Circular walkway, massive orb, towers among Portage and Main redesign options

A circular walkway above Portage and Main, a massive orb and a quartet of lookout towers are among eight potential, and in some cases fanciful, redesign options for Winnipeg's most famous intersection.

The City of Winnipeg is seeking public opinions about new designs that would see the existing concrete barricades at Portage Avenue and Main Street replaced by a more esthetically pleasing streetscape.

However, pedestrians would still be barred from crossing at street level.

The city must remove the barricades as part of a multimillion-dollar repair job at the intersection, where a leaky membrane allows surface runoff to damage the underground pedestrian concourse.

The barricade removal is part of an excavation and membrane replacement job that was estimated at $15 million to $20 million in 2019. They'll be replaced as part of a broader redesign intended to revitalize the intersection and make it more welcoming, while still not opening it to pedestrians. 

The city has launched a public opinion survey and will hold a pair of public events in May to solicit feedback on the options.

They include an above-ground walkway called a "sky garden," a hanging garden with no pedestrian access, lookout towers, a row of lights, a row of lights mixed with trees, new paving (both with and without trees) and a "monumental" orb at Portage and Main reminiscent of the laser pyramid floated by former mayor Susan Thompson after she left office.

"Right now we're just at the stages of ideas and opportunity," said Curtis Kowalke, a principal planner for the city. 

"We have a wide variety for ideas above your head, things below your feet, things at the street edge. The idea is to gauge people's reactions to these ideas against the project objectives."

Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham said the city must settle on a design that is both reasonable and exciting, given the prominence of Portage and Main.

"It's our most iconic intersection and so I think there should be something that is somewhat remarkable," said the mayor, adding the design must be completed with four seasons in mind.

None of the options are costed out in the survey, which is open until May 26 and asks, among other questions, whether respondents live or work downtown.

The public events will be held May 10 in the lobby of 201 Portage Ave., at the Portage and Main intersection, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on May 11 in the underground concourse, also from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The survey also asks what other amenities Winnipeggers wish to see at Portage and Main, such as food trucks and Indigenous programming. It also looks at ways to more easily allow pedestrians into the intersection for special events.

Gillingham and Kowalke also noted crossing the intersection must be made more accessible for people who use wheelchairs or have other mobility issues.

Intersection sealed off to people in 1979

Portage and Main closed to pedestrians in 1979. Winnipeggers voted against reopening the intersection in a non-binding plebiscite in 2018.

As a result, none of the proposed designs for Portage and Main calls for reopening the intersection, even though all but one out 39 property owners, businesses and other organizations in the area expressed support for the return of pedestrians during previous rounds of city engagement.

"Most stakeholders are in support of reopening Portage and Main to pedestrians and expressed this throughout the interviews," the city notes in project documents published on Tuesday. 

Adam Dooley, a Winnipeg communications consultant who helped lead the unsuccessful "yes" campaign during the 2018 plebiscite, said he is pleased to see proposed designs allow for at least a little more pedestrian access.

Some of the designs themselves, however, are outlandish, he said.

"If you look back at the main issues in the plebiscite a few years ago, the No. 1 issue we heard all the time was 'it's a waste of money,'" Dooley said in an interview.

"So if it's a waste of money to take them down, then I'm not sure where the rationale is to invest even more money into putting things up."

New motion to reopen intersection

Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) also questioned the practicality of some of the designs. The orb, she said, reminded her of the Thunderdome from Mel Gibson's third Mad Max film.

"What most Winnipeggers will find ironic is that some of these designs allow for people to have pedestrian access to Portage and Main over top. We know we have pedestrian access below. I think the basic question is, why not at grade?" she said.

Rollins authored a motion at City Centre community committee to reopen Portage and Main to pedestrians. The motion described the 2018 plebiscite as a cowardly, undemocratic move for city council, saying politicians are elected to make decisions. 

Dooley said he hopes Winnipeg won't end up with something as dysfunctional as Portage and Main is right now.

"No one's happy with this at all. It's crumbling, it's ugly and I think if we replace that with something similar, we're still going to be unhappy," he said.

"You know the old saw about Winnipeg reaching for mediocrity and falling short? Let's reach for something a little bit better than that and really have an intersection at the centre of our city that we can all be proud of."