Winnipeg | Exchange District | Developments & Discussions - Page 39

trueviking · #**761** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 4:16 AM**

I noticed a new sign in the window of the old rag pickers storefront. Something BIG coming soon. By Blacklist. It reads.

DonaldSmith · #**762** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 2:13 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by trueviking

I noticed a new sign in the window of the old rag pickers storefront. Something BIG coming soon. By Blacklist. It reads.

I think you mean Blackli$t.

buzzg · #**763** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 5:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by trueviking

I noticed a new sign in the window of the old rag pickers storefront. Something BIG coming soon. By Blacklist. It reads.

They're opening a new lounge, I've heard some of the plans, I think it's gonna be great for the area.

esquire · #**764** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 6:45 PM**

The City approved the Sport Manitoba fieldhouse despite the concerns of planners who warned that the ground level parkade would create a pedestrian dead zone.

Source: Winnipeg Free Press

I understand what the planners were saying, but even with this project's shortcomings I think this is something I can grudgingly accept... let's face it, Sport Manitoba probably could have put this thing in a suburban field somewhere with an acre of parking around it. The fact that it's going in the Exchange to begin with is a win.

And that area between Lily and Main is not really an active pedestrian precinct to begin with... the corner of the Exchange butting up against the Disraeli is really a fringe area in the context of the larger district... even this building will constitute an improvement in the streetscape given that there were just surface parking lots there before.

BubberMiley · #**765** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 6:58 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

... even this building will constitute an improvement in the streetscape given that there were just surface parking lots there before.

Really?

esquire · #**766** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 7:05 PM**

^ Yes, really. There have been swaths of surface parking between Sport Manitoba and Oseredok for as long as I can remember.

Demolition of the pictured building was a mistake but that's a totally separate issue.

BubberMiley · #**767** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 7:09 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Yes, really. There have been swaths of surface parking between Sport Manitoba and Oseredok for as long as I can remember.

Demolition of the pictured building was a mistake but that's a totally separate issue.

Isn't that where the new building is going?

esquire · #**768** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 7:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BubberMiley

Isn't that where the new building is going?

I'm sure the vacant lots next to it housed some lovely buildings at one time or another too. But those are also irrelevant to the issue at hand.

BubberMiley · #**769** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 7:23 PM**

Perhaps, but your point that we should cut them some slack on surface parking because the site was already all surface parking doesn't hold as much water when you consider the site wasn't all surface parking when the project was conceived.

esquire · #**770** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 7:45 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BubberMiley

Perhaps, but your point that we should cut them some slack on surface parking because the site was already all surface parking doesn't hold as much water when you consider the site wasn't all surface parking when the project was conceived.

Most of the site is surface parking, though, and has been for decades... City Council would have had to make a decision on this issue regardless of what had happened with the Smart Bag Company Building.

trueviking · #**771** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 8:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

The City approved the Sport Manitoba fieldhouse despite the concerns of planners who warned that the ground level parkade would create a pedestrian dead zone.

Source: Winnipeg Free Press

I understand what the planners were saying, but even with this project's shortcomings I think this is something I can grudgingly accept... let's face it, Sport Manitoba probably could have put this thing in a suburban field somewhere with an acre of parking around it. The fact that it's going in the Exchange to begin with is a win.

And that area between Lily and Main is not really an active pedestrian precinct to begin with... the corner of the Exchange butting up against the Disraeli is really a fringe area in the context of the larger district... even this building will constitute an improvement in the streetscape given that there were just surface parking lots there before.

It s a fully publicly funded project. Muscles could have been flexed. There was no need for the parkade. Its based on some belief that nobody will come use the gym if they don't have parking. But who will come to a gym and pay for parking every day? The fieldhouse should be on grade.

It would have saved a lot of money to have no parkade. Put that money in with the money for the james parkade that is never happening and maybe something could happen.

Simplicity · #**772** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 8:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by trueviking

It s a fully publicly funded project. Muscles could have been flexed. There was no need for the parkade. Its based on some belief that nobody will come use the gym if they don't have parking. But who will come to a gym and pay for parking every day? The fieldhouse should be on grade.

It would have saved a lot of money to have no parkade. Put that money in with the money for the james parkade that is never happening and maybe something could happen.

If your gym membership is $50/mth and your parking bill is nearly three times that, is anybody going to consider going to that gym under any circumstances? That's a serious question. My guess is that elite athletes, coaches, and other staff will be given free parking, but is Joe Q. Public going to pay to park at a gym downtown when they could otherwise opt for gyms that have free parking?

esquire · #**773** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 9:09 PM**

^ I would imagine that staff parking would make up the bulk of demand for the parking level.

I've never been a huge fan of ground level parking... it wouldn't bother me if the city banned it as a practice. But it is a bit much to demand that a new building be designed and built to standards of near-perfection when we are willing to tolerate an area full of underused buildings, vacant lots and dead streets, even by the standards of the general area, for years and years.

I wouldn't want something with ground level parking to go in an area that already has a bustling pedestrian strip (let's say Graham Avenue), but on this stretch of Pacific I don't think it will really hurt anything.

buzzg · #**774** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 9:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simplicity

If your gym membership is $50/mth and your parking bill is nearly three times that, is anybody going to consider going to that gym under any circumstances? That's a serious question. My guess is that elite athletes, coaches, and other staff will be given free parking, but is Joe Q. Public going to pay to park at a gym downtown when they could otherwise opt for gyms that have free parking?

If they're going to a gym downtown that issue is likely already sorted or woudn't change: most already work or live downtown, so their parking issue is resolved. And for others, I agree with Simplicity, the non-public users likely won't have to pay.

And TV — agreed, that OR they could have made the field house ground level and just built a multi-story parkade in the the empty lot shown in the rendering. Do you think it would be cheaper to do that than have to build the entire building on stilts? (serious question)

esquire · #**775** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 9:32 PM**

^ If they didn't get the parkade, you know they'd be angling for a surface parking lot, which would be even worse.

buzzg · #**776** Posted **Jun 22, 2015, 9:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

^ If they didn't get the parkade, you know they'd be angling for a surface parking lot, which would be even worse.

And the city COULD have said no.

1ajs · #**777** Posted **Jun 23, 2015, 12:25 AM**

Sweet that will be right by where I work

trueviking · #**778** Posted **Jun 23, 2015, 4:25 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by buzzg

If they're going to a gym downtown that issue is likely already sorted or woudn't change: most already work or live downtown, so their parking issue is resolved. And for others, I agree with Simplicity, the non-public users likely won't have to pay.

And TV — agreed, that OR they could have made the field house ground level and just built a multi-story parkade in the the empty lot shown in the rendering. Do you think it would be cheaper to do that than have to build the entire building on stilts? (serious question)

millions cheaper.

Its too bad the city didn't get together with them and the manitoba museum to build a parkade somewhere else. Then this building could have been on grade and we wouldn't be killing two blocks with parking...if the other one ever gets built.

buzzg · #**779** Posted **Jun 23, 2015, 4:35 PM**

Hermano's is currently building a patio w/ sidewalk bump-out like at Corrientes, but it's MASSIVE. Like seriously, probably double the size, stretches the whole building.

windypeg · #**780** Posted **Jun 23, 2015, 4:50 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by trueviking

millions cheaper.

Its too bad the city didn't get together with them and the manitoba museum to build a parkade somewhere else. Then this building could have been on grade and we wouldn't be killing two blocks with parking...if the other one ever gets built.

The museum has a big surface lot across from Martha street studio, between Martha and Main. Would have been perfect for a parkade.