnipeg’s Osborne Village, in 2016.
The other MCHAP finalists are a marine life research centre in Mazatlan, Mexico; a veterinary clinic in Buenos Aires; an 800-metre-long square pier in Bacalar, Mexico; and a school in Bentonville, Arkansas (headquarters of Walmart).
The winner will be recognized with the MCHAP Award, the MCHAP Chair in the Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture, and US$50,000 to fund research and a publication documenting the winning project.
The winner will be announced May 5 at a ceremony in Chicago.
Winnipeg’s Exchange District is a national historic site that features a collection of more than 150 heritage buildings, built between 1880 and 1920, in an area of 20 square blocks.
David Pensato, executive director of the Exchange District Business Improvement Zone, says the Pumphouse is a unique project.
“There’s nothing else like it in the Exchange or anywhere else in the city,” says Pensato. “And there’s no other neighbourhood in Winnipeg like the Exchange, with so many heritage buildings. There’s definitely room for more projects here like Pumphouse.”
Cindy Tugwell, executive director of Heritage Winnipeg, says her organization advocated for years for the protection and preservation of the pumping station and to prevent its demolition.
“Projects like Pumphouse bring in new people and new services, which in turn attracts more people and services that are needed to build and maintain a thriving community in the Exchange.”
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