SKYWALKING THE CITY

PRESENTED BY

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Love it or hate it, the elevated skywalk system is an essential part of Winnipeg’s urban fabric. On this walk we will explore the fascinating history of the skywalk, and along the way visit buildings that tell a story about urban development in Winnipeg over the last century. From Portage Avenue in the early 20th century and its grand department stores, to the mid-century decline of the downtown core, massive urban renewal schemes in the 80’s, and the new icons of Winnipeg’s present day urban transformation.

Portage Avenue overpass 1989. Photo by Peter Tittenberger. (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Source: http://flic.kr/p/cTAq3

2-5 km total length26 buildings connected18 bridges200+ shops and businesses60+ restaurants and snack bars700+ apartment units170,000 m2+ of floor spaceFirst skywalk built in 1957Most recent skywalk built in 2010

HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY STORE

• The Hudson Bay Company played an integral part in the creation of early Winnipeg. This 1887 map shows the area of the HBC Reserve. The company used its influence to shape develpoment patterns in the city for decades.• The 1926 opening of the HBC department store on Portage Avenue brought a new level of retail luxury to Winnipeg. The store was similar in size to its neighboring competitor, Eaton’s (built 1905), and featured state-of-the-art systems and amenities.• Together with Eaton’s, the HBC building helped solidify Portage Avenue as the new commercial axis in the city.

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Library and Archives Canada. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/canadian-west/052920/05292064_e.html

Hudson’s Bay Company Archives 1987-31-164

Portage Ave., Winnipeg.. between 1920 - 1930]. Peel’s Prairie Provinces Archive

Portage Avenue Winnipeg.. Lyall Commercial Photo Co., Limited, Winnipeg, [1910]. Peel’s Prairie Provinces Archive

PORTAGE AVENUE • 1900-1920 • CIVIC OPTIMISM

T. Eaton Company Store in Portage Avenue, Winnipeg. 1910. http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/postcards/PC001983.html

GRAND DEPARTMENT STORES: THE BAY & EATON’S

Hudson’s Bay Company Department Store. Exterior: view along Portage Avenue (Christmas 1961). Source: http://wbi.lib.umanitoba.ca/WinnipegBuildings/showBuilding.jsp?id=519

PORTAGE AVENUE 1950-1960

Source unknown

Source unknown

Exterio view along Portage Avenue. 1961. Source: http://wbi.lib.umanitoba.ca/WinnipegBuildings/showBuilding.jsp?id=519

PORTAGE PLACE MALL

• In the late 70’s and early 80’s Winnipeg’s inner-city was in decline. Suburban development attracted economic activity away form the core. High levels of unemployment, residential and commercial vacancy, and the deteriorating condition of buildings required action.• The Core Area Initiative, a tri-level urban economic revitalization program, invested more than $200 million into downtown. The redevelopment of the railyards at the forks, and the northern strip of Portage Avenue, are major legacies of this scheme.• Portage Place was completed between 1986-87. Construction of the mall required the demolition of three city blocks. This development can be seen as part of a trend in urban planning favouring large scale urban renewal projects.

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DECLINE OF DOWNTOWN AND RISE OF THE SUBURBS

volution of the Built-Up Area 1872-1974. Thomas R. Weir. Atlas of Winnipeg. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978

MODERNIST CITY PLANNING VISION

Raymond L. Watson (pictured on the right), former president of The Irvine Company, 1964.

Plan of St. Mary Broadway Sector (1969). Metropolitan Corporation of Greater Winnipeg.

Inset: Portage Avenue between Carlton and Hargrave. Source unknown.

Winnipeg Urban Design - Downtown Street (1966). In: Winnipeg Planning Division. The Metropolitan Development Plan.

URBAN RENEWAL AND THE CORE AREA INITIATIVE

North Portage Panorama.1981. Photo by Peter Tittenberger. (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Source: https://flic.kr/p/aCsto

Source unknown.

North side of Portage looking east from Kennedy. Photo: Peter Tittenberger. (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/bRRsVsto

Portage Place Mall. Photo by AJ Batac. (CC BY 2.0) Source: https://flic.kr/p/dSPk83

3 MANITOBA HYDRO PLACE

• Manitoba Hydro Place is the only office tower in Canada to receive the LEED Platinum rating and is considered to be the most energy efficient tower in North America.• The building has achieved energy savings of over 70%.• Energy-efficient design features include: a solar chimney, geo-thermal HVAC system, bio-responsive curtain walls, waterfalls to humidify freshar intake with, radiant heating and cooling systems, green roof, and more.

