Over her 153 year history, Windsor has done a very poor job of preserving the past. Buildings are built, altered, and demolished with a quick life cycle in Windsor. In the past, there has been little adaptive reuse, and even less of a preservation sentiment among the general public. This city has not been a good guardian of her built history.

It is easy to pick up an old photograph or post card of Windsor and not see a single thing you recognize. None of the four old main train stations remain and not a single Victorian era commercial block stands. With the exception of a few blocks of Victoria Avenue and a few houses here and there, all of the grand old Victorian Homes have been demolished or severely altered. Every large downtown department store has also met the wrecking ball.

The catalyst for the 'Windsor Modern' project was the demolition of the Cleary Guest House (Johnson & McWhinne, Architects, 1957). During the course of plans for demolition, I had the opportunity to meet with James Patten at the Art Gallery of Windsor. We had a discussion about the local apathy towards mid-century architecture and towards our built heritage in general and out of our meeting came a photography exhibition documenting some of Windsor's more important Modern Era architecture (1940-1970).

Hopefully this exhibition raises some consciousness and appreciation for some of Windsor's architectural works - buildings that many people drive past every day without giving them a second thought. The Modern Era is one of the few styles of architecture in Windsor of which there is still a great stock. As it stand now, the buildings are too young to be considered historic by many, but are just old enough to be considered dated, and tired.

This is an attempt to catalogue some of Windsor's more prominent mid-century structures, and is by no means an complete list.