Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Identifying a need.

It appears that the United Way building under construction on Main Street will be set well back from the sidewalk on both the Main Street and Pacific Avenue sides of the building. This is a good thing, since Main Street has too strong of a compact urban form in this neighborhood, and suffers for want of yet more meaningless, undefined and void spaces. The more downtown Winnipeg starts to mimic the physical form of suburban Winnipeg, the better off it will be.

6 Comments:

Blogger Jac said...

appreciate the sarcasm, as always.
(sarcasm).

this time, however, i don't quite get what you're saying because the photo makes it look like it IS built right to the edge of the lot.
the "setback" as you call it on the main level remind me of how the Don Restaurant/IGA building is built on the Donald side. which is actually a very pedestrian-friendly design.
People like to have some shelter over their heads, from the hot sun or rain. It's called protective space.

My biggest concern with this building is that it's not tall enough to achieve a proper street scale, with main st. being so wide.
Also, are they filling in that surface-parking lot as well?

7:34 PM  
Blogger cherenkov said...

I think the third story balcony from which you can taunt the vagrants below is a nice touch.

I agree with Jac .. to me it does not look like the setback is large, except in a certain spot due to the curvature of the building. Certainly not large enough to be an issue. A parking lot in front of the building would be one thing, but 10 feet of space to walk around is OK by me.

7:47 PM  
Blogger The Rise and Sprawl said...

Jac, from my walk past the construction site this afternoon, it appeared that the main part of the building (the orange-colored bit shown in the photo) is set back. The small wing on Pacific (left) does meet the sidewalk. The wing on Main closer to Alexander (right) does not appear to be under construction.

7:49 PM  
Blogger MacD said...

C'mon... Winnipeg's fiercely small-town, anti-development attitude makes it such a livable place!

1:13 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Once again, this thing is hideous and looks like it belongs in some provincial backwater—oops.

2:23 AM  
Blogger Spenny said...

Dallas,

I have nothing to do with this building whatsoever, but I was just curious if you were able to thoughtfully explain WHY you feel this building is hideous. At least three solid points please.

1:10 AM  

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