Notice

If you sat down to design a modern city of a million people, you wouldn’t start by putting a giant rail yard in the center, with its radiating network of train tracks that always require construction, maintenance and replacement bridges and underground passages to cross them. .

Of course, we don’t have the luxury of designing Winnipeg from scratch, and trains have long been a reality in our city – but just because something exists doesn’t mean it has to be there for always.

For decades we’ve dreamed of moving Winnipeg’s railways, and for just as long we’ve been hesitant about how much it might cost. In 1970, a formal study was carried out to finally quantify this idea. The project was approved by the city council but was never implemented because it was considered too expensive. The cost came to $75 million – proving that the best time to implement a great idea is yesterday and the second best time is today.

Recognizing this, Manitoba’s provincial government recently announced it had tapped former federal minister Lloyd Axworthy to lead a new study into railway relocation. Axworthy has long been recognized as a man of vision, unafraid of major challenges, ideal for the position.

It will come as no surprise if his study reveals that rail relocation will be extremely expensive and take a very long time.

Many will shoot stabs at these ideas, and it will be easier to do nothing, but we live in a city that built a whole new river bed to protect us from flooding.

At the time, it was the second largest earthmoving project in human history, behind the Panama Canal. We were then courageous; we can be again. We don’t have to look further than our own downtown to see how a bold vision for an industrial rail yard can transform a community. The Forks has gone from a polluted wasteland to a public jewel of Western Canada and the social heart of our city.

North America is full of examples of cities that took on a big idea despite seemingly insurmountable odds and, instead of flinching, embraced a transformational vision. Most of these plans took decades to implement, faced opposition, changes, setbacks, failures and cost overruns, but all redefined their cities forever.

Toronto’s railway grounds were a massive downtown rail yard, the size of Winnipeg’s, that defined the city for nearly a century. Anyone who lived there in the 1960s would not believe that a heavily polluted industrial zone, almost as large as the city center itself, could one day become a glittering foreground of the city’s modern postcard image. When the railroads decided to become more efficient and merge into a common facility on the outskirts of the city, an ambitious redevelopment plan was created. The CN Tower stood alone for over 10 years as a remnant of the failure of that plan.

After several decades, having stumbled upon many other failed projects, the area has become a forest of glass skyscrapers, sports and cultural buildings and two urban neighborhoods that are home to more than 40,000 people, and several thousand more. others to come.

A similar story can be told in Vancouver, where for nearly a century the False Creek Inlet was a giant, sprawling, polluted industrial site in the heart of the city.

It was home to large rail yards, steel plants, manufacturing plants, sawmills, and shipping docks. At the beginning of the 1970s, the city became aware of the potential of the territory and embarked on a vast and ambitious project of purchase, expropriation and relocation of industries for redevelopment purposes. Originally used as a site for Expo 86, the land has been transformed into a cosmopolitan urban district. This includes the former Olympic Village, which is now a modern, visionary neighborhood of mid-rise buildings, celebrated as one of the most environmentally sustainable communities in the world. On the site 50 years ago, its future would have seemed impossible, but today it’s just as impossible to imagine Vancouver without False Creek – its seawall, its parks, its glittering residential buildings and the tourist magnet of Granville Island.

Sacramento can serve as an inspiring current model for Winnipeg. California’s capital is redeveloping an urban rail yard once known as the largest industrial complex west of the Mississippi. Remediation of the contaminated soil took nearly 20 years, but when completed, it became America’s largest infill development project. When completed, the site will have 12,000 new residences – as well as parks, offices, retail, hotels, sports and cultural buildings – in a development that will double the size of downtown Sacramento. A courageous decision made a generation ago is beginning to come to life and will forever redefine the city.

The Winnipeg rail relocation study will likely reveal smaller moves with valuable impacts, such as moving a branch line or closing a smaller rail yard to create redevelopment opportunities.

Pursuing them will be important, but we shouldn’t be afraid to pursue bigger dreams like other cities – and we – have done in the past.

Imagine vibrant new urban neighborhoods that bridge historic divides, creating jobs, affordable housing, economic opportunity, sustainable growth and improved quality of life. Ribbons of green space stretch across the city, connecting communities and creating public spaces that bring people together. Walking paths, bike paths, light rail corridors, all create a healthy, connected new city. These are the opportunities available to us.

Axworthy’s conclusions will be discouraging, but our city needs a big idea, a new trajectory, one that is not for us, but for our children and grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren.

Brent Bellamy is creative director at Number Ten Architectural Group.

Brent Bellamy
Journalist

Brent Bellamy is a principal design architect for Number Ten Architectural Group.

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