Canada’s best looking buildings ‘are all here’

The former front-man of the iconic Canadian band Great Big Sea is singing his praise for Winnipeg’s collection of downtown heritage buildings.

Alan Doyle, who performed a solo show with his band at the Centennial Concert Hall on Wednesday night, took time before the show to create a video of him going for a walk — and to get a coffee — through the city’s Exchange District and other parts of the downtown.

“You become aware, very quickly in Winnipeg, and I’m not an architectural buff, but the way I describe it is if there are 100 good looking buildings in Canada, 45 of them are in Winnipeg — they are all here,” Doyle said.

“Look at these cool old buildings,” he added as he gazed at several in the two blocks on Main Street north of Portage Avenue.

Doyle, who has continued his cross country tour and is now in Alberta for shows, pointed out several buildings, including the Hotel Fort Garry, Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

“(The Hotel Fort Garry) is one of the coolest buildings and hotels in the entire country,” while Times Change(d) is an “amazing bluesy bar — it is fantastic,” he said.

Doyle said the CMHR is an “amazing museum building… it’s one of the coolest buildings in the country. The museum and the content is fantastic.

“The building itself is worth going to see.”

Doyle ended his tour at the Mennonite Central Committee’s Sam’s Place, sipping a coffee, and saying it was “magnificent.”

As of mid-afternoon Saturday, the five minute video had been viewed on Doyle’s Facebook site more than 97,000 times.

Local heritage and architectural experts couldn’t be more pleased to hear Doyle’s praise.

Cindy Tugwell, executive director of Heritage Winnipeg, said she has already watched the video twice.

“What an amazing promotion for our built heritage and to be mentioned as some of the best in Canada — wow,” Tugwell said on Saturday.

“There is a famous Canadian who appreciates our Canadian history. Tourism Winnipeg and the downtown couldn’t have paid for a more genuine shining promotion for Winnipeg… some people who live here, really unfortunately, don’t realize what treasures we have and it took a Newfoundlander to point it out.”

In recent months Winnipeg has been feeling love from several celebrities who have been in town to shoot movies and television shows.

Mad Men star Jon Hamm was spotted in numerous restaurants and places in Winnipeg — as well as a movie theatre in nearby Stonewall — and is still professing his admiration for the city.

“I had a blast in Winnipeg,” he said during an interview earlier this month on Global News’s The Morning Show.

“The people are so friendly, great food, and I love ice hockey, so you know it was always fun to go do that,” he added about going to Winnipeg Jets games.

Last year, Bob Odenkirk, who starred in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul and has filmed several movies in Manitoba including Nobody and Nobody 2, said “Winnipeg is an amazing interesting place. It’s very quiet and calm and chill.”

Spokespeople for Winnipeg’s tourism industry have said you can’t buy endorsements like these.

Brent Bellamy, creative director for Number Ten Architectural Group who also writes about architecture and other urban issues in the Free Press, said Doyle’s video was “awesome.

“In Winnipeg, we often forget about what we have,” Bellamy said. “We are predisposed to be self effacing. But he has probably been to every city in Canada 50 times and when someone like him says this we should be proud of it. It’s a great thing for him to do.

“Everyone should be thrilled to have this national historic area in 50 per cent of our downtown. A national historic neighbourhood, in your downtown, is something so special. Other places have national historic buildings… but we have an entire neighbourhood which is a national historic site which is so special.

“When people celebrate it, like he did, I think it helps us realize what a treasure it is.”

Bellamy was also impressed by what Doyle didn’t say.

“It was nice to see a celebrity come to Winnipeg and not complain about the cold, because that is usually what they do. He actually talked about the place itself and, you know, found some really nice niche places to go. That is what I really appreciated.”

Bellamy said Doyle’s video, and impression of the historic area, is also a call to action that Winnipeg should do what it can to continue preserving the Exchange District and its collection of heritage buildings.

“We should be careful to make sure that in 50 years, whoever the Great Big Sea of 50 years from now is, they can come to Winnipeg and say the same thing because it is a great place that we have and we don’t appreciate it enough.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca