Buildings
170 McDermot Avenue
| Formerly: | Winnipeg Centre Car Park |
|---|---|
| Address: | 170 McDermot Avenue |
| Use: | Parking garage |
| Original Use: | Parking garage |
| Constructed: | 1963 |
| Architects: | Waisman Ross & Associates |
| Contractors: | Peter Leitch Construction Ltd. Canada Cement |
More Information
Located at Rorie and McDermot Avenue, in Winnipeg's Exchange District, this five-storey (with an additional partially recessed subterranean level) free-standing parkade was built to house 294 vehicles. Prominently featured in a 1965 advertisement from Canada Cement Company Ltd., the structure was constructed of site-cast reinforced concrete.
Initially, parking garages were designed and constructed similar to warehouses and other inhabitable structures, later evolving into a system of open decks and ramps more closely aligned to the design and construction of lightweight bridges. The relatively large interior open spans in this garage illustrate this shift.
170 McDermot Avenue has two distinct, yet connected masses; a separate curved ramp connects internally to a more horizontally-driven parking structure. The building is large in proportion, utilitarian in character and unornamented.
Design Characteristics
- Plan area: 17,441 sq. ft. (1,620.27 sq. m)
- Gross floor area: 104,646 sq. ft. (9,721.61 sq. m)
- 5-storeys high.
- Originally operated by Northwest Management Company.
- Parking garage is largely geometric with a large spiral car drive to access the different levels of parking.
Sources
- Best, Patricia and Ann Shortell. A Matter of Trust: Power and Privlege in Canada's Trust Companies. Toronto: Viking/Penguin Books Ltd., 1985.
- Cash, Martin. "Grain Exchange Building sold." Winnipeg Free Press, 10 January 1991. 13.
- Krotz, Larry. "No boom in city was a boon." Winnipeg Real Estate News (November 22 1985) 1-3.
- Wally Dennison, "Warehouse district undergoes renaissance," Winnipeg Free Press, October 12, 1984, p. 55.
- Greater Winnipeg Industrial Topics (Metropolitan Winnipeg edition) 23,10 1963.
- City of Winnipeg. Minutes of the City Council. No.22 (7 August 1962), Minute no. 994. [Approval to proceed with an encroachment agreement between the City and the Developer of 170 McDermot Avenue involving the extension of a parkade at a minimum clearance of 13.5' over part of the east-west public lane in the block bound by Main, Rorie, Lombard and McDermot]