Ottawa Street Power Station is a former municipal electric and steam utility generating station for the

Lansing Board of Water and Light The Lansing Board of Water & Light is a publicly owned, municipal utility that provides electricity and water to the residents of the cities of Lansing and East Lansing, Michigan, and the surrounding townships of Delta, Delhi, Meridian and DeW ...

in Lansing, Michigan, located on the Grand River in the city's central business district that was redeveloped as corporate headquarters for the Accident Fund Insurance Company of America.

Design and construction

The engineering design of the plant was by Ralph C. Roe and Allen Burns of the firm of Burns and Roe, and represented an improvement over the design of the Bremo Station in Virginia, which the two had designed while employed at Electric Management and Engineering Company. The architectural design was by Edwyn A. Bowd of Bowd and Munson. Construction began in 1937 and, due to material shortages caused by the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, completed in two phases. The first phase, which consisted of the southern half of the building, was completed in 1939. The second phase was completed in 1946. In total, the project cost $4 million, all of it from ratepayers without the issuance of bonds or government funds.Cosention, Lawrence, "First Life of a landmark", Lansing City Pulse, published March 31, 2011
/ref> The tall

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

step-back structure sits on a polished black

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

water table, with an intricate exterior design of multicolor brick. The design symbolizes the combustion of coal, and graduates from dark purple at the base through reds and orange in the middle, to light yellow at the top, alternating with bands of limestone, and with limestone parapets and trim. The Ottawa Street station was praised for its engineering and architecture in trade publications of the day, and immediately became the city's preeminent Art Deco landmark. Bowd subsequently designed a number of other prominent Art Deco and Streamline Moderne buildings in the Lansing area, including the J.W. Knapp Company Building.Cosentino, Lawrence, "The belly of the phoenix" ''Lansing City Pulse'' (March 26, 2009)
/ref>

Operating History

The Ottawa Street station provided electricity and steam to the downtown Lansing area from 1939 through 1989. The plant had a generating capacity of 81,500-

kilowatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James W ...

. By 1971, improvements at the Board of Water and Light's Eckert Station permitted the Ottawa Street Station to operate as a backup station for electric generation. It continued to provide steam service into the 1980s. In 1984, the Board of Water and Light's Eckert Station began providing steam service, initially as a backup to the Ottawa Street Station, but eventually as the primary steam service source. As equipment became obsolete, it was removed from the Ottawa Street Station, and ultimately it was decommissioned in 1992 for electric and steam. In 2001, a portion of the station was renovated to provide chilled water service for air conditioning.Mulcahy, Marty, "Big chill project revives Ottawa Street Station", ''The Building Tradesman'' (January 19, 2001)
/ref> It continued to operate as a water chilling plant until September 2009, when the Board of Water and Light completed a new chilled water plant in downtown Lansing.

Redevelopment

Following decommissioning, the City of Lansing explored various options for redevelopment of the Ottawa Street Station. In 2007, it was sold to be redeveloped as corporate headquarters for the Accident Fund Insurance Company of America. Massive renovations to convert the plant to an office building with a campus were made over a two-year period by The Christman Company, and completed in the first quarter of 2011."Ottawa Street Power Station receives national designation", ''Reuters'' (March 18, 2009)
/ref> The redevelopment project won numerous awards, including: * Richard H. Driehaus National Preservation Honor Award – National Trust for Historic Preservation * Global Award for Excellence -

Urban Land Institute The Urban Land Institute, or ULI, is a nonprofit research and education organization with regional offices in Washington, D.C., Hong Kong, and London. ULI advocates progressive development, conducting research, and education in topics such as ...

* Beyond Green High Performance Building First Place Honor Award for a Historic Reuse –

National Institute of Building Sciences The National Institute of Building Sciences is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that brings together representatives of government, the professions, industry, labor and consumer interests, and regulatory agencies to focus on the identif ...

Sustainable Buildings Industry Council * Governor's Award for Historic Preservation –

Michigan State Housing Development Authority The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) is a quasi-public agency of the U.S. state of Michigan under the umbrella of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. History MSHDA was created as a result of the State Ho ...

* Design Award – Michigan Historic Preservation Network * Construction and Design Award – Engineering Society of Detroit * Green Project of the Year – Construction Association of Michigan * Excellence in Economic Development – International Economic Development Council * IDEAS2 Presidential Award of Excellence – American Institute of Steel Construction.

National Register of Historic Places Listing

The Ottawa Street Station was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on November 26, 2008. ( 30 pages including 10 photos) It is the 22nd property listed as a featured property of the week in a program of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

that began in July 2008.

References

External links