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Portage Avenue

“PORTAGE AVENUE:

DREAMS OF CASTLES IN THE SKY”

Produced for Prairie Public Television ©2004
Written By George Siamandas

This document is copyrighted and may not be used or excerpted without the permission of the author.

NAR: This is Portage Ave. It runs from the corner of Portage and Main, through Winnipeg’s central business district, and out west, past city limits. Once known as the Portage trail, it extends west almost 800 miles to Edmonton. It’s a wide street originally laid out at 132 feet. Four lanes of traffic each way. Portage Ave. contains a mix of elegant architecture from its golden era and an eclectic collection of newer structures that speak of today.

The year is 1905. Winnipeg is entering a fabulous new era of growth. And it’s all happening along Portage Ave. Its warehouse district around old city hall is already well built. Banks and shops from the 1880s and 1890s line Main St. for miles. But a new light is shining on Portage Ave. And the path is being blazed by the new Eaton’s store. At five stories and occupying an entire city block, Eaton’s will start a flurry of new construction that in 10 years will transform Portage Ave and truly make it Winnipeg’s main street.

DEBRA JOHNASON YOUNG, FORMER EATON’S MANAGER
Eaton’s started in 1905 it was a huge building and it employed many many people. It employed generation after generation and in some cases families of people. Everyone you run into when you say you’ve worked at Eaton’s they say either I know somebody or I’ve worked there too. I actually met my husband working at Eaton’s 27 years ago.

NAR: Eaton’s lead is followed by 2 more important players. The new Winnipeg Post Office and the Bank of Nova Scotia, both leave behind Main St’s Banker’s Row, to take up prominent places on Portage Ave. And at the corner of P&M, railway developer John Duncan MacArthur will build Winnipeg’s first skyscraper, The MacArthur building better known as the Childs building. Portage Ave. fast becomes Winnipeg’s new Avenue of Dreams:

BUBBLING WITH LIFE
NAR: Portage Ave. bubbled with life. Filled with shops, theatres and restaurants. Fuelled by the draw of two major department stores: Eaton’s and the Bay. Fifty other stores found success located between these two retail giants.

EATON’S
DEBRA JOHNASON YOUNG
The Winnipeg downtown store was 865,000 sq. ft. It offered everything. It was like a full line mall housed in one big store.

CURRIE MCMILLAN, HERITAGE WINNIPEG
I can remember working at Eaton’s before WW2, Eaton’s was a very, very busy place at the time. I think they accounted for 2/3 of the retail sales in the city of Winnipeg and they would put on special sales. One they had was the Trans Canada sale, and at 9 o’clock when the gong went off, people literally stampeded into the store. They ran up the stairs with the pounding of feet and up the elevators. It was

DEBRA JOHNASON YOUNG
Every day we experienced something interesting, women whipping off their blouses in the middle of the dept trying on other blouses.

GILES BUGAILISKIS, FORMER EATON’S DISPLAY MANAGER
There were 42 windows in the building. We tried to make the goods look different and exciting. The displays we did in the store and the kind of window designs that we did had to be very sophisticated, interesting, exciting different eye-catching.

DEBRA JOHNASON YOUNG
As a teenager coming down to Portage Ave. and to the Bay or Eaton’s downtown was the place to be. To meet a whole bunch of people from all over the city; it was a central hub and there was a lot of excitement. There was a hustle and bustle and running into people and just an activity level that was second to none in Winnipeg.

HENRY KALEN, PHOTOGRAPHER
The feeling on the street of the avenue was quite different… it was popular it was heavily populated. People worked downtown. There were a lot of offices. There were so many small stores on Portage Ave, specialty stores, shoe stores, jewellery stores, theatres, several theatres that have disappeared. It was alive.

I remember the Capitol theatre. You had to go through the Portage entrance and there was a long ramp with red carpeting: all around you was gold guilt very plush. Made you feel pretty nice to go in there. The Capitol theatre is where I saw Gone With the Wind. Of course the Capitol Theatre is gone.

ARTHUR MAURO, INVESTORS GROUP
There were greater days when Portage Ave. literally was the centre of commerce: and there were restaurants up and down the street.

CURRIE MCMILLAN
One of the memories I had was going to the Childs Rest. The building it was in was on the ground floor. It became known as the Childs building.

