Walper Hotel in Kitchener, Ontario Building Project, Canadian Architecture Images
Walper Hotel in Kitchener, Ontario
Commercial Building Project in ON, Canada ? design by Dubbeldam Architecture
28 Feb 2019
Walper Hotel
Design: Dubbeldam Architecture + Design, Jill Greaves Design, Dialogue 38
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
The historic Walper Hotel in Canada?s Silicon Valley North is the new hot spot for Kitchener Waterloo?s growing tech community. With newly opened offices of Yahoo, Google and other major tech players, as well as Waterloo?s RIM and the Perimeter Institute, this area located an hour from Toronto is proving to be one of the fastest growing communities in the country.

photo © Michael Muraz Downtown Kitchener?s most recognizable landmark, the historic Walper Hotel played a pivotal role in the city?s social and cultural scene since opening in 1893. Designated as a historic landmark under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1983, the list of luminaries who stayed at the hotel include the Queen Mother; many prime ministers, including Pierre Trudeau; Eleanor Roosevelt; many jazz greats including Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington; James Brown; Liberace; Rudolph Nureyev; Bob Hope; and Tony Bennett. Decades later, the heritage site?s dated accommodations were unable to meet the contemporary demands of modern business travellers and locavore millennials looking for a landing spot. The region?s burgeoning tech industry attracts a discerning clientele, and the hotel?s...