Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
No one really digs parking garages deep anymore... look at Hydro, massive tower but hardly any spaces in the underground garage.
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You can take this tale with a grain of salt..
But, it's an interesting factoid if true.
One hundred years ago, I worked at Smith Carter as they were building the downtown Hydro office (2005 - 2010).
When I asked why there wasn't more underground parking at the downtown Hydro building when older towers a block away (Lakeview Square) have ten levels of underground parking, I was told it had to do with the changing hydrology of Winnipeg's underground.
Apparently, back in the heyday of slaughterhouses (Swifts/Canada Packers and Burns circa 1970s), those plants sucked all the water out of our underground aquifers for meat processing.
As those plants closed, the water table downtown crept back up again.
Thus, new downtown towers are unlikely to have underground parking.
You have to remember that a 150 years ago Winnipeg's inner city was riddled with creeks.. Colony Creek, Ross Creek, Omands Creek (still exists).
Many of those creeks were filled in as the city developed, but the water is still there underground.
**On a side note**.. How cool would it be if there were still a network of creeks running through our downtown sandwiched by bars and restaurants?
I think of the river district in Austin, TX.