The Annex and Lack of Quorum

So, the minutes from Committee are posted, and all other items except the Grain Exchange Annex were dealt with. Apparently, Browaty excused himself and caused a lack of quorum:

Pursuant to the Code of Conduct adopted by Council on September 21, 1994, Councillor Browaty advised Committee that he would refrain from entering the discussion and voting on the matter, because of a potential conflict of interest, and left the meeting.

So, what's up with that? Does he have a business interest in the property? A relationship with the owner/developer? Anyone know what's going on?

Wondering What's Up

Wondering what's up with the last BRT tender that closed June 9, 2009. I wrote about it here. This was for track relocation work in the Fort Rouge Yards. The City has been promptly posting the tender results the next day for all BRT contacts to date, but for this one, they have not listed any information at all, other than "contract not awarded".

So, maybe no bids came in? Or they don't want to release the price this time? Who knows.

Grain Exchange Annex to be Demolished?

The freestanding Annex to the Grain Exchange is back in the news, as developers seek to block the designation of the building as a Grade III heritage structure in order to demolish it. The matter comes before Property and Development Committee June 30, 2009. The Heritage Buildings Committee recommended it be listed as a Grade III building, but the Community Committee (Lord Selkirk-West Kildonan) did not agree. More information in Report 1 here.

The owner is Artis REIT and the developer is Marwest Construction, an arm of Marwest Management. The architect is Ray Wan. What do they want to build? You guessed it, a "parking structure". Apparently, there isn't enough parking on Lombard right now ( never mind that another parking structure exisits directly across the street at the Lombard, and the street is lined with surface lots towards the river - see Google Earth photo below).
















Update - Regan Wolfram has a well thought out analysis of the situation posted on his blog. Also, I find this statement made by the owner/developer laughable:

The owners of the Grain Exchange Building have advised that they need to provide parking for the various tenants in the Grain Exchange Building in order to ensure that the building remains viable for many more years. They suggest that the proposed parkade will contribute to the ongoing vitality of the Exchange District National Historic Site and will contribute in a positive manner to the streetscape by replacing a large parking lot.

Edmonton Does Waverley West on Steroids

Transit oriented development for 100,000 people planned for Edmonton's south side.

The Heritage Valley Town Centre is expected to include two high schools, a recreation centre, an LRT station and a main street with small shops to serve the 100,000 people who will eventually live southwest of Anthony Henday Drive and Gateway Boulevard, senior city planner Tim Brockelsby said Tuesday.

To reduce the need for private vehicles, the centre will feature an LRT station when the line is extended south of 23rd Avenue, with many residents possibly working in nearby businesses or the post-secondary campuses and hospital under discussion for provincial farmland now used by the University of Alberta, Brockelsby said.

But this "urban" feel requires higher numbers of people than were traditionally found in suburbia's big lots and single-family homes --the 116-hectare town centre near 127th Street and the future 28th Avenue southwest will have about 10,000 residents, many living in townhouses or apartment buildings.

Brockelsby compares the main street, with buildings up to three storeys high and angled parking at the curb, to downtown's burgeoning 104th Street.

St. Joseph Wind Turbine Project News

Despite some rumblings that the potential impending bankruptcy of Babcock and Brown will kill this project, the proponent has filed an update to their Environmental Impact Statement with Manitoba Conservation late last week. The new files are available for download here.

The main changes appear to be the switch from GE 1.5 MW turbines to Siemens 2.3 MW turbines, reducing the overall number of turbines from 200 to 130.

Eco4 on River

This site has been vacant well over a year since the fire that burned down the house at 357 River Avenue (just north of Pulse Condos). The sign has been up for Eco4 a long time too, and it finally appears the developer, Dobie Properties, is ready to start pre-selling. The design is fairly typical of several other infill "Eco" labelled condo developments that have sprung up in the Osborne Village/Crescentwood area lately.

The unit listed here is for $360,000 for 1,900 sq. ft. It will have geothermal heating/cooling and feature other environmental design measures.

Awake, Heritage Winnipeg

I can't believe I just heard Cindy Tugwell of Heritage Winnipeg say on CBC news that she wasn't aware the 160 Roslyn property faced delisting and demolition. The mayor was trumpeting the fact that Heritage didn't oppose the the delisting at EPC today, so it must be OK to pull it down. Wow, somebody really dropped the ball on this one. Don't they read the papers, watch the news or check City Hall agendas over there at Heritage?

Edit - It is 166 Roslyn.

