The Niagara Parks Power Station adaptive reuse by +VG Architects turns the granddaddy of today’s electric-power industry into an iconic museum and entertainment destination.
What do JP Morgan and John Jacob Astor IV, who would die in the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912, have in common? They were principal financiers of Niagara Parks Power Station (NPPS), the building that launched the modern electrical industrial era. Constructed between 1901 and 1905, the Richardsonian Romanesque-style powerhouse occupies a unique position in the history of the electrical and industrial revolutions. It is here that George Westinghouse and his business partner Nikola Tesla used their generators and AC current to create electricity and distribute it over a long-distance energy grid at commercial scale. NPPS became the global model for the fledgling hydroelectric power industry.
NPPS is the world’s only existing power plant of its age that is still complete in its original form and with all its original equipment intact. +VG Architects, an Ontario firm with offices in Toronto, Ottawa and Brantford, transformed it into an educational and entertainment destination, providing a fascinating look at renovating and reopening a historic structure that maintains its heritage while complying with complex present-day safety regulations governing public-use facilities.
Now NPPS is poised to impact the economy of Niagara Falls once again. As part of a team engaged by the Niagara Parks Commission (NPC), an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries responsible for preserving and enhancing the natural beauty and cultural heritage of Niagara Falls and the Niagara River corridor, +VG Architects was Architect of Record and contract administrator on the adaptive reuse project. The project won the 2021 Lieutenant Governor’s Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation.
“Converting such a historic property, located at one of the world’s wonders, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a great honour,” says Paul Sapounzi, VG Architects President and Managing Principal. “This is the first time the doors have been open to an industrial space like this anywhere in the world. And now, with renewable, carbon-zero power sources in the news, this building, the prototype for green energy generation, is more relevant than ever.”
“As the stewards of the last power station in the world of this size and vintage that’s completely intact, we wanted to maintain the building’s heritage while developing Niagara Falls’ newest attraction,” says Kim Viney, Senior Director of Business Development at NPC. “This is a key monument in Canada’s cultural and economic history.”
The powerhouse is set well back from the Niagara River to minimize visual interference with views of Niagara Falls. The complex comprises a gathering weir, an ice-screen barrier and outer forebay, inner forebay, generator hall, office administration block and control room, wheel pit, tailrace tunnel and the adjacent Niagara Parkway Bridge.
The generator hall is the major, defining space within the powerhouse. An imposing 587 feet long, 102 feet wide and 64 feet high, it contains Westinghouse’s and Tesla’s 11 generators, a parallel row of breakers and a travelling overhead crane.
The adjoining inner forebay is where water from the Niagara River was filtered by the fine ice rack to remove ice and debris before entering the penstocks, the massive pipes delivering water to the station’s turbines.
The thrust deck, one level below the generator-hall floor, houses the high-voltage busbars and switch equipment that transmitted current from the generators to external transformers.
A visitor galley and viewing deck along the generator hall’s north wall hosted a stream of visitors, a testament to the public’s interest in engineering technology during the early 20th century and the Canadian Niagara Power Company’s pride in its ground-breaking setting.
A little history: In 1897, the Canadian Niagara Power Company (CNPC) selected the Westinghouse Company to supply two 10,000-horsepower, 8,500-kilowatt, alternating current (AC) generators for its new generating station in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
CNPC’s choice of AC and Westinghouse as the project’s supplier capped a tumultuous struggle between Thomas Edison and Lord William Kelvin, he of color-temperature fame, who proposed using direct current (DC) as a safer method, and Westinghouse and Tesla, who developed an AC generator that made it possible to supply electricity over long distances to a vast geographic area. This was the technological breakthrough that facilitated the electrical industrial revolution and remains the worldwide standard.
In 1905, the NPPS was the most advanced hydroelectric station in the world, featuring significant technical advances in the areas of oil reclaim, transmission towers, remote transformers, cable and switchboard design and fire and safety practices. As well, its development led to the establishment of international protocols for the sharing of water rights between Canada and the United States.
NPPS additions continued being built, with all construction finished by 1927, bringing the total installed capacity to 120,500 horsepower at 25 hertz, supplied by 11 generators. The final construction cost, including generator installation, was $5,199,828 or $84 million (US$67 million) in 2022 dollars. The architect was New York City-based Algernon S. Bell.
