Winnipeg Construction IX

[esquire]

Ugh... if you're carving it up, might as well just demolish it already. It's one thing to dig out the interior with an atrium, but knocking down a chunk of it to push a road through just sounds awful.

[Urban recluse]

I used to share that belief, but I would rather have the building saved, and altered that way, rather than lose it entirely. Plenty of old department stores in other cities have been redeveloped with no major structural changes, but no one in Winnipeg wants to tackle the Bay Building.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by esquire

Ugh... if you're carving it up, might as well just demolish it already. It's one thing to dig out the interior with an atrium, but knocking down a chunk of it to push a road through just sounds awful.

No road. That would be stupid. I'm even thinking courtyard atrium in the middle to have more window exposure. That way you could have more residential units

[Urban recluse]

The atrium idea would be ideal.

I would love to see a similar plan for the Bay Building that was realized for the former Gimbels store in Milwaukee: hotel, retail, etc.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

sounds like argyle
witch is next to the flying saucer

Pretty sure Argyle is basically a school of last resort for students in WSD that have essentially been told to never return to their catchment school with a school file of sufficient "quality" that no other school will accept them.

When thinking of a creative arts focused school I was thinking something sort of along the lines of Julliard where the students really want to be there and it is a huge privilege to even get in. It might not start as something quite that elitist and that isn't the goal either. My thinking basically comes from reading what is happening at Sturgeon Heights and knowing there are more than enough students and existing tax dollars being spent on those program to make it viable. Instead of having teachers scattered around all over in you take every band, art, drama, etc teacher and student and put them in the same place it makes it a lot easier to expand the breadth of programming being offered.

[bomberjet]

He's a cute artists rendering of the proposed ped bridge over Pembina at Bishop. Of course its just a picture prior to any sort of real design work.

https://twitter.com/cityofwinnipeg/status/858001764376883201


http://winnipeg.ca/PublicWorks/pedestria...ects/bishopwalkbikebridge.stm#tab-engage

[drew]

Originally Posted by esquire

Ugh... if you're carving it up, might as well just demolish it already. It's one thing to dig out the interior with an atrium, but knocking down a chunk of it to push a road through just sounds awful.

I think the only feasible way to re-purpose the building (assuming -correctly - that there aren't any takers for the whole building in the foreseeable future) is to put an atrium in the middle to allow for smaller floor plates and residential conversion.

Other than IKEA shuttering their store on Kenaston and moving the whole operation to the Bay Downtown, I really don't know what else can be done with the building as it currently exists.

[esquire]

^ I agree. Saskatoon figured that out 15 years ago with respect to their old downtown Bay store... it seems to have worked out well over there.



I realize that few companies in this province could tackle a project that big and risky, but man... wouldn't it be something it if happened.

[Urban recluse]

Much smaller building's are easier to tackle.

Another good example is the Embassy Suites Hotel downtown Louisville:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@38.2508082,-...Wm6K3DLBBoMlg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

[robertocarlos]

The Victoria HBC store turned out nice as well.

[biguc]

Here's a quick drawing I made for how an atrium in the Bay would work out.





The red box is atrium. The teal lines mark the corridors, and the teal numbers mark the units. As you can see, 54 units, most of which would be 25'x30', fit on each floor. Over 4 floors, that's 214 units--in the same territory as our recent residential highrises.

If I have time, I'll make a drawing to show how great the units could be. I also took the liberty of copy and pasting some of the skylights from Portage place onto the bottom of the atrium, because The Bay might like having skylights into their second floor.

Anyway, the indigo box labelled "Phase 2" would carry the current street wall down Memorial, forever eliminating the loathsome parkade from view. The fuchsia box, "Phase 3", would be a highrise, standing on a parking and retail podium that would fill the rest of the block.

[drew]

^ you're hired.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by drew

I think the only feasible way to re-purpose the building (assuming -correctly - that there aren't any takers for the whole building in the foreseeable future) is to put an atrium in the middle to allow for smaller floor plates and residential conversion.

Other than IKEA shuttering their store on Kenaston and moving the whole operation to the Bay Downtown, I really don't know what else can be done with the building as it currently exists.

I agree. This building would be a shame to lose and if saving it means reducing the floor plate, then that's what needs to happen. I wouldn't start carving it up unless it was absolutely necessary.

[Urban recluse]

I expect the freight elevator(s) to be incorporated into the living spaces.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by biguc

Here's a quick drawing I made for how an atrium in the Bay would work out.





The red box is atrium. The teal lines mark the corridors, and the teal numbers mark the units. As you can see, 54 units, most of which would be 25'x30', fit on each floor. Over 4 floors, that's 214 units--in the same territory as our recent residential highrises.

If I have time, I'll make a drawing to show how great the units could be. I also took the liberty of copy and pasting some of the skylights from Portage place onto the bottom of the atrium, because The Bay might like having skylights into their second floor.

Anyway, the indigo box labelled "Phase 2" would carry the current street wall down Memorial, forever eliminating the loathsome parkade from view. The fuchsia box, "Phase 3", would be a highrise, standing on a parking and retail podium that would fill the rest of the block.

So under your plan the ground floor would be all commercial space?

[h0twired]

Originally Posted by Urban recluse

I expect the freight elevator(s) to be incorporated into the living spaces.

Someone has been watching too many movies with ridiculous lofts.

No one wants a freight elevator in their unit. Noise would be really annoying.

Its bad enough getting a hotel room next to the elevator or ice maker in a modern building.

[Urban recluse]

The elevator would be removed, and the shaft would be incorporated is what I meant.

[biguc]

Originally Posted by optimusREIM

So under your plan the ground floor would be all commercial space?

Not exactly. That's a massive area to fill, but ideally I would have it ringed with storefronts. If uptake on Phase 2 retail spaces wasn't great, Phase 3 would reflect that.

[Wolf13]

Here's the problem...

I wouldn't put my kids in those four schools.

Why? I'm not sure they are in the best neighbourhoods and as such I presume, perhaps inaccurately (perhaps not), that the quality of education would suffer compared to "safer" more suburban or newer urban schools.

I'm sure this could be partially debunked easily, but if I'm putting my children in a public school it's gonna be blue chip. No parent would think "it's probably fine I'm being unreasonable", and nor would I. I'd hold out for something more assuring.

[bomberjet]

There should be no difference in the quality of teachers at any school in Winnipeg. Should being the key word. I'm sure some would avoid teaching in les than desirable areas of the City. This is where it would get murky, attracting teachers.

My uncle who is rather high up and well known in the teaching world is located in one of said less desirable areas at a high school. Sounds like for the most part all the gloom and doom is 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵. Ya of course it rough at times. But in general those kids receive the same opportunities as another other kid in the City.

Anecdotal but that's the way he tells it.