Clifford Wiens
The building provides heated and chilled water to the University of Regina campus buildings and is distinguished by a unique A-frame form of exposed pre-cast concrete and corten steel. The plant has been a landmark in Regina since it was first built 40 years ago and remains an example of innovative and expressive modernist architecture. The building was recognized with a Massey Medal for Architecture (now the Governor General’s Medal for Architecture) as well as being the only structure from Saskatchewan included in the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada publication ‘Built Heritage of the Modern Era’.
photo: University of Manitoba Archives
photo: University of Manitoba Archives
photo: University of Manitoba Archives
photo: University of Manitoba Archives
photo: Don Hall
"The Heating and Cooling Plant embodies the successful marriage of sophisticated structural design, contemporary materials, adaptation of plan and section to function, and expressive form that was the goal of the best of modern architecture. The direct and unadorned industrial materials, their natural colours and simple forms reflect the utilitarian agricultural equipment and structures of the prairie farms with which Wiens was familiar, while the bold silhouette of the building recalls that ubiquitous prairie landmark, the grain elevator."