It's been over 3 years since the University of Windsor approved the $32.6-million redevelopment of the downtown armouries building.
This week, the public finally gets an opportunity to see the completed project which will be home to the School of the Arts.
An Open House is set for Friday for people to tour the nearly complete facility.
It includes the new Freedom Way Building built on the site of the former Tunnel BBQ.
University spokesman John Coleman says they've preserved the origin of the 1902 armouries structure.
"You'll notice you see the original brick which has basically been covered for maybe 100 years and 10 layers of paint were taken off," he explains. "Almost every angle you look at is that original brick and it's quite beautiful. The look, the windows and everything have been preserved."
The new facility will have a wide variety of uses.
"Practice rooms for musicians and it's going to be focusing on music," says Coleman. "There's a performance hall, practice hall there's also some other facilities , a computer lab, photography and painting studios and what we call the vabe lab, which is dedicated to architecture and the environment."
Coleman says they've created a kind of "history wall" where you can see back to when the structure was built.
"Behind that is basically the concrete that has been there for literally 115 years, so you can see the three foundations. The original foundation is there, the foundation from 1935 when they put on the addition and the foundation that was put in to support the structure this time around."
Coleman says other communities have found ways to re-purpose armouries, but he believes this is unique at least in Canada.