New shape of Air Canada Park takes flight

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This article was published 12/06/2023 (877 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Downtown Winnipeg residents got a first look Monday at the planned redesign of a popular space.

Air Canada Window Park, at the corner of Portage Avenue and Carlton Street, is set to get a $2.5-million facelift meant to improve safety and transform it into a more open space that could host larger events. The site will be closed at the end of August and reopened in the fall.

The Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone and local architecture firm Scatliff+Miller+Murray (which was awarded the design contract by the City of Winnipeg earlier this year) presented a rendering of the new design and took questions and suggestions from visitors — a last step of what BIZ chief executive officer Kate Fenske said was a year of consultations with community members and businesses.

“It has been, I think, a challenging public space, we’ve heard a lot of concerns about safety,” she said.

“But at the same time, we also understand and we know that this city park is used as parks are intended for — for a place for people to connect and to gather, to meet friends — but it’s been neglected for a number of years.”

Landscape architect Meaghan Pauls said the safety changes being proposed (using trees with a high canopy to keep sight lines open and removing barriers) would make the space more accessible, as well.

“We’re opening up a lot of the design to create a more permeable edge, something that is easier for people to access and move into the centre of the park rather than how these contours are barriers right now,” she said Monday.

Amy Sinclair and Stephen McNabb come by the park on a near-daily basis, and were excited for the moves, but also hoped some parts would stay the same.

“It’s exciting to see changes in Winnipeg, good change,” McNabb said.

“I’d like… the trees to stay, and for (them) to put more trees and flowers — and a water fountain, hopefully,” Sinclair added.

Both said the safety changes being proposed would hopefully bring more people in without driving away regular visitors.

“A lot of people are always sitting around here, but not many people sit inside the circle,” McNabb said.

Pauls and Fenske both said many of the consultations over the past year were with park regulars.

“The city hired us actually, first and foremost, to do community engagement. So they were saying (is), ‘It’s important to hear from the park users about what they want, what their needs and wants and desires are, for the future of the park.’ And so we did try to follow the lead as much as possible from park users,” Pauls said.

“This is not about moving people somewhere else, or moving people along,” Fenske said. “This is about giving our downtown community a public space that is inclusive and welcoming, and well-cared for, and that’s really exciting to me.”

Monday’s unveiling was planned in tandem with the ninth annual planting of the Indigenous garden.

“It’s a little bit different this year, we’re planting those roots, but at the same time, there’s going to be a complete transformation, so I kind of think we’re planting for the future of what’s going to be happening in this park,” Fenske said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca