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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Making an urban impression

Buhler Centre set to open to chorus of praise for designers

By: Martin Cash

Posted: 08/30/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Architects Neil Minuk (left) and Peter Sampson said the goal was to create a building that would anchor an important intersection with style and clever layouts. (JANEK LOWE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

The designers of the new Buhler Centre at Portage Avenue and Memorial Boulevard like to refer to it as a hybrid building.

As well as being created by a group of three designers, the building will have multi-owners, multi-tenants and multi-uses.

The hybrid label is also an interesting way to think about what the building is supposed to do and what it might achieve, located as it is on such at important vantage point in downtown Winnipeg.

Neil Minuk, principal of DIN Projects, one of the three designers, said the 50,000-square-foot, four-storey, $15-million building was designed specifically -- almost aggressively -- to make an urban impression.

It is called the Buhler Centre in acknowledgment of the $4 million donation from philanthropist and former Winnipeg industrialist John Buhler.

But the building will be co-owned and occupied by Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art and the University of Winnipeg where it will become the base of operations for the university's two year-old Faculty of Business and Economics, as well as the U of W's Continuing Education Division.

Tenants will move into the building gradually throughout the fall and early winter. The designers -- Minuk's DIN Projects, Peter Sampson Architecture Studio and David Penner Architect -- were charged with creating an engaging presence to rejuvenate activity on a streetscape that was a bit down on its heels. The unusual integration of a cutting edge independent art gallery and academic business and continuing education faculties makes for an auspicious combination of commerce and culture -- especially considering who their neighbours will be.

Across the street sits the Hudson's Bay Company store, an iconic representative of one of the oldest corporate entities on the face of the earth. Down the way looms the Winnipeg Art Gallery, an austere, stunning piece of architecture in and of itself.

Whereas the WAG is a concrete mass, essentially closed off from the outside, the Plug In gallery at the Buhler Centre will be so open that passers-by will be able to see right into the gallery.

Minuk said the urban and cultural grids were kept in mind when it came to the lines of the building.

But just as important, as part of a university in the middle of the city, the designers wanted it to be an urban building in every respect.

"We wanted to push the building right out onto the street," Minuk said.

It's so tight to the sidewalk -- there is a diagonal-cut entranceway that will also serve as a gallery space -- that it may not always be clear just when you are on the public street and when you have actually entered the building.

Inside, there are narrow hallways -- they call them lanes -- and when it's full, people will be in close quarters.

"We wanted to create some densification," Sampson said.

Dean Syverson, a partner in Syverson Montayne Architecture, whose firm has designed additions to the Manitoba Children's Museum and the Tall Grass Prairie Bakery, said what the Buhler Centre architects have done is just what that corner needed.

"They have created a modern architectural addition that is nicely scaled on a key downtown marker where previously had existed some gaping holes," he said. "It will set a tone for the perception of the city and create a real buzz of activity. And they did it on a very tight budget."

For instance, the construction budget for the Buhler Centre came at about $300 a square foot. In comparison, the Canadian Museum of Human Rights will probably cost in the neighbourhood of $800 a square foot.

But in speaking to two of the three designers, you almost get the impression that they relished the challenge of making a fantastic building without the luxury of a huge budget. (The fourth floor only became viable after the Buhler donation, which came months after construction began.)

It meant coming up with creative solutions to achieve the considerable goals the designers had of anchoring such a key downtown corner.

"For instance," said Minuk. "There was originally talk of a giant LED screen on the side of the building, but that would have blown the budget."

Instead, the inexpensive insulated metal cladding is covered in a grid of perpendicular tabs made with reflective road-sign material that animates the building in surprising ways.

"In a way, what that does is allow you to operate the show from the dashboard of your car," said Sampson.

What he means is that shining a light on the tabs creates all sorts of different looks depending on the angle and intensity of the light.

But it would be more accurate to say that the sun is actually "operating the show" because of the way the tabs reflect the sunlight and create shadows that change with the time of day and the month of the year.

It is one of many surprising elements that have been designed into the building where no two rooms are the same size and shape and the windows are likely to be near the floor and rarely do they actually face the outside. (That's another cost-saver. The windows on interior walls face a narrow four-storey atrium or one of the many pathways and portals in the building. That's much cheaper than exterior windows.)

All of the servicing equipment is totally exposed, giving it the baroque feel of an older building. Staff offices for both the faculty of business and continuing education will feature all sorts of configurations of electrical conduits and HVAC ducts hanging from the ceiling. Some will have parts of the exposed steel support beam jutting across the ceiling at odd angles.

The ground floor office of the dean of continuing education, Erin Stewart, features a floor-to-ceiling window, almost putting her right on the street.

Both Stewart and Michael Benarroch, dean of the faculty of business, say they are thrilled to be part of such an exciting building.

They're also keen to share it with an art gallery whose main galleries will be on street level. But Anthony Kiendl, director of Plug In, said the intention is to place art throughout the building, including sculpture installations on a third-storey outdoor terrace.

Kiendl said the gallery's mandate was to broaden its engagement with the people of Winnipeg.

"We really believe that is an amazing opportunity," said Kiendl, noting the rare good fortune of being located amidst such an eclectic, ready-made base of traffic.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

Buhler Centre by the numbers

50,000 -- size of the building in square feet

$15 million -- total price-tag

12 -- number of classrooms (there are four additional computer labs and two seminar rooms)

4 -- number of Plug In exhibition spaces

1 -- art, book and gift store featuring hard-to-find prints of Winnipeg artists (Plug In has subcontracted with McNally Robinson Booksellers to help run the store)

1 -- bistro, located in the extreme northeast corner of the building; discussions with potential operators are on-going

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 30, 2010 B5

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