From the response we’ve gotten so far with this project, a lot of people, including us, feel the water towers are part of our landscape and look great where they are. If we can save the towers, there are so many possibilities to use them for something other than the great billboards and symbols for the city that they already are. Hopefully they can be turned into observation decks at the very least, so tourists and locals can enjoy amazing views of the city.
Here are some examples of what other cities and towns have done with their own decommissioned water towers. Why destroy them, when you can develop them and create something as amazing and unique as these other cities have done?
Water tower converted to a home, outside Antwerp
Old Water Tower in Denmark, Converted to Student Housing
Mövenpick Hotel Hamburg, built around an existing water tower
Red Rock Lake, Iowa, now an observation deck
Seal Beach, California, converted water tower now houses offices
Sunset Beach, California, now a three-bedroom, four-bathroom home
Lethbridge, Alberta. Now a restaurant and popular observation deck
Lethbrige, AB
Lethbridge, Alberta converted water tower
The tower in Lethbridge should be a model for Sudbury to look at. There’s a great article here about how the tower, decommissioned and schedule to be destroyed, was saved and turned into a popular restaurant and landmark. I encourage you to read it, as the circumstances with their tower are very similar to ours in Sudbury.
Doug Bergen, the owner of the tower, said this about the tower:
“It’s been an iconic structure in Lethbridge and southern Alberta and if I was going to keep it alive I wanted to make it a place that the public could visit and use.”
The tower in Lethbridge is almost exactly the same age as ours in Sudbury. “The town’s public works feared it was unstable and should come down, but I had consulting engineers check it out and found it was still strong and sturdy,” said 44-year-old Bergen.
The Pearl Street tower would be an ideal location and tower for something like this to happen. However, that is the tower that is currently not owned by the city and would need to be bought back to be preserved, as it is slated for demolition in April.
Please submit your artistic representations of the tower so we can make an appeal to the city to save the towers!
Save the Sudbury Water Towers 