Winnipeg Walkway

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The Winnipeg Walkway System, popularly known as the Winnipeg Skywalk, is a network of pedestrian skyways and tunnels connecting a significant portion of the city centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

In 2002, a profile of Downtown Winnipeg published by the City of Winnipeg described the Walkway as a system of 14 skyways and 7 tunnels connecting 38 buildings and allowing for a maximum protected walk of 2 km. It went on to state that the system provides year-round climate-controlled access to over 170,000 m2 of space, including over 200 shops and businesses, 10 office complexes, 60 restaurants and snack bars, 700 apartment units, 2 hotels, 11 financial centres, and the Winnipeg Millenium Library, bringing together 21,000 employees.[1] In reality, however, most, if not all, of these figures are lower than what is actually the case.

Skyway connecting Portage Place to The Bay.
Skyway connecting Portage Place to The Bay.

Contents

[edit] Network Segments

Starting in 2004, in anticipation of the openings of the MTS Centre and Millennium Library, a new unified system of signage was developed for the entire network to assist wayfinding therein. This process brought with it the branding of the system as the Winnipeg Walkway and the subdivision of the network into four interconnected segments.

[edit] Main Underground

This portion of the network is centered underneath the historic intersection of Portage and Main, said to be the windiest in Canada. At street level this intersection is closed to pedestrians it is not possible to cross it without going underground.

On a much smaller scale, this segment is somewhat reminiscent of Montreal's Underground City. Via a network of tunnels, the Main Underground connects the following:

At the southwestern corner of Winnipeg Square, near the intersection of Graham Avenue and Fort Street, there are esclator, lift and stairway connections to the second floor of 200 Graham Avenue, thereby connecting the Main Underground to the Graham Skywalk.

[edit] Planned Expansion

In 2005, Canwest Global announced its intention to build a second, smaller tower on the northeast corner of Portage and Main, connected to its flagship skyscraper by a second floor skyway [2]. The new tower is to be a broadcast centre and the exterior of the skyway that will link the two towers will feature video screens à la Times Square.

[edit] Possible Expansion

The Commodity Exchange Tower sits upon one of several structural pads atop Winnipeg Square. The Trizec Complex is said to be able to accommodate the construction of additional towers following this same model [3].

[edit] Graham Skywalk

The Graham Skywalk consists of a series of skyways connecting the buildings on the south side of Graham Avenue, between Main Street and Hargrave Street, as well as the MTS Centre (the former site of the historic Eaton's store) and the former Eaton's power station on the north side. This portion of the network provides access to the following:

The MTS Centre can be said to be a major hub in the Winnipeg Walkway network as it connects the Graham Skywalk to the Portage Skywalk.

[edit] Possible Expansion

The southwestern corner of City Place, at the intersection of Saint Mary Avenue and Hargrave Street, is kitty-corner from the Delta Winnipeg Hotel (formerly the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza), part of the Convention Centre's pedestrian network. A link between CityPlace and the Delta Winnipeg would therefore connect the Convention Centre's network to the principal Winnipeg Walkway system.

[edit] Portage Skywalk

This segment of the Winnipeg Walkway boasts many of the shopping and entertainment attractions most often associated with Downtown Winnipeg. An extensive network of skyways and second-floor pedestrian rights-of-way connects the Radisson Hotel, the MTS Centre, the Newport Center (sic) and other adjacent buildings on the south side of Portage Avenue, with the three-block Portage Place shopping and entertainment complex between Carlton Street and and Vaughan Street on the north side. Several neighbouring residential, recreational and commercial buildings, including the One Canada Centre tower between Vaughan Street and Colony Street, are directly connected to Portage Place. At the western edge of Portage Place there is a skyway link to the historic Bay department store and the Power Building on the south side of Portage Avenue. Via an open-air connection through the covered parkade of The Bay, the network reaches further south, providing access to the Saint Mary Skywalk. More specifically, the Portage Skywalk links the following:

[edit] Current Expansion

After its acquisitions of Winnipeg Hydro and Centra Gas, Manitoba hydro has decided to build a new, consolidated corporate office on the south side of Portage Avenue, between Carlton Street and Edmonton Street, extending southward to Graham Avenue. It will be directly connected to Portage Place and the Carlton Building by skyway, and is due to be completed in 2007 [4]. The 65,000 m2, 22-storey (113 metres) high building features a green design that aims to make it the most energy-efficient building of its size in the world [5]. This will not result in any new walkway being constructed.

[edit] Planned Expansion

As was the case with the construction of Winnipeg Sqaure, structural pads were built atop Portage Place to allow for future upward expansion [3]. There is one atop each end, and there is currently a plan for an office and hotel tower to be built on the western pad [6] [7].

[edit] Saint Mary Skywalk

This is both the smallest, and the most tenuously linked segment of the Winnipeg Walkway System. Its only connection to the network is via the covered, although not exactly indoor, parkade of The Bay department store. The Saint Mary Skywalk connects three buildings on the south side of Saint Mary Avenue, between Vaughan Street and Edmonton Street, namely:

  • Centra Gas
  • 420 Saint Mary Avenue
  • 400 Saint Mary Avenue

[edit] Planned Expansion

400 Saint Mary Avenue and the Winnipeg Convention Centre are separated by a mere half a block, and there is currently a plan in the works to replace the parking lot currently occupying this space with a hotel. This hotel would then be connected to both 400 Saint Mary Avenue and the Convention Centre by means of skyway. As with the potential connection between CityPlace and the Delta Winnipeg described above, this would provide a link between the Winnipeg Walkway System and the Convention Centre walkway system, thereby incorporating the latter into the former.

[edit] Other Downtown Pedestrian Networks

In addition to the Winnipeg Walkway, there are two smaller enclosed pedestrian networks in Downtown Winnipeg that are not currently connected to the principal Walkway network.

[edit] Convention Centre

On the two blocks bordered by Edmonton Street, Saint Mary Avenue, York Avenue and Hargrave Street is a residential and commercial complex consisting of the Winnipeg Convention Centre and the various buildings of Lakeview Square. A network of pedestrian tunnels and skyways connects the following buildings:

  • Winnipeg Convention Centre
  • Lakeview Square
    • 155 Carlton Street
    • 185 Carlton Street
      • Ichiban Japanese Restaurant
      • Shannon's Irish Pub
    • 349 York Avenue
      • East India Company
    • Holiday Tower South
    • Holiday Tower North
    • Delta Winnipeg Hotel (formerly Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza)

The two Holiday Towers are linked to each other by a basement tunnel, and by two different skyways, one closer to ground level and one near the top floor. The North Tower is also connected by tunnel to the Delta Winnipeg, which is itself connected to the adjacent 185 Carlton Street. The Convention Centre is connected by skyways to both 185 Carlton Street and 155 Carlton Street. The latter is connected to the adjacent 349 York Avenue. The Lakeview Sqaure development forms a 'U' around an open central courtyard which faces the Convention Centre across Carlton Street.

[edit] Possible Walkway Integration

As explained above, there exists a plan to connect the Saint Mary Skywalk to the Convention Centre and the possibility to do the same with CityPlace and the Delta Winnipeg. If either one of the connections were made, it would incorporate the Convention Centre's network into the Winnipeg Walkway System, and if both were made, it would create a loop in the western portion of the Winnipeg Walkway, thereby facilitating travel in that section of the network.

From the perspective of graph theory, the addition of one of the proposed links, or edges, would create a single connected network, or graph, of the two separate networks that currently exist. In other words, a path (without having to go outside) would exist between any pair of buildings, or vertices, in either one of the two existing networks, thereby creating a single, larger network. Furthermore, the addition of both proposed links would create a cycle in that network.

[edit] Civic Centre

Straddling Main Street, approximately 1 km north of Portage and Main, is another series of interconnected buildings. On the west side of Main Street is the Winnipeg Civic Centre and on the east side is the Manitoba Centennial Centre. This pedestrian network's underground tunnels link the following public buildings:

Unlike the Convention Centre pedestrian network, it is not at all feasible to imagine a pedestrian link between the Civic Centre and the principal Winnipeg Walkway System in the foreseeable future. Not only is the distance great between the Main Underground and the Civic Centre, but any connection between the two would require sensitive tunneling underneath turn of the century heritage buildings over several blocks.

[edit] Urbanism

Although a climate-controlled walkway system can be seen as an essential feature of urban life in a winter city, the Winnipeg Walkway System has been blamed by some for the lack of a vibrant street life in the city centre. They argue that the system encourages people to remain within the system of connected indoor malls, leaving downtown businesses not linked to the network to wither and die. At the same time, others have pointed out that the general trend in North American cities has been to move away from vibrant city centres in favour of decentralized suburban living, regardless of whether or not they have an enclosed pedestrian networks in their city centres. Furthermore, when one considers that a city like Montreal, which enjoys a dual North American and European identity and whose Underground City is much more extensive than the Winnipeg Walkway, still manages to maintain a vibrant downtown street life, it would seem that the mentality of a city's inhabitants accounts more for the quality of its urban life than the presence or absence of an enclosed pedestrian network.

[edit] Popular Culture

In the Weakerthans' song One Great City!, featuring the refrain 'I Hate Winnipeg', John K. Samson sings of 'a thousand sharpened elbows in the underground'.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ City of Winnipeg et al.: Downtown Winnipeg Profile (page 7)
  2. ^ Cash, Martin: 'Times Square--Winnipeg style', Winnipeg Free Press, 22 October 2005
  3. ^ a b City of Winnipeg et al.: Downtown Winnipeg Profile (page 3)
  4. ^ Manitoba Hydro: Quick Facts - Background and Timeline
  5. ^ Manitoba Hydro: Vision and Guiding Principles
  6. ^ Santin, Aldo: '$20-M tower to crown Portage Place', Winnipeg Free Press, 22 March 2004
  7. ^ O'Brien, David: '$20-M tower planned for Portage Place mall', Winnipeg Free Press, 7 February 2005

[edit] External links

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