Johnston Terminal

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The Johnston Terminal was built as National Storage and Cartage, a subsidiary of Canadian National Railway (CN). In 1930, 30,000 sq ft were added to the warehouse on the west side up to where the modern Travel Manitoba portion was later added. The scale and dedicated function of this former warehouse separate it from the other industrial buildings on the site. The warehouse employs a building technology more often found in earlier generation warehouses in the Exchange District. While it dwarfs the diminutive Children’s Museum beside it, its bulk is balanced by the Inn at the Forks and it triangulates with the other structures around the cobblestone bus loop. The buildings are visually linked through the use of the buff-coloured brick of the railway era, which keys in to the elements of limestone on the ground floor of the Inn.

Large open spaces, wood columns, exposed brickwork, and huge oak freight doors make the building adaptable for viable reuse. Its drawbacks were its monolithic scale and near featureless façades. The exterior was in reasonably good condition, but the interior required work on windows, doors, and fire-rating, buckling floors, and deteriorating plaster. Its many columns would not allow for large open areas.

In redeveloping the Johnston Terminal for retail and restaurant space, the south elevation was integrated into the Forks Market Plaza in a number of ways. A ground-floor skirt of blue glass windows set in red steel frames was added to integrate with the interior. Both the south and north sides were given a curved entrance canopy. The south side is further emphasized by flanking glazed balconies that reach up to the roof, linking the reworked facade to The Plaza and providing extra light. The glass storefront sweeps the length of the building and ties with the Travel Manitoba addition. The terminal’s railway history is represented throughout the interior. Sign posts allude to railway features and there are many elements that speak playfully to its past function and its relationship to the CN.