Winnipeg committee grants heritage protection to West Kildonan Library
CBC News | Posted: January 11, 2023 4:50 AM | Last Updated: January 11, 2023
Same committee met neighbourhood resistance after mulling relocation last year
A library that narrowly avoided closure less than a year ago now has protections in place to further secure its future.
City council's standing committee on property and development has granted heritage protection to the West Kildonan Library, which opened in 1967. The committee voted unanimously to pass the motion Monday.
"It was thrilling and it was exciting and I think most of all it was just confirmation of everything that we fought for as a community," said Daniel Guenther, a member of the Friends of the West Kildonan Library Coalition, who was at the committee meeting.
"It was just official recognition of what we already knew, was that this was an important historical landmark for our community."
The status means the library is protected from major alterations and demolition.
The move stands in contrast to last spring when the fate of the building as a library hung in the balance.
In May 2022, the same committee had considered moving the library into the nearby Garden City Shopping Centre.
There were plans in the works as early as 2012 to replace the structure with a new facility with more parking for library visitors. By 2020, the cost of doing that had the city instead looking into moving the library to an existing city-owned building.
When the city couldn't find a municipally owned space that fit the library's needs, it issued an expression of interest to property owners in the Old Kildonan and Mynarski wards that could host the branch. The property committee landed on Garden City Shopping Centre as the next best place for the library.
But when news got out about the pending move last year, advocates and people in the neighbourhood protested to keep the library in the existing West Kildonan Library building.
"Nine months ago we were facing closure of this building, so it did really seem far off to think not only saving the library but being able to protect the building, and the architecture itself, for future generations," Guenther, who is also a member of the Garden City Residents' Association, told Up to Speed host Faith Fundal on Tuesday.
"We've now completely turned the tide through a lot of collaboration."
Guenther and others have also been calling for more investments and improvements to the space. He said the city recently put out a request for proposals for upgrades, all of which will have to preserve the original modernist design components in the space.
"It's very warm and it's very inviting and it uses almost all local materials throughout the branch," said Guenther said.
"This is a very important example of those clean modernist architectural styles but done in a very Winnipeg ... warm, friendly and inviting way."
Guenther said the win serves an example moving forward for other neighbourhoods that could face similar pressures to shutter beloved old spaces.
"This sets the precedent that ... we can protect those, because we know that buildings can be beautiful, that buildings are important when people have emotional attachments to them," he said.