The powerhouse ceased operation in 2006; in 2009 CNPC transferred ownership of the powerhouse to NPC. Under the terms of the transfer agreement, the station can no longer be used to generate electricity. Though NPC got it for free, the gift was a white elephant of no commercial value.
“Our biggest challenge, which [Principal] Kevin Church and [Project Manager] Rodrigo Morales took on, was, how do you take this industrial building and make it safe for public use as an occupiable museum?” Sapounzi says. “It was a dangerous industrial space with thousands of volts of electricity and sloughs going all the way down to bedrock.”
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, +VG Architects (formerly The Ventin Group, Architects), is a pioneer in historic reuse and renovation. Their Toronto portfolio boasts the refurbishment of the two largest and finest example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Canada, the Legislative Assembly Building and Old City Hall.
How did +VG Architects get the gig? NPC has been a client for the past quarter century, commissioning projects such as the fine-dining Table Rock House Restaurant and adjoining Table Rock Market food court and retail mall down the street; and Legends on the Niagara Golf Clubhouse in nearby Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Having written the Strategic Conservation Plan for Queen Victoria Park, the district that includes NPPS and its two sister decommissioned vintage power stations, +VG Architects tackled the key design elements of the station’s adaptive reuse, a challenge that required strict adherence to Ontario’s building code and safety regulations, while preserving the patina of the building’s historical integrity and as much as possible of the public’s view of the powerhouse’s original operation areas and equipment.
“Because of the powerhouse’s excellent condition, we focused our approach on stabilized conservation instead of restoration or renovation, treating the building’s cumulative history and all its layers as a living document,” Sapounzi says. “It’s an approach to restoration with a very light touch.”
The generator hall now showcases the station’s equipment and artifacts repurposed as interpretive installations and interactive exhibits. Here, +VG Architects created a new entrance vestibule, ticket desk and washrooms. The inner forebay still contains flowing Niagara water, coursing along the fine ice rack, as well as new retail and presentation areas. A new basement houses all-new HVAC, electrical, plumbing, drainage, ventilation and fire-safety systems.
Fire-control measures include a new fire-alarm system, sprinklers throughout, one-hour horizontal and vertical fire separations between all floors and at new entrances and exits; new exit stairs at each end of the building for all floors and the roof; and protected corridors, refuge areas and additional escape routes. An emergency standby generator, a mechanical ventilation system and a new municipal water line to ensure adequate emergency water flow were also added.
NPPS opened to the public in July 2021. Visitors enter the building through its original main entrance, proceeding through a new vestibule and ticketing area directly into the generator hall, the station’s principal space. From there, the original portals with rolldown doors that separate the inner forebay and generator hall lead visitors into the inner forebay, now a retail hall, with capacity for future dining and entertainment additions.
In July 2022, the public will also be able to ride in a glass-walled elevator 180 feet (55 metres) down to the wheel-pit, where they will exit onto a 2,200-foot-long (671-meter) tailrace tunnel, walk past interpretive exhibits to a portal and step out to a new viewing platform extending into the lower Niagara River at the base of Horseshoe Falls.
“They shot Niagara, the Marilyn Monroe movie, from the Canadian side,” Sapounzi says, “because it provides the more dramatic view.” This side overlooks Horseshoe Falls, the biggest and most picturesque of Niagara’s three cataracts, thanks to its 2,600-feet-wide curve. Horseshoe Falls boasts the highest average annual flow rate, according to Wikipedia, of any North American waterfall: 634,000 gallons per second.
During the day, the building and its artifacts bring to life its history and breakthrough technology to show how electricity was generated here for 100 years. At night, Currents: Niagara’s Power Transformed, an interactive sound-and-light show by Montreal-based Thinkwell Group, uses 3-D projections to immerse visitors in the path of a drop of water from Horseshoe Falls as it enters the station, travels through the turbines and is changed into electricity. On weekends, children can attend workshops to explore their STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) curiosity and creativity
Traditionally, Niagara Falls attracted tourists and honeymooners who would gape at the falls during the day, then turn for their evening’s entertainment to the downtown’s casino, tourist souvenir shops and Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Now there’s a new, sophisticated option for family entertainment. “We’ve put the magic and majesty of the falls back at the core of the visitor experience,” says Viney
David Lasker is president of David Lasker Communications and can be reached at david@davidlaskercommunications.