Winnipeg's Exchange District | East/West | Development

[TimeFadesAway]

Originally Posted by Gm0ney

That's a weird perspective - looks like Canada Post (is that what that is?) is right behind the train station.

There was way less depth of field on a lot of older cameras that makes everything in the frame appear more 'flat'.

[Biff]

Amazing picture of the Forks. I have never seen that one before.

[dennis]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

I wish I could spend a day walking around old Winnipeg. I love urban industrial oldness.

I still remember the railway tracks running throughout the exchange district, leading up to the loading docks of various warehouses. That was neat to see, still fresh in my memory.

[dennis]

Originally Posted by wags_in_the_peg

Oh I miss train tracks anf polluting industry along the river,can we bring that back? "Sarcasm font"

To be fair, everything seemed a bit more lively back then. The exchange was a bustling industrial area. My mom used to work in the textiles industry there and I remember going with my dad to pick her up from work in the evenings. Portage avenue was also a bustling retail street at the time. South Portage was still kind of crappy at the time. Downtown now is like a forest fire that has wiped a lush forest and now we see som small patches of green starting to sprout through. Some spot are greener than others. COVID and meth were just a couple of other fires that wiped out a lot of the green that was starting to poke through before.

[Sheepish]

As I recall the warehouses/depots would run along Water Street. Most significant urban transformation in our lifetime. There is a story on CNN site about an abandoned airport in Greece being converted to a sustainable parkland. CP yards? Another significant transformation for the future.

[bomberjet]

To be clear I don't want to go back to train tracks on the river. I just like old timey industrial stuff. I'd much rather live in a converted old timey area than in Waverley west.

[BAKGUY]

Originally Posted by dennis

To be fair, everything seemed a bit more lively back then. The exchange was a bustling industrial area. My mom used to work in the textiles industry there and I remember going with my dad to pick her up from work in the evenings. Portage avenue was also a bustling retail street at the time. South Portage was still kind of crappy at the time. Downtown now is like a forest fire that has wiped a lush forest and now we see som small patches of green starting to sprout through. Some spot are greener than others. COVID and meth were just a couple of other fires that wiped out a lot of the green that was starting to poke through before.

I believe you meant North Portage..South always did well.

[Luisito]

Originally Posted by rkspec

Stumbled across a before and after of WaterFront Drive and thought I'd share.

I really like the new waterfront, but I can't help think it's too bad they got rid of the rail corridor. It could have been used for RT now.

Awesome pics.

[1ajs]

Manitoba
Lights on the Exchange Festival will 'bring something new to Winnipeg in the winter'
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...2023-1.6678810

The festival, created by the Exchange District BIZ, will run from Jan. 21 to March 21

Joanne Roberts · CBC News · Posted: Dec 08, 2022 12:43 PM CT | Last Updated: December 8

The Exchange District BIZ has announced its first annual Lights on the Exchange – Allumez le Quartier Festival, to be held from January to March 2023.

The festival features light-based art and design that "explores the notion of history and expands our understandings of histories," said David Pensato, who is the executive director of the Exchange District Business Improvement Zone in Winnipeg.

Pensato said the BIZ provides historic walking tours in the summer months that focus on the history of the Exchange District's architecture.

[esquire]

The Free Press is reporting that the McLaren is getting an overhaul this year.

Equal Housing Initiative will begin a $12-million retrofit of the McLaren Hotel this summer. The property at the corner of Main Street and Rupert Avenue stands as one of the few remaining single-room occupancy hotels in the city, it being the biggest and quite possibly the most visible of the bunch. The building was designated historic in 2020, meaning it can’t be demolished and its exterior structure can’t be changed.

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/bu...p-for-overhaul

Would have been interesting to see a few pictures of the inside of the hotel to get a sense of what it looks like inside right now. I don't think that I have ever seen a picture from the inside of any SRO hotel anywhere in the city.

[drew]

I got to walk thru the Bell hotel a few years back before it was reno'd. It was crazy, most floors still had the original early 1900's sinks and faucets in the rooms. One or two single toilets each floor. Absolute bare minimum updates over 100 years.

Sounds like the McClaren is in a similar condition.

[wags_in_the_peg]

View from high up P&M

[Luisito]

Awesome shot. 👌

[wags_in_the_peg]

nice pic on Twitter of the Exchange in winter with coloured buildings, source @Ex_District_Wpg

[BlackDog204]

The original "Freeway plan" for Winnipeg from the 1960's. It would have wiped out the entire East Exchange district.

[bomberjet]

A thing of beauty.

*ducks*

[optimusREIM]

So I don't think that wiped out would be totally accurate (maybe the stuff closer to Point Douglas). That said, it would have radically changed the way that downtown looks now.

The part most damaging to all the heritage buildings would be trying to adjust the grid in the east exchange. I do find it intriguing how they were planning on connecting the downtown grid to the surface streets where the forks is today.

The other crazy part is how Whittier park basically would not exist, and a lot of North St B would simply just not have developed. Winnipeg would definitely feel like an average american freeway city though, had they gone ahead with this plan. I'm guessing the west exchange and west end would have gotten a lot of the attention for heritage conservation that we now give to the east exchange.

[Winnipegger]

In my view, that plan would have done two major things that would reshape downtown as it is today. It would have 1) gotten a lot of vehicle traffic off of Portage & Main which would have significantly changed the dynamic of those streets and properties that lined them, and 2) would have created a physical barrier between low-income neighborhoods north of downtown and the downtown proper, which may have concentrated many of the social issues we see today more in the north-end, with less dispersion to the downtown area which perhaps would have aided in downtown's image and residential population to the detriment of north-end neighborhoods.

Interesting to think about how different downtown Winnipeg would have been in this scenario, with pros and cons either way.

[Sheepish]

^ I was thinking exactly the same thing. I'm saying that plan was good, but one has to wonder what the city would be like if that kind of development would have taken place.

[borkborkbork]

Originally Posted by Sheepish

^ I was thinking exactly the same thing. I'm saying that plan was good, but one has to wonder what the city would be like if that kind of development would have taken place.

Buffalo's Scajaquada Expressway is instructive about what it would have likely done...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/21/s...ways.html?_r=0