Electric Works wins Phoenix Award for urban redevelopment

The massive recovery of the landmark General Electric campus into Electric Works has won yet another award.

The project received a regional Project Award at the 2023 Phoenix Awards, held Aug. 9 in Detroit. The annual awards honor “the progression of brownfield redevelopment … by recognizing extraordinary practitioners and projects.”

Brownfields are abandoned or underutilized industrial buildings.

It was 2015 when a Community Task Force was first formed, determined to breathe new life into the sprawling and crumbling million square foot historic industrial campus in downtown Fort Wayne. Over the next half-decade, more than one million hours of labor were poured into the project, to transform a blighted area into a buzzing mixed-use district of innovation, culture and community.

With the restoration of more than 100,000 square feet of masonry, 10,000 cubic yards of new concrete, more than two acres of new pavers, and nearly 300,000 square feet of new roofing, the Electric Works West Campus now features a lively public market, an imaginative education center, and modern commercial spaces.

The campus is now a high activity and walkable point of destination and a radiating attraction for the city of Fort Wayne.

Elevatus served as the lead architect on the project.

For more on the 2023 Phoenix Awards, click here.