GEORGE RICHARDSON, JAMES RICHARDSON & SONS
Child’s, it was the major restaurant in Winnipeg. You could spend a week at Child’s restaurant and see everyone in business in Winnipeg.

GILES BUGAILISKIS
There was the old Mardi Grass restaurant that supposedly was the first gay restaurant in Winnipeg. Moore’s Restaurant was where I remember taking my first date.

HENRY KALEN
During lunch hours the guys would go outside especially in the summertime and lean up against the walls and watch the parade go by. I’m talking about the girls, that parade. It was a popular pastime.

NAR: At the western end of the business district sits the Bay retail store. It’s a majestic limestone building

GERRY LOEB, BAY WINNIPEG STORE
The Bay is the world’s longest continuing company and it was incorporated May 2 1670 as the company of adventurers trading into Hudson Bay. This particular store was opened in Nov 1926. The store opened at 9: 00 am by one of the directors of the company. Mr Galt opened the door with a golden key and, during the day, 50,000 customers visited the store

The Bay viewed Portage Ave. as very important because it was like a portal to downtown Winnipeg. Looking at the store exterior you are struck by the architectural highlights, the Tyndal stone, the very fact that this building was built with an attention to detail. The people that had this building built wanted it to be a signature building. It was built to be 10 stories, it stopped at 6 stories.

This building is 675,000 sq. ft. incorporating seven retail levels including the basement. The building offers something for everybody starting with the basement our newly expanded food market. To just a gorgeous cosmetics department on the main floor. The second floor is home to the men’s assortment. Third floor of course anchors the mirror room full of fashion. The fourth floor has housewares, linen and china. Also on the 6th floor is the very historical paddle wheel queen restaurant. I am sure that just anyone familiar with Winnipeg has been in the paddle wheel at some time. Where there is the actual paddle wheel ship with the wheel that turns and the different murals of prairie life. The paddlewheel restaurant’s got a lot of memories in it especially fond memories are in the 60s; when it was a meeting place for teen agers the music scene was there. It’s rumoured that Burton Cummings would visit the paddlewheel quite often.

Something very interesting that happened once was during one of our Bay day sales and they were always famous for our clock specials that we had in the food market. We had clock special limited time limited quantity sale frozen turkeys. Well it turned out that they were down to the last turkey and 2 women both had their hands on it and were fighting over a frozen turkey. One woman took the turkey hit the other woman over the head with the turkey and knocked her unconscious. She’s the one that kept the turkey.

BOYD BUILDING
NAR: Castles in the sky are certainly what Portage Avenue’s first builders had in mind. And there is no better example than William Boyd’s landmark building.

MURRAY PETERSEN, ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIAN
One of my favourite buildings along Portage Ave. is the Boyd building. Boyd made his money on confectionery. In 1912 a national company bought him out; he used that capital to build the Boyd building.

Mr Boyd decided that Portage Ave. was the place to be and in fact he was right. By that time Portage Ave. was really developing as the central main thoroughfare of Winnipeg. He contracted JD Atchison who was one of Winnipeg’s most famous architects who had been trained in Chicago. The Boyd building in its design and its construction was a very important statement. Of course Winnipeg was trying to do everything that Chicago was doing. They were trying to mimic Chicago’s development and its success. The economy was booming just prior to WW1 there was lots of capital, it was really a golden age for construction in Winnipeg and certainly Portage Ave.

When you walk down the street even today its one of the most magnificent Portage Ave. buildings, the difference in colour the white of the cream terracotta vs. the dark green of the interior terra cotta. It’s just a spectacular building and then when you get up closer and you see the ornamentation and the detailing in the terra cotta; it’s just a magnificent building.

NAR: At the western end of the business district sits the Bay retail store. It’s a majestic limestone building

BOYD BUILDING
NAR: Castles in the sky are certainly what Portage Avenue’s first builders had in mind. And there is no better example than William Boyd’s landmark building.

GAIL PERRY, WINNIPEG ARCHITECTURE FOUNDATION
I consider Portage Ave to be my neighbourhood. I walk to work down Portage Ave every day regardless of weather and regardless of the season. To walk down Portage Ave can be exulting it’s often the highlight of my day.

When I walk down Portage Ave I can see some of the buildings that were built at the turn of the century. And I can visualise what Winnipeg was like, when it was an up and coming city, the city of the future, one of the fastest and largest growing cities in North America.

My favourite building on Portage Ave is the Bank of Nova Scotia. The bank of Nova Scotia is really a landmark on Portage Ave the only domed building for example on the street. The role of ornamentation in the early 20th century was really to draw the public’s attention to the building. It’s a beautiful example of terra cotta in Winnipeg. The building is dotted with shields that are the corporate seals of the Bank of Nova Scotia. And you can see a schooner and beneath that a fish, and then a plough, so this ornamentation is saying, this is the Bank of Nova Scotia, this is our corporate image, you have arrived on Portage Ave.

I can’t believe that as recently as the 1980s that this was a building to be demolished. The Bank of Nova Scotia has really had a new life it’s now a government owned building and a public space where people can now go into the banking hall and actually marvel at the beautiful interior, for example the cofferred ceiling and the gold leaf and beautiful brass fittings.
GAIL PERRY
The Paris building across the road from the Bank of Nova Scotia is another example of terra cotta in Winnipeg this is a prominent building in terms of its height. But it’s really the ornamentation that catches your eye. This is terra cotta that mimics stone cut stone and is extremely elaborate in terms of its decoration.

There’s a band of angels on the 5th floor of the Paris building and this used to be the top the building and to prove it you can see the cornice line right above and there is a cornice above that where the building was actually expanded in 1917. There are a number of angels on the Paris building including right underneath the vaulted cornice at the very top. In fact there are a lot of sinister figures up there some with nasty faces which are really worth the effort of looking. My favourite feature of ornamentation on the Paris building is not an angel at all, it’s the bare breasted women you see on the second floor.

CURRY BUILDING
The Curry building was built in 1915 in fact it was built the same time as first phase of the Paris building was being built despite the fact that this was WW1. So there was a lot of activity in Winnipeg at that time. The Curry building takes its name from the people that founded it: the Curry family. It’s a commercial building. It’s still a viable building. When you look at the Curry building you can really feel the thrust of the horizontal. The Curry building is made of an exquisite terra cotta that is made to look like granite so it’s got a dappled buff colour with splotches of black and grey.

It’s a very interesting building in that it is also made of terra cotta of an exquisite type. It’s got a gothic motif…so it looks very much like a cathedral; every second set of columns has a little face with a tri cornered hat. The Curry building was to be extended another 6 stories in 1928 then the great world depression intervened and what we see today is a 2 storey Curry building

MURRAY PETERSEN
Another of the really amazing buildings on Portage Ave is the former Birks building. It was originally built in 1900-1901 as Winnipeg’s first YMCA. It had a massive strong textured limestone façade on 2 sides it had a lot of ornamentation a lot of Romanesque ornamentation. It looked a lot different than it does today.

Once it was constructed the YMCA became extremely popular. It was soon bursting at the seams, when the YMCA left in 1912 of course they had to find another buyer for their former building. They found a perfect match in the Birks Jewellery Company. Henry Birk had started in Montreal and Birk really wanted to be on Portage Ave. Just like everyone else. But he didn’t want it to look like the old YMCA building. He hired Percy Nobbs of Montreal to create a beautiful frieze on the front and the side of the building.

It’s a magnificent mixture of and terra cotta tile and mosaic tile. The frieze tells a number of stories, actually. Lower on the frieze there are medallions of terra cotta and they depict the materials used by jewellers. There’s an elephant for ivory. There is a man diving for pearls. There are miners so that kind of tells the story of the jewellery trade. It’s a magnificent piece of art. Unfortunately right now it’s one of the vacant buildings on Portage Ave.
TIME BUILDING FIRE
NAR: While parts of Portage Avenue’s past have been lost, they have been relatively few. One old building that succumbed is the Time Building.

CURRIE MCMILLAN
The day that the time building burned down, I can remember it quite vividly because we lived next door to the family called the Redmonds and they owned JJH McLean’s and they occupied the ground floor of the Time Building. About 6:00 in the morning their son called to me and banged on the door and said come on we are going down to watch a fire. And it was raining and it was blowing it was a really hard, hard wind blowing the rain.

This is what caused the fire the moisture and force of the wind forced the moisture up into the sign and it caught on fire and started the building. They tried to put the fire out and were unable to do so. Eaton’s had its own fire fighting system its own wells and they were able to put a curtain of water down the front of the building and on the side of the building on Hargrave St to protect their own building. If they had not done that they say the heat of that alone Eaton’s would have caught on fire that day. It was quite something to see that building going up in flames In the middle of a rain storm they couldn’t put it out.

PORTAGE & MAIN: CELEBRATION SQUARE
NAR: At the East End of Portage Ave is the best-known intersection in Canada. The intersection of Portage & Main. The centre of Winnipeg’s financial district. It’s the pulse of the city. It’s where every head office wants to be. It’s a corner steeped in history, and controversy. It was so congested with traffic, especially pedestrian traffic, that 30 years ago they banned pedestrian crossings, forcing people underground,

Whenever Winnipeg has something to celebrate it happens at Portage&Main. Peace day in 1919, The signing of Bobby Hull to the Jets, Or the Blue Bomber’s win of the Grey Cup, The party happens at Portage and Main.

MEL MICHENER, ARCHITECT
The victory celebrations after WW2. Going down Portage Ave was a spectacular joyous event. The king and queens visit to Winnipeg in 1939. Portage Ave. was the lifeblood of the city of Winnipeg.

LOSS OF EATON’S
NAR: Of all the buildings that have been lost on Portage Ave, the most wrenching loss was that of Eaton’s. The store that had done $100m in business annually was bankrupt.

DOUG CLARK, DOWNTOWN WINNIPEG BIZ
So the last day when the store was open and the cameras were all there, the last general manager was getting ready to shut the doors and say good buy to everyone. And the sales had gone on for many months, we knew that we were putting another nail in the coffin of downtown.

DEBRA JOHNASON YOUNG
It was surprise bigger than anything I could have imagined; and it was clearly one of the saddest days of my life.

CURRIE MCMILLAN
When people found out that Eaton’s would be demolished there were a number of people were really angry. I think they wanted to retain the old Eaton’s as they remembered it almost at any cost.

GILES BUGAILISKIS
People were really emotional. Either they were in one camp or the other. Eaton’s is a landmark issue in that we said: do we move forward or do we allow Portage Ave. to sit there and wait for something to happen. And I think in Winnipeg the politicians said we can’t afford to just sit there and wait. We have to do something now.

NAR: Stay with us. In the next part we look at what is being done to breathe new life into Portage Avenue. And we see how the corner of Portage and Main has been transformed over the years.

LOSS OF EATON’S
NAR: Of all the buildings that have been lost on Portage Ave, the most wrenching loss was that of Eaton’s. The store that had done $100m in business annually was bankrupt.

DEBRA JOHNASON YOUNG
It was surprise bigger than anything I could have imagined; and it was clearly one of the saddest days of my life.

NAR: Stay with us. In the next part we look at what is being done to breathe new life into Portage Avenue. And we see how the corner of Portage and Main has been transformed over the years.

REVITALIZATION
PORTAGE PLACE
NAR: While it happened gradually, by the mid-1980s the decline of Portage Ave alarmed civic officials. Confronting the same story as in most North American cities. Suburban malls had eaten away the business of the downtown stores. To offset the decline, a new downtown shopping mall, named Portage Place, was built, through a public-private partnership.

CHERYL MAZUR, PORTAGE PLACE MANAGER
Portage Place is a four level shopping centre. It was built in 1987 by Cadillac Fairview in conjunction with the 3 levels of govt. It has over 125 retail stores and office and houses the only Imax theatre, Arts theatre the Globe and Prairie Theatre Exchange in Winnipeg.

NAR: Did Portage Place cause the death of Eaton’s?

CHERYL MAZUR
Portage Place did not kill Eaton’s whatsoever. Eaton’s, as you know struggled a long time, as it was passed down in the families. And it I believe it could have kept on going if someone in the family could have run it better. Portage Place actually was great supporter of Eaton’s.
INVESTORS
NAR: Anchoring the West End of the Portage Place redevelopment is the Investors tower.

ARTHUR MAURO, INVESTORS GROUP
I joined Investors in 1976. At the time we were considering the redevelopment of the head office. The problem of Portage Ave and the redevelopment of Portage Ave. As someone had said, the north side of Portage Ave reminded them of downtown Beirut; there were so many empty buildings and derelict buildings.

Maybe the best contribution that Investors could make was that we would anchor the West End of the commercial aspect of Portage Ave by developing our head office here on Portage Avenue. My feeling was that if there were one symbol of western Canada it was the grain elevator. The roofline and everything is intended to be symbolic of what I think Kipling once referred to as Castles of Commerce: the grain elevator.

The colours were intended to be earth brown and green again seeking that aspect of the attachment to the land. The windows and the glass is plainly reflective of the big sky country of air and light. But maybe it was my vision that resulted in the sculpture. That’s what has been captured there. It is a prairie boy’s vision. He’s looking out and he’s looking up and looking to the future.
NAR: One hundred and forty years earlier another man had looked at the emerging prairie landscape and saw Portage Avenue’s future. Henry McKenny. Establishing the first business at Portage and Main.

McKenny arrived in 1859 on the Anson Northup, the first steamboat to reach the Red River Colony from Georgetown Minnesota. McKenny bought a storehouse from Andrew McDermot and in 1862 converted it into the first hotel called the Royal. The die was cast. Buildings sprang up in a few short years, the corner was booming.

Once the corners were built up by the end of WW1, the corner stayed pretty much the same. Through WW2, through the 50s. and 60s, No new buildings. The famous corner of portage and main had seen no sense of modern times. But it was not for lack of trying.

RICHARDSON BUILDING
NAR: George Richardson heads up Winnipeg’s Richardson family. His grandfather started life as a tailor in Kingston Ontario, but discovered a more profitable business.

GEORGE RICHARDSON
Very soon he found it was more fun to trade grain than to make clothes. In the early days Portage Ave. was thought to be the crossroads of western Canada. It just became obvious if you are going to be in the grain business then this is the place to be.

In the 20s my father was very desirous of building a building at the corner of P&M. And obtained the property, had the building designed, and actually started the excavation. They were well down the excavation when the crash came. My father thought this was not the time to build a building so he cancelled the project, paid off the contractors, filled in the hole and turned the corner into a parking lot. It was never if a building was to be built, it was simply a matter of when.

NAR: Finally in 1964 Winnipeg’s first true skyscraper started to rise

GEORGE RICHARDSON
JAMES RICHARDSON & SONS
The building is just over 400 feet…600,000-sq. ft. The exterior of the building is precast Manitoba granite. The fondest memory of the building, probably the completion, the topping off of the building. We’d finally made it.

We are still in Winnipeg because if you are going to be in the grain trade it’s the only place to be. There is a big advantage to Winnipeg; it has all the amenities of life. It’s the centre of North America and the only place really to be.

COMMODITY EXCHANGE TOWER
NAR: The next tower to rise at Portage and Main was the Trizec tower built in 1979 at the Southwest corner.

FRANK SHERLOCK, BUILDING MANAGER
The Commodity Exchange Tower is comprised of the Tower, the shops of Winnipeg Square, the parking garage and the Bank of Nova Scotia. The tower itself is 535,000 sq. ft, 31 storeys. Anodised aluminium and glass.

We have quite a variety of tenants… law firms national accounting firms, stock brokers, of course the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange. When people come into work they can park underground, do their shopping, go for lunch, and stay inside. The merchants in these shops of Winnipeg Square are doing very well. The reason these shops do well is because of traffic. Those number 100,00 people a week.

NAR: The Trizec Building had been a controversial project.

DAVID WALKER, AUTHOR: THE GREAT WINNIPEG DREAM
It was a very grand scheme, which captured the imagination of the city council. They were driven by the view that if they built this corner big that it would maintain it as the third largest city in the country. They decided to plunk into the middle of that famous corner the largest complex Winnipeg had ever seen. When you have an important corner, you have a historically interesting corner, is this the best we could have done. My answer is this is not the best we could have done. We could have designed it differently and had better city for it.

MEL MICHENER
The architecture of the Trizec building promised more than was realized. The Bank of Nova Scotia building we see today was originally a real jewel almost like a cut diamond. And it was going to shine on the corner of P&M and it doesn’t do that. The grand dame is the Bank of Montreal.

BANK OF MONTREAL
NAR: Indeed, the Bank of Montreal stands like a Roman Temple at the south east corner. Its marble façade glistening in the afternoon light. At night, gleaming like a timeless beacon at the crossroads of the city.

LAURA FURNIVAL, BANK OF MONTREAL
The branch was designed by McKim Mead and White… the exterior is granite. We have six columns on the exterior. It’s such a special experience when you come in the main doors: it’s overwhelming. You walk into our main banking hall and we are the oldest banking hall still operating in Canada and you look up the ceiling and you look up at the walls and its so expansive and its so beautiful.

The ceiling is gold leaf, very intricately designed ceiling. In 1980 we had it estimated at $1m. At the back of the building…is stain glass windows…you will see that they bear 3 coats of arms; they have the bank’s, the province’s they have our country’s.

It’s so difficult for me to put into words how it feels to be working at Winnipeg main Bank of Montreal. The premise outside in the evening, particularly in the later evening when its dusk and the lights. It makes your heart swell. And to be able to say to anyone; family and friends that I work at bank of Montreal at Portage and Main; it’s such a privilege!
TD BANK
NAR: The most recent corner to see change is the new Toronto Dominion Bank tower at the Northwest corner. It’s just changed hands, coming into local ownership by the Asper family.

DAVID ASPER, CAN WEST GLOBAL
Our family is extremely rooted in the city of Winnipeg. When this building came up for sale we figured that it’s a great investment. But it’s also really a symbol for us as far as we are concerned. It’s the best office building in town. It’s a 33 storey building with a beautiful rounded semicircular glass facade that goes all the way up the building. One of the great things about it is the plaza that was built out in front. And there is a skylight that brings natural light into the concourse. There’s this huge open entranceway. It’s 2 or 3 stories high and its all glass and it feels warm.

PORTAGE AND MAIN CLOSURE
SHERRYL HERSHBERG, DREMAN BUILDING OWNER
What do I think of the closure of Portage and main; I hate it!

NAR: The closure of Portage and Main to pedestrians has raged in controversy for 25 years.

CURRY MCMILLAN
Without pedestrians crossing Portage and Main it lost something. A number of people said that when they put the barriers up you took away the heart of Winnipeg.

DEBRA JOHNASON YOUNG
In cities that feel vibrant you see the people on the street. When you take them off the street it looks empty.

ARTHUR MAURO
I personally feel Portage and Main should be opened its perhaps the great intersection in Canada.

DOUG CLARK
There is no question about it is the one icon of Winnipeg that is known more than any other place or location.

ARTHUR MAURO
I think there are points at which traffic flow of vehicles ought not to be the deciding factor of the character of a place. Where there is a will there is a way.

DAVID ASPER
When they put the barricades up at Portage and Main it was part of an urban planning trend to try to move traffic in and out of the centre of the city faster. What I think experience has shown in the re-energization of downtown, is actually, congestion works better. It makes people feel safer and downtowns aren’t freeways. My view is that we should reopen the intersection to pedestrian traffic and bring people back up above ground.

LAURA FURNIVAL
With the opening of the concourse we needed to be where the traffic was. Our customers said we don’t like it down there; we don’t like to bank underground. We want to go upstairs so we made a decision as a company to listen to our customers; we moved back upstairs.

NEW NAR: Plans are underway to reopen the corner to pedestrians and to find ways to celebrate the corner. Only one building owner is opposed.

DREAMS OF THE FUTURE PORTAGE AVENUE
NAR: Something has been lost. Portage is no longer a people street. Eaton’s, the big store, is gone, and there is talk, that the last remaining big downtown store, the Bay, will soon be cut down from its 6 floors to 2. Or maybe even leave downtown forever.

Some have given up on Portage Ave. Afraid to go downtown. They complain about the lack of parking, the panhandlers, and the street people, the empty storefronts and barren sidewalks. They see a growing wasteland.

The challenges for Portage Ave grow each year. A search is on for the way Portage Ave used to be. Lively, crowded, the place you wanted to be. Things you wanted to see. The hot spot. But is it possible to turn back time to the way Portage used to be?

THE FUTURE PORTAGE AVE
DOUG CLARK
You have to give people a reason to be in your downtown beyond retail. You’ve got to bring them for festivals and events. You’ve got to give them an opportunity to do things in the downtown they can’t do anywhere else in the city. And as when such, when you have them downtown you have an opportunity to get them through your door.

RESIDENTIAL
ARTHUR MAURO
In the final analysis we have to develop a hinterland to Portage Ave where people live.

MEL MICHENER
We desperately need much more residential development; not just social housing which we have some of, but middle class people with money that they want to spend. If the downtown is going to be successful as a retail operation it has to distinguish itself and it has to be destination shopping for a particular kind of product.

NAR: Manitoba Hydro will build a major new office on Portage avenue. This new signature office tower will house 2,000 new employees and is expected to improve the future of downtown Winnipeg.

EMBRACING ABORIGINALS
NAR: Winnipeg’s growing aboriginal population is more and more present along Portage Ave. CentrePlan addresses this issue:

DAVID ASPER
We have to integrate aboriginal people into society. I would like to see more history and more presence of aboriginal culture throughout the downtown. And I think it would serve as a point of pride to a people we’ve really let go.

ARTHUR MAURO
I think the aboriginals will ultimately be one of the great contributors the new vitality of central Winnipeg.

ARENA?
NAR: Some are placing optimism in the new arena project being built on the old Eaton’s site, planned to open in 2004. However opinion is mixed as to whether the arena will succeed in reviving Winnipeg’s ailing downtown.

DOUG CLARK
The True North project that was announced will be a downtown arena and entertainment centre, which will not save downtown or be the panacea of downtown redevelopment. But will certainly bring a large number of entertainment users to the downtown area; which we have been fighting for, for a long time.

DAVID ASPER
The construction of the new arena on Portage Ave could be a huge catalyst. But the experience across North America has been mixed as to whether these projects actually do enliven downtown. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. If our city and provincial governments remain committed to creating a village downtown. To densify and to congest then I can see a great renaissance for Portage Ave. But it takes a real steadfast commitment to rebuild downtown.

If you had the magic wand and the resources to do it what would you do with Portage Ave., is quite simply. I would turn it into an entertainment strip. I would see a lot of restaurants probably at the expense of a traffic lane on either side so that you could create proper set backs from buildings and patios out front and create a Champs Elysees kind of stroll. As they have constructed the arena they have closed two lanes of traffic, and you know its funny, but we are surviving.

CORYDON AVE
NAR: One of Winnipeg’s success stories is truly Corydon Ave. An Old World flavour created by the Italian business community. Alive with people, long into summer nights. Can this be the future of Portage Avenue?

DAVID ASPER
Corydon Ave has become a stroll. And it’s dotted with all kinds of restaurants and patios and cinzano umbrellas. And people laughing and having a good time. There is a lot of traffic. It moves very slowly. There is a lot of people watching, the sidewalks are crowded… And why not do it on Portage Ave. Why not?

You have to plan it you have to design it, and you have to have the guts to say. I am getting outside the box here. Come along with me, and smile, and let’s enjoy the street again.

Let’s make Portage Corydon.

NAR: Through its long life Portage Ave has been the lifeblood of the city. The challenge in its second century is not to try to recapture its long gone past, but to try to re-energize its soul. Put people and attractions back on the street. Tell its stories; interpret its rich architecture. And to once again proudly celebrate – Portage and Main.

THE END

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“PORTAGE AVENUE:
DREAMS OF CASTLES IN THE SKY”

CREDITS

PRODUCER WRITER NARRATOR
GEORGE SIAMANDAS

VIDEOGRAPHY
RANDY CADWELL
LEE WESTAD
TRAVIS JENSEN
GEORGE SIAMANDAS

EDITING
RANDY CADWELL

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
BOB DAMBACH

PRODUCTION MANAGER
RANDY CADWELL

PHOTOS AND ARCHIVES:
PROVINCIAL ARCHIVES OF MANITOBA
CITY OF WINNIPEG ARCHIVES
DOWNTOWN WINNIPEG BIZ
JAMES RICHARDSON & SONS
HENRY KALEN
DEBRA JOHNASON YOUNG
SHERRYL HERSHBERG
THE BAY
GILES BUGAILISKIS
RICHARD WALLS: CENTREPLAN
STEVE COHLMEYER
MANITOBA ASSOCIATION OF ARCHITECTS
HERITAGE WINNIPEG
CITY OF WINNIPEG PLANNING DEPT
WINNIPEG PUBLIC LIBRARY

STILLS:
http://www.siamandas.com/

Permission to use script:
Courtesy; Prairie Public Television ©2004
This document is copyrighted and may not be used or excerpted without the permission of the author.

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Portage Avenue

“PORTAGE AVENUE:

DREAMS OF CASTLES IN THE SKY”

This document is copyrighted and may not be used or excerpted without the permission of the author.

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