Planning design 1

Envisioning age-friendly towns and neighbourhoods

This studio serves as an introduction to community and neighbourhood planning and the basic principles of urban design. Through fieldwork, documentation and analysis, readings and lectures students were introduced to a variety of concepts and skills. Students undertake group and individual work that lead to the production of presentations to the community, final reports, precedent research, a community planning/design project, and posters that documented the process and outcomes of their work.

The specific focus of the term is to produce visions of age-friendly human environments, in urban, suburban and rural settings. The first of the baby boom generation started to retire in 2011, and its corresponding population bubble will rise to the top of population pyramids. Baby boomers are known as a well-educated, vocal generation that has high expectations for the lives that they lead. But there are questions about whether cities and towns are prepared for this impending demographic change, and whether they meet the needs and desires of older adults in general. Is suitable housing available? Are transportation systems adequate? Can older adults remain independent and active as they age, or will they become an increasing large burden on health and social services?

The World Health Organization (WHO) (2007) states that an age-friendly city:

encourages active aging by optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age. In practical terms, an age-friendly city adapts its structures and services to be accessible to and inclusive of older people with varying needs and capacities.

Unfortunately, none of Manitoba’s cities and towns can claim to be age-friendly. However, programs like the Age-friendly Manitoba Initiative and the Age-friendly Communities—Active Aging Alliance (based at the University of Manitoba’s Centre on Aging) are attempting to change this. More than 70 municipalities, towns and cities have expressed interest in the Provincial program and are establishing committees and working groups to address concerns. The Alliance - a Community University Research Alliance (CURA) - has brought together researchers and community-based organizations with the modest goal of making Manitoba the most age-friendly province in Canada.

This studio examines different human environments—sometimes urban, suburban, and/or rural —to determine how age-friendly they are. It studies precedents for improving the physical form and services available and accessible to older adults in other places. And finally, the studio students illustrated how to improve the age-friendliness of the study locations. This work is documented in posters that will act as a resource for the study communities and for others that would like to address similar issues.

Fall 2018

Communities: Brandon, Selkirk and Winkler MB
Instructors: Dr. Richard Milgrom and Lissie Rappaport MCP

Brandon report
Selkirk report
Winkler report

Fall 2014

Communities: Portage la Prairie and University of Manitoba (Fort Garry Campus and Southwood Lands)
Instructors: Dr. Richard Milgrom and Molly Johnson

Portage la Praire report
University of Manitoba report

Fall 2013

Communities: Beausejour, Gladstone, and Tyndall/Garson
Instructors: Dr. Richard Milgrom and Molly Johnson

Beausejour report
Gladstone report
Tyndall/Garson report

Fall 2012

Communities: Arborg, St. James, and South Osborne
Instructors: Dr. Richard Milgrom

Arborg report
St. James report
South Osborne report

Fall 2011

Communities: Corydon Village, South St. Vital, and Morden
Instructors: Dr. Richard Milgrom and Scott McCullough MCP

Corydon Village report
South St. Vital report
Morden report

Fall 2010

Communities: Osborne Village, Fort Richmond, and Pinawa
Instructors: Dr. Richard Milgrom and Scott McCullough MCP

Osborne Village presentation boards
Fort Richmond presentation boards
Pinawa presentation boards

Osborne Village Cultural Centre

Students researched other community arts and cultural centres across North America. 

Fall 2007

Selkirk Avenue

Students completed studies of Selkirk and other Winnipeg neighbourhood Main Streets.

Old Grace hospital site, Wolseley

Working in three groups, students developed and presented proposals for the Old Grace Hospital site at the corner of Evanson Street and Preston Avenue in Winnipeg’s Wolseley neighbourhood. Design proposals drew on the knowledge of the neighbourhood that students developed through a series of analytical exercises. This included site specific analysis to understand its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT), and the development of a clear set of goals and objectives for their scenarios. 

As part of the process, students ran a mock community meeting and were responsible for designing the activities that were used to engage the community members who were present.

The final product included a set of posters explaining each of the proposals in the context of the neighbourhood.

Fall 2005

Instructors: Dr. Richard Milgrom and Molly Johnson

Group 1 final boards
Group 2 final boards
Group 3 final boards

Some students from this studio assisted with the running of The Old Grace Hospital Site Charrette sponsored by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) in the October 2006. 

CMHC Research Highlight

Planning design 2

Winter 2008

South Basin Lake Manitoba
Instructors: Dr. Ian Wight, James Platt MCIP, Robert Nicol and Don Malinowski

In Winter of 2008, first-year Masters students in the City Planning program at the University of Manitoba were given a unique challenge. The regional studio course was focused on developing a secondary plan document for the ”South Basin Lake Manitoba Planning Area’, which is part of the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie. Students worked in collaboration with the RM Council, the Portage la Prairie District Planning Board, and the District Office of Manitoba Intergovernmental Affairs (changed to Manitoba Local Government in 2009).

Located just north of Portage la Prairie, the study area represents one of the planning district’s most unique natural formations. Contained within its borders are the Delta and Lake Francis marshes – combined, these marshes contain 54,000 acres of land and water, and are considered among the finest fresh-water marshes in the world. The study area also contains some of Manitoba’s richest agricultural lands. While the Portage la