Source: manitobahydroplace.com

Photo: Eduard Hueber http://www.manitobahydroplace.com Photo: Arlo Bates. https://flic.kr/p/oZ8DEh (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Photo: AJ Batac https://flic.kr/p/byNgD1 (CC-BY 2.0) Photo: AJ Batac https://flic.kr/p/bEcztV (CC-BY 2.0)

Photographer: Paul https://flic.kr/p/8cMSLd (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

4 THE FIRST SKYWALK IN WINNIPEG

Eaton’s exterior view. 1960. University of Manitoba Building Index

• As early as the 1930’s urban visionaries and planners proposed elevated skywalk systems, but it was not until the Municipal Plan of 1969 that the City envisioned a fully connected network.• Skywalks and underground systems were popular in the 1960’s and 70’s and can be found in many Canadian and American states with cold winter climates. • The first skywalk in Winnipeg was installed in 1957 by Eaton’s to connect the department store to the parking garage. • Over the decades other skywalk connections between buildings were made eventually forming a network.• On December 1st, 1988 Mayor Bill Norrie officially opened the walkway system connecting Portage Place to Portage and Main.

Eaton’s exterior view. 1960. University of Manitoba Building Index

Skywalk - first part between Eatons and Somerset Bldg. Photo by David Portigal. 1969. Source: http://bit.ly/1B54EMx

CALGARY - PLUS 15

MINNEAPOLIS - SKYWAY

EDMONTON - PEDWAY

forester401 (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/8sRrAnDrhaggis (CC BY-SA 3.0) http://bit.ly/16c3uGt

Jim Winstead (CC BY-SA 3.0) https://flic.kr/p/5dJuL

TORONTO - PATH

MONTREAL - UNDERGROUND CITY - RÉSO

Ian Muttoo (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/8u1SbV

Tony Hisgett (CC BY-2.0) https://flic.kr/p/d8nnGE

5 MTS CENTRE - FORMERLY EATON’S

• At the beginning of the 20th century, Eaton’s conducted a large business in Western Canada through its catalogue. Eaton’s considered Winnipeg, Manitoba as the most logical location for a new mail order warehouse to better serve its western customers.• The landmark red brick store, known as “the Big Store” to Winnipeggers, was a massive success. The initial staff of 750 grew to 1200 within a few weeks of the opening. • For many years, the Winnipeg Eaton’s store was considered the most successful department store in the world, given how it dominated its local market. As late as the 1960s, Canadian Magazine estimated that Winnipeggers spent more than 50 cents of every shopping dollar (excluding groceries) at Eaton’s, and that on a busy day, one out of every ten Winnipeggers would visit the store.

Eaton’s exterior view. 1960. University of Manitoba Building IndexWinnipeg Free Press archives

MTS Centre. Photo: Adolf Galland (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/7jjBUf

T. Eaton Company Store in Portage Avenue, Winnipeg. 1910. http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/postcards/PC001983.html

Bird’s eye view of T Eaton Co store Portage Avenue, Winnipeg. http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/postcards/PC001987.html

Eaton’s exterior view, Christmas 1960. Photo: David Butterfield. Source: University of Manitoba archives Building Index

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6 MILLENNIUM LIBRARY

• The Millennium Library is the main branch of the Winnipeg Public Library system. The library was opened in 1977 as the Centennial Library, a civic legacy created to celebrate Winnipeg’s 100th birthday.• The library was originally designed as a three-storey masonry and concrete structure integrated with an underground parking garage and a landscaped garden on the south side of the site. • The building underwent an award-winning expansion in 2000-2005 led by Patkau Architects of Vancouver and LM Architectural Group. The renovation added a fourth storey, multi-level reading terrace and four-storey glass curtain wall overlooking the plaza.

Winnipeg Architecture Foundation winnipegarchitecture.ca

Centennial Library. 1977. Photo: James Dow. http://wbi.lib.umanitoba.ca/WinnipegBuildings/showBuilding.jsp?id=1757

Winnipeg Architecture Foundation winnipegarchitecture.ca

Winnipeg Architecture Foundation winnipegarchitecture.ca

• The original park plan was composed around a large open area featuring an angular concrete pond, winter skating rink, concrete reading teraces, fountain and walkways. The success of the park was limited. The skating rink was discontinued as a result of low attendance and the pond was drained in 1986 due to algae blooms.• The walls and greenery meant to give people the feeling of being in a green oasis also gave the perception that the park was isolated and possibly unsafe.t• In 2012 the park underwent a renovation to include a revised landscape design by local firm HTFC Planning + Design. The new park integrated two public art projects, emptyful by Bill Pechet and Sentinel of Truth by Winnipeg artist Darren Stebeleski.

MILLENNIUM LIBRARY PLAZA

“Emptyful” Millennium Library Plaza. Artist: Bill Pechet

Photo: Brent Bellamy

7 GROUP DISCUSSION

@erinriedigerUnfavourite the empty street. Favourite the observation.

@CanUrbanismInevitable because of climate, or bad design?

@DwtnWpgRises:(

@CityRegionsBeyond this we have a legacy of inward facing retail and office enviros. The skywalks just connect them.

@steveosnyderThe blank wall of the new police HQ and the parking lot really add to the pedestrian realm.

@brent_bellamyEmpty sidewalks. Busy skywalks. #Winnipeg

8 PORTAGE & MAIN

• Portage and Main is the physical and spiritual heart of the city. • The intersection marks the confluence of ox cart trading routes that followed the Assiniboine and Red rivers.• 15 years after Winnipeg incorporated in 1873, the intersection was transformed from a collection of trading post shops, hotels and bars into a dramatic urban commercial centre.• By the first decade of the 20th century Portage and Main had become an important financial centre in Canada and the centre of the grain commodities exchange. Banks competed to build extravagant headquarters along Main street. Many of these buildings remain today.• Portage and Main has witnessed important moments in the history of the city and it has been a gathering place for for citizens to celebrate, protest and mark important civic ocassions.

Location and Identity of Buildings in Village of Winnipeg 1872 (1922). National Map Collection Public Archives of Canada

Main Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 1887. Source: McCord Museum, Montreal

Red River Settlement, showing the corner of Portage and Main in June 1872. Photo: James Penrose. UofM Archives

Construction starts on the Trizec Building (360 Main Street) and the Winnipeg Square underground mall at Portage and Main, February 22, 1977. (Winnipeg Free Press Archives)

WINNIPEG SQUARE AND UNDERGROUND CONCOURSE

Underground tunnel, Portage and Main. Photo: AJ Batac (CC-BY-2.0) Source: https://flic.kr/p/bLDKo8

Portage and Main from atop the Richardson building. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/7bBo98

Business leaders and politicians share cakes that were fashioned after buildings at Portage and Main during celebrations to mark the opening of the underground concourse in 1979. Winnpeg Free Press

From Winnipeg Free Press via City of Winnipeg Archives (Portage & Main)

From Winnipeg Free Press via City of Winnipeg Archives (Portage & Main)

“The (red river) carts left deep ruts in the soft prairie turf,

so deep that the wagons tended to spread out, the right wheel

of one cart travelling in thewake of the left wheel of the cart

ahead; thus, the prairie trails could be as much as twenty

carts wide, a phenomenon that helps explain the many broad

streets in Winnipeg.”— Pierre Burton, The National Dream

THANK YOU

SOURCES

The Rise and Sprawl riseandsprawl.tumblr.comWest End Dumplings westenddumplings.blogspot.comWinnipeg Downtown Places winnipegdowntownplaces.blogspot.com WPGxHBC wpgxhbc.comWinnipeg Architecture Foundation winnipegarchitecture.cadepartmentstoremuseum.blogspot.caPeel’s Prairie Archives - University of AlbertaManitoba Historical Society www.mhs.mb.caWinnipeg Free Press Archives archives.winnipegfreepress.comWinnipegger Facebook PageUniversity of Manitoba Libraries - Winnipeg Building IndexWikipedia

Christian Cassidy (westenddumplings.blogspot.com)Susan Algie (winnipegarchitecture.ca)Robert Galston (riseandsprawl.tumblr.com)Abi Auld (wpgxhbc.com)

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Detail: Greater Winnipeg Central Business District Proposed Zoning (1948). Metropolitan Planning Committee; Winnipeg Town Planning Commission. Image courtesy of the University of Manitoba Archives and Special Collections.

WALK ROUTE

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HUDSON’S BAY CO. STORE MTS CENTRE - EATON’S (RIP)

PORTAGE PLACE MALL GROUP DISCUSSION

MANITOBA HYDRO PLACE PORTAGE & MAIN

FIRST SKYWALK IN WINNIPEG MAW’S BEER HALL