Newspaper Design

The blurb in the Free Press touting their award of excellence today twigged me on a blog post I read not long ago giving some examples of the best designed newspapers. I realize the award is more for journalism than appearance, but I want to highlight some examples of top rated newspaper designs. These were culled from this site and others.























































































































































Here is a video of the top 5 for 2008.

SND30: The 2008 World's Best-Designed™ Newspapers from The Society for News Design on Vimeo.

High Lines

Not that Winnipeg will ever have a problem with abandoned elevated rail tracks like New York, but the recent conversion of such a space in NY to a landscaped walkable trail is quite well done. The story and more pictures here.

WHRA Building Boom Continues

A new office/parkade complex is planned for 496 Hargrave. At least they hired a decent architect this time.

Rapid Transit Web Presence

Rapid transit finally has a presence on the City web site. It has info on some of the plans for stations, routes, buses, etc. Check it out here.

$5,750,000 in Land Given to Pembina Chrysler

The City is spending $5.75 million to buy land to give to Pembina Chrysler in order to avoid going to an expropriation settlement over the land it needs for the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor. Apparently, by expropriating land from Chrysler, the dealership would fall below the minimum space required by head office and their dealership license would be yanked. So the City had to find a way to take their land and not put them out of business. It asked neighbouring property owners to sell, and eventually settled on Autotown's property between Warsaw and Jessie. Read the report here (it's report 19).

It's obvious that the piece of land they are expropriating from Pembina Chrysler for rapid transit is not worth $5.75 million, so this kind of stinks from a taxpayer point of view. The City is worried about an expropriation settlement going against them and costing more than that however, and so feels justified in spending this amount. The owners of Autotown make out great in this scenario.

Cycling Radar Traps

h/t to NeueWelle who twittered this link

Can't you just see this being used on our river walkways, for the 10 days a year they aren't under water? Perhaps I shouldn't post this and give someone ideas...

Police have introduced a bike speed camera on a waterfront promenade in Bournemouth UK to catch cyclists going over 10mph. Apparently, a little girl was hit by a cyclist and received a "cut to the head". What's hilarious is they can't ticket or fine them, just give them a "stern talking to".

Waterpark EOI Released Part Deux

Second go around for the waterpark Expression of Interest as it has been posted by the City on their tender page. Download it here if you want to read it. I've scanned it and note that preference will be given to sites located "downtown". I'm not sure that was the case for the first request, unless Polo Park is downtown now.

The downtown requirement conflicts with the requirement to have a minimum of 5-8 acres of space for the site, but they will overlook that requirement if a suitable downtown location is found. The City would also prefer that the waterpark be part of a larger "destination development" proposal.

Freep Staff Writer Slips One In

Someone ("staff writer") has a wicked sense of humour - this last paragraph on the story of the Friends of Upper Fort Garry purchasing the Petro Canada station is hilarious:

The Petro-Canada agreement means the only existing building that will be left on the block that once contained Winnipeg’s birthplace is the Manitoba Club, which the Friends have no plans to purchase and demolish.

Left unsaid (but I'm sure known by the staff writer) is the fact that a lot of the "Friends" are the well-heeled members of the Manitoba Club. Of course they aren't going to demolish their own clubhouse!

Edit - looks like Frog beat me to this.

JARport

Just wanted to highlight a great photo taken by a forumer on skyscraperpage - if you haven't been to the airport in a while, check it out. Thanks to jmt18325 for posting this and many other photos from the airport campus here.

New Condo or Old House?

Looks like this condo proposal I wrote about earlier (on Roslyn west of Osborne) has run into a snag due to the presence of a heritage listed home that may not be able to be demolished to make way for the project. Bartley Kives had the details today in the Free Press.

It will be an interesting debate. If there is anywhere in the city a new condo tower can be built, it would be Osborne Village, already one of the most dense neighbourhoods, and somewhat less NIMBYish than other areas in terms of adding density. However, picking a location that requires demolition of a heritage-listed structure isn't necessarily the wisest move. Here is a link to the 1984 heritage building committee report on 166 Roslyn.

Burrito del Rio

Burrito del Rio is now open in Osborne Village (it's on River, get it?).

photo from amandakat on flikr

Facelift for Copps

after

Transformation of Copps Coliseum - not a Winnipeg story per se, but interesting to see the plans to upgrade Hamilton's arena in light of the discussion about what Winnipeg needs to do to attract a team (not that I'm pushing that rock up the mountain!).

before

New Building at U of M

A nice addition to the skyline at U of M is coming. This is the new 360 bed residence, the first part of Project Domino. It sits overtop of Pembina Hall on the south side of the campus. I believe it is a Ray Wan design. Thanks to trueviking at Skyscraperpage for posting the images.