Winnipeg Walkway

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 Millennium Library, bringing together 21,000 employees. [ [http://www.winnipeg.ca/ppd/planning/pdf_folder/dwntwnprofile.pdf City of Winnipeg et al.: "Downtown Winnipeg Profile" (page 7)] ] In reality, however, most, if not all, of these figures are lower than what is actually the case.

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.

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:
*Portage and Main Pedestrian Loop
*Trizec Complex
**Shops of Winnipeg Square
**Commodity Exchange Tower
**Scotiabank Building
*Royal Bank Building
*CanWest Global Place (formerly TD Centre)
**TD Bank
*Lombard Place
**Richardson Building
***CIBC
**Fairmont Winnipeg Hotel
**Lombard Concourse
**Bank of Canada
**Historic Grain Exchange Building
*Historic Bank of Montreal Building
*MTS Place (formerly Bank of Montreal Tower)

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.

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 an additional high-rise office tower on Graham Avenue as well as a low-rise building for use as a hotel on Main Street, following this same model [http://www.winnipeg.ca/ppd/planning/pdf_folder/dwntwnprofile.pdf City of Winnipeg et al.: "Downtown Winnipeg Profile" (page 3)] ] .

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:
*200 Graham Avenue
**Hewlett-Packard
**Allstream
*Cargill Building
**HSBC
*Canada Post Centre
*Millennium Library
*CityPlace (formerly Eaton Place)
**CityPlace Shopping Centre
**CityPlace Office Tower
*MTS Centre
*Powerhouse Building
**CTV Winnipeg

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.

Possible Expansion

The southwestern corner of City Place, at the intersection of Saint Mary Avenue and Hargrave Street, is 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. Indeed, just such a plan surfaced in January 2008, proposing the construction of two new skyway bridges, one across Saint Mary Avenue between CityPlace and [http://apollo.lib.umanitoba.ca/viewBuilding.action?id=963 330 Saint Mary Avenue] , and another from 330 Saint Mary Avenue to the Delta Winnipeg hotel. [ [http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/subscriber/detour/story/4115015p-4710394c.html Tizzard, Ian: 'Above it all', "Winnipeg Free Press", 26 January 2008] ]

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 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:
*MTS Centre
*Somerset Place
*Newport Center
**Rogers
**Portage Place Southside Shops
*Carlton Building
**Portage Place Southside Shops
*Manitoba Hydro (under construction)
*Portage Place
**Globe Cinema
**IMAX Cinema
**Prairie Theatre Exchange
*One Canada Place
**Investors Group
*YMCA Downtown Winnipeg
*Place Promenade
*IBM Building
*Kiwanis Chateau
*Fred Douglas Place
*The Bay
*Power Building

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 [ [http://www.hydro.mb.ca/issues/downtown_quick_facts.shtml Manitoba Hydro: "Quick Facts - Background and Timeline"] ] . 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 [http://www.hydro.mb.ca/issues/downtown_vision.shtml Manitoba Hydro: "Vision and Guiding Principles"] ] . This will not result in any new walkway being constructed.

Planned Expansion

As was the case with the construction of Winnipeg Square, structural pads were built atop Portage Place to allow for future upward expansion . 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 [ [http://www.scpl.com/news_releases/March%2022.pdf Santin, Aldo: '$20-M tower to crown Portage Place', "Winnipeg Free Press", 22 March 2004] ] [ [http://www.scpl.com/news_releases/February%207%202005%20.pdf O'Brien, David: '$20-M tower planned for Portage Place mall', "Winnipeg Free Press", 7 February 2005] ] .

aint 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

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.

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.

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
**Lakeview I
***155 Carlton Street
****Business Development Bank of Canada
****Winnipeg Regional Health Authority
***349 York Avenue
****East India Company Pub & Eatery
**Lakeview II (175 Carlton Street)
***Shannon's Irish Pub
**Lakeview III
***185 Carlton Street
***189 Carlton Street
****Ichiban Japanese Restaurant
**Holiday Tower South
**Holiday Tower North
**Delta Winnipeg Hotel (formerly Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza)
***Elephant and Castle Pub and Restaurant

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 Square development forms a 'U' around an open central courtyard which faces the Convention Centre across Carlton Street.

Possible Walkway Integration

As explained above, there are currently plans to connect the Saint Mary Skywalk to the Convention Centre and CityPlace to 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.

Civic Centre

Another series of interconnected buildings straddle Main Street, approximately 1 km north of Portage and Main. 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:
*Winnipeg Civic Centre
**City Hall
**Administration Building
**Public Safety Building
*Manitoba Centennial Centre
**Centennial Concert Hall
**Manitoba Museum
**Touch the Universe science museum
**Planetarium

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.

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.

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'.

References

External links

* [http://www.downtownwinnipegbiz.com/inc/html/winnipegbiz/pix/map/parking_map_full.gifMap of Downtown Winnipeg] including Walkway System links.
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotoapparat/sets/72157594148771605/ A set of photos] taken inside the Winnipeg Walkway.
* [http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/subscriber/detour/story/4115015p-4710394c.html January 2008 article] in the "Winnipeg Free Press" describing the possible future expansion of the Winnipeg Walkway, as well as the historical development of the system, and what challenges it poses to urbanism in the city centre.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yop8BS6wI_M Humorous CBC Television report] from 1988 showcasing the perils of wayfinding in the Winnipeg Walkway.

*Bruce Kuwabara's [http://www.hydro.mb.ca/issues/downtown_Flash/index.html July 2005 presentation] of his firm's winning design for the new Manitoba Hydro Building.