Winnipeg | Osborne Village & Corydon area

[T'Cona]

So underwhelming for the location.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by T'Cona

So underwhelming for the location.

I do like the project, but it's hard to dispute your point. In most other Canadian cities, a chic inner city area like Osborne Village probably would have seen multiple highrises go up along the main drag over the last 10-20 years.

[thebasketballgeek]

Au contraire I feel like 4-6 storey midrises is most suitable for the strip and this project delivers on exactly that. Maybe I’m wrong but anything over 10+ stories is excessive and won’t provide an adequate pedestrian experience (unless they went the podium route). Save the highrises for Confusion Corner. After visiting Toronto recently Osborne is a lot more like The Danforth then a Regent Park and should remain that way.

[WinCitySparky]

Originally Posted by thebasketballgeek

au contraire i feel like 4-6 storey midrises is most suitable for the strip and this project delivers on exactly that. Maybe i’m wrong but anything over 10+ stories is excessive and won’t provide an adequate pedestrian experience (unless they went the podium route). Save the highrises for confusion corner. After visiting toronto recently osborne is a lot more like the danforth then a regent park and should remain that way.

a+

[borkborkbork]

Where a giant tower would make tons of sense is the Dollarama/Burger King plaza. Directly across the street from Osborne Station. Currently a giant underused parking lot. The parking is never more than about a third full at absolute most, presumably because they built the amount of parking required for the sqft of the commercial units (i.e., a football field worth of parking around a suburban-style box store, in what's supposed to be a pedestrian oriented neighbourhood).

[esquire]

Originally Posted by borkborkbork

Where a giant tower would make tons of sense is the Dollarama/Burger King plaza. Directly across the street from Osborne Station. Currently a giant underused parking lot. The parking is never more than about a third full at absolute most, presumably because they built the amount of parking required for the sqft of the commercial units (i.e., a football field worth of parking around a suburban-style box store, in what's supposed to be a pedestrian oriented neighbourhood).

That building was originally a supermarket, so it has a parking lot to match. The current occupants don't require nearly as much parking.

I get the idea that lowrise builds are appealing, but on a main drag like Osborne I think a few highrises would fit in nicely. I assume that people would want to live there but it is city rules (i.e. height limits) that prevent these types of developments from happening, and that's unfortunate.

And it doesn't necessarily have to be some kind of massive 300 Main type of monolith. A modest 10-15 storey building built over commercial space would improve the surroundings. Look at it this way... nearly everyone agrees that 197 Osborne will do a lot to improve the area. If you doubled its height to 10 storeys, it would bring in that many more people to the street without creating adverse impacts. It's the same with the ZU project... what's proposed is fine, but something bigger probably would have been better.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by esquire

That building was originally a supermarket, so it has a parking lot to match. The current occupants don't require nearly as much parking.

I get the idea that lowrise builds are appealing, but on a main drag like Osborne I think a few highrises would fit in nicely. I assume that people would want to live there but it is city rules (i.e. height limits) that prevent these types of developments from happening, and that's unfortunate.

And it doesn't necessarily have to be some kind of massive 300 Main type of monolith. A modest 10-15 storey building built over commercial space would improve the surroundings. Look at it this way... nearly everyone agrees that 197 Osborne will do a lot to improve the area. If you doubled its height to 10 storeys, it would bring in that many more people to the street without creating adverse impacts. It's the same with the ZU project... what's proposed is fine, but something bigger probably would have been better.

Agreed. At a certain point the negative impact created by a buildings size kinda ceases to be relevant as far as human street interaction goes. The only calculus that has to be made then is whether the street can support the number of units proposed .

[lbnevs]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...lage-1.6546653

Really interesting approach from the BIZ here. It sounds great and I hope it's successful.

[trueviking]

I thought that Osborne site originally a car dealership? What grocery was it?

[DavefromSt.Vital]

Originally Posted by trueviking

I thought that Osborne site originally a car dealership? What grocery was it?

It was a Dominion:

https://d.facebook.com/uwarchives/ph...=3&__tn__=EH-R

I can't recall the year that it closed.

[esquire]

From my vague recollection, it was a Dominion up until the early 80s and then became Orion Chevrolet. It didn't last long as a car dealership, though.

[trueviking]

interesting. I had no idea...that's a shame its gone.

[T'Cona]

Originally Posted by esquire

I do like the project, but it's hard to dispute your point. In most other Canadian cities, a chic inner city area like Osborne Village probably would have seen multiple highrises go up along the main drag over the last 10-20 years.

Agreed. I would be happy with a few midrises along Osborne.

I see so many interesting midrise buildings u/c and proposed for Montreal, I think something nicer could have been built in such a prime location.

[Kinguni]

The City had long term plans for an interchange of some sort at Confusion Corner for which they needed the Dominion Store's lot. Those plans have long gone by the wayside. I remember the Dominion store and Orion Chev Olds that followed. Years later the building was redeveloped, and the small office building and Burger King built at the front of the lot. Late 90's?

[cllew]

Originally Posted by esquire

From my vague recollection, it was a Dominion up until the early 80s and then became Orion Chevrolet. It didn't last long as a car dealership, though.

Your correct in your recollections on the businesses there.

Orion Chev merged with the Birchwood group in Aug 2009 to form Birchwood Chevrolet Buick GMC.

The merger was a result of the GM plan to reduce the number of dealers and the Birchwood group loosing their Buick dealership.

[esquire]

^ Orion was long gone from Confusion Corner before then, though... they must have vacated that site sometime in the late 80s or early 90s? I think it became Dark Zone sometime in the mid 90s.

I was always somewhat amazed that a site like that wasn't fully redeveloped. All that ever happened was a couple of small pad sites got developed, and they carved up the old Dominion for multiple tenants.

[WinCitySparky]

Protected bike lanes coming to Stradbrook and River, about damn time. More talk about the stalled bike/ped bridge connecting Oz to Broadway. I already know Vike will be stoked.

https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/city-of-...lage-1.6024129

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Orion was long gone from Confusion Corner before then, though... they must have vacated that site sometime in the late 80s or early 90s? I think it became Dark Zone sometime in the mid 90s.

I was always somewhat amazed that a site like that wasn't fully redeveloped. All that ever happened was a couple of small pad sites got developed, and they carved up the old Dominion for multiple tenants.

It was a very large kids play zone along with a canteen and other amenities too. Can't remember the name of it but I brought my kid and her friends there a number of times. Would be 20 years ago or so.

Edit: My kid thinks the name was Adventure City.

[esquire]

^ Oh right, I forgot about that. Thanks!

[peg]

Originally Posted by OTA in Winnipeg

It was a very large kids play zone along with a canteen and other amenities too. Can't remember the name of it but I brought my kid and her friends there a number of times. Would be 20 years ago or so.

Edit: My kid thinks the name was Adventure City.

Can confirm as someone who went there often as a kid... it was called adventure city.

Loved that place as a kid... replaced by the dollarama we see today I believe


Also found this ad for it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsF7OqaRo_Q