Winnipeg Construction X

[NewIreland]

Originally Posted by trueviking

I was just saying at work that Winnipeg has arrived to the tiny apartment era that we used to make fun of in Vancouver and Toronto. It’s amazing how suddenly sizes have dropped. Affordability has become king and that means smaller sizes.

I doubt the university can dictate unit sizes but even if this isn’t student housing, the units are likely very small. The evidence is that number in only 23 storeys. Thats 40% more suites than the 21 storey 308 colony.

Anyways. Nice to see the development get a building. I’ve had doubts about their aspirations. Hopefully this is a bit of a catalyst.

Anyway, come on TV drop a hint on those 3 developments. We're dying over here.

[rebl]

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ar...llion-miracles

Downtown church at 256 likely to be demolished. Wild to learn it has no foundation and is still standing.

Prime real estate right along the newly promised Graham pedestrian mall.

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by rebl

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ar...llion-miracles

Downtown church at 256 likely to be demolished. Wild to learn it has no foundation and is still standing.

Prime real estate right along the newly promised Graham pedestrian mall.

It would be tragic if the building ended up being torn down, but my gut feeling is that the powers that be will find a way to get the $7 million they say they need for repairs.

While $7 million isn't chicken feed, it sounds like a relatively small amount compared to the public dollars going to other projects in the city. It IS an historic site, and architecturally we'll never see this type of beautiful building ever constructed again. Socially the church contributes meals to homeless people a couple of days a week, so one can argue it serves a community purpose. Aesthetically I have personally always loved that church; it's presence always made that small corner feel a little "old world". IMO it's much better than any corrugated metal sided box that might take it's place.

[trueviking]

I’d say there is a lot of prime real estate in downtown Winnipeg that doesn’t have one of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in the city on it. Shortage of available prime real estate is not the issue.

[Kris22]

Although I love the building, the article stated they only get 30-60 people for congregations each week which means the building is essentially empty all week and not worth public dollars to fix it and keep it as a barely functioning church. Maybe if it could be repurposed into something that actually gets people inside of it, it might be worth the money to fix.

[WinCitySparky]

In no way would I want to see scarce public dollars go to fix an underused church. If the church wants to pay great, otherwise rip it down. Salvage some of the interior elements perhaps, but entirely on the church’s dollar.

[davequanbury]

The church and the streetscape that is created for that block by virtue of the quiet old building, wrought iron fence and mature trees key to the vibe of a successful pedestrian street. Worst case scenario, if the buiilding comes down then leave the greenspace as it is.

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by trueviking

I’d say there is a lot of prime real estate in downtown Winnipeg that doesn’t have one of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in the city on it. Shortage of available prime real estate is not the issue.

IMO-architecturally it's much more significant than the St. Charles Hotel, but some people here have been having kittens over the thought of that being destroyed through neglect. I think if the building were originally anything other than a church the level of indifference to it's potential destruction would drop significantly. It's a beautiful historic building, people shouldn't let their personal biases condemn it to destruction.

[biguc]

Buildings not having foundations is 100 % the insurance scam du jour. Can't burn it down? We have a crooked foundation inspector who will sweep your building off its feet

[BlackDog204]

I took some pics of the new Buffalo Crossing building going up at Fort Whyte alive on McGillivay, including the intersection of Brady and McGillivary where the new bus route and loop will be.

Unfortunately I am not sure how to post the pics.

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by WinCitySparky

In no way would I want to see scarce public dollars go to fix an underused church. If the church wants to pay great, otherwise rip it down. Salvage some of the interior elements perhaps, but entirely on the church’s dollar.

People forget that the revenue source for inner city churches is inner city residents.

Great cities care about their great buildings. They protect and celebrate their history.

We all complain about the quality of new buildings but let’s just rip down one of the finest heritage buildings in the city.

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by pspeid

IMO-architecturally it's much more significant than the St. Charles Hotel, but some people here have been having kittens over the thought of that being destroyed through neglect. I think if the building were originally anything other than a church the level of indifference to it's potential destruction would drop significantly. It's a beautiful historic building, people shouldn't let their personal biases condemn it to destruction.

Agreed. People hate religion and it makes them respond viscerally to it. If this 150 year old building that has been there since the birth of our city and is one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture in the province was an office building, everyone would be up in arms.

There are no other buildings of this age and quality in the city. It is a gem and important piece of our built heritage. Treating it as if it’s disposable is disappointing.

[OTA in Winnipeg]

^I could not agree more.

[WinCitySparky]

Everything is temporary, even old nice looking things, especially if they are neglected and ill-maintained. If it can be preserved great, if not, life goes on. The church organization should take responsibility for it and fix it.

This article

https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/prayer-f...apse-1.6901488

has the congregation state: “Our main hope is that someone with a lot more money than we have will come and fix the building to the tune of $7.2 million,” she said. Like, what? It also states that regardless of whether it’s fixed the congregation is moving. So spend public dollars now and forever ongoing to have a building sit there just for posterity? It’s old and nice looking but it’s definitely not completely unique. A private org like a historical society or the church themselves should be the ones to fund that, not the taxpayer.

Another article posted today in the Free Press

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/br...han-a-building

states that the structural deficiency was made known to them in 1989, and yet nothing was done, no money was set aside by either the congregation or the church at large to deal with the problem. They had 25 years to come up with a solution.

I’d like to see it repaired and preserved privately, not publicly, in this specific circumstance. There’s plenty of other churches laying around that have been properly maintained and attended. The idea that every single one should be saved and made stand for another 1000 years for the sake of it is absurd to me.

[trueviking]

What “church organization” anre you referring to?….the inner city congregation?

People seem to think churches are some kind of franchise of a large corporation. They are not. I would expect the inner city congregation has struggled to keep the roof from leaking over the last 25 years, never mind trying to do major structural interventions.

Who said we should protect every single church and make them last a thousand years. That is an absurd strawman argument. this is one of the oldest and finest buildings of any kind on the Prairies. To dismiss it as just another church is disingenuous.

Why protect any old warehouse in the exchange district. There’s lots of old warehouses lying around.

[Phil's neighbour]

It would be awful to see this historic building demolished. Perhaps the Winnipeg Foundation can help.

[WinCitySparky]

Originally Posted by trueviking

What “church organization” anre you referring to?….the inner city congregation?

People seem to think churches are some kind of franchise of a large corporation. They are not. I would expect the inner city congregation has struggled to keep the roof from leaking over the last 25 years, never mind trying to do major structural interventions.

Who said we should protect every single church and make them last a thousand years. That is an absurd strawman argument. this is one of the oldest and finest buildings of any kind on the Prairies. To dismiss it as just another church is disingenuous.

Why protect any old warehouse in the exchange district. There’s lots of old warehouses lying around.

Bahahah good points good points, well if you’re this passionate about the old girl then I’m sure someone just as passionate who has $8million will come along and there’s nothing to worry about.

[thebasketballgeek]

Someone tell Co-op to repurpose it into a grocery store and kill 2 birds with one stone. That bad boy looks like it’s atleast 20k sq ft.

If that doesn’t work, I know in my great ville de Rimouski they repurposed an old church to be a rock climbing facility that’s become very popular. No point in destroying it though especially in the current era of architecture in Winnipeg which is quite… depressing to put it nicely. I have 0 faith it would be replaced by something better.

[drew]

Originally Posted by biguc

Buildings not having foundations is 100 % the insurance scam du jour. Can't burn it down? We have a crooked foundation inspector who will sweep your building off its feet

Not in the case of this building. The uncomfortable cracking in the exterior walls is very visible from the exterior of the building.

It's too bad that they haven't used the past 25-years to attempt to come up with a plan to fund these necessary repairs on this church.

That said, it is a historic building, and one of the oldest structures of this size in the City. Hopefully a plan comes forward to fix it properly - regardless if it's use remains as a church.

[Biff]

I hope it is saved as well.

After being to numerous older cities I find these beautiful century old churches something to behold. That being said, it would have to be bought by a deep pocketed developer that could repurpose it into something else. The problem is that there are already quite a few social/music hall venues around (the usual repurpose method).

For years I have thought that this church and the sliver of a parking lot in between it and the Met would be a great pick-up for True North (TN) to build a nice slender apartment tower, but I would assume that TN is spread pretty thin right now with other projects.

$7-$8m is a lot of money for someone to spend to repair it only to leave it to a small congregation church to unfortunately neglect repairs again.

This is a tough one.