Past the shimmering glass, corrugated black metal and supporting steel stilts of a new low-rise rental building, passersby can catch a glimpse of the old James Avenue pumping station, a significant part of Winnipeg’s history.

Located along the nearly redeveloped Waterfront Drive – previously a railway line along the Red River – the $25-million project’s modern exterior surrounds a historic heart.

Once drawing from the river, the station’s high-pressure water system pumped 9,000 gallons a minute, providing water to the city’s Exchange District and adjacent downtown area, from the early 1900s to the mid-1980s. It was considered an engineering marvel when first constructed in 1905.

Despite receiving a heritage designation in 1982, the 26,000-square-foot James Avenue pumping station remained vacant for decades until its recent restoration.

Today it features a gastropub on the main floor, which opened in the fall, and an advertising agency on a newly constructed second floor.

Central to the restoration is the original machinery that pumped water to fight fires in surrounding warehouses and office buildings during Winnipeg’s halcyon days a century ago as a major rail hub.

The redevelopment is considered a triumph, given the requirement as a designated heritage property to preserve its mechanical guts, which made it challenging to repurpose.

Yet the project – called the Pump House – is not without controversy, says Cindy Tugwell, executive director of Heritage Winnipeg.

“All you see at first is this black, ultramodern building in front, canopied above the old building, so it’s hard to see the original exterior,” she says.

Ms. Tugwell adds that she includes herself among heritage enthusiasts who are not big fans of the design of two new mixed-use, low-rise structures, composed of 93 rental units in total, that bookend – and mostly obscure – the original pumping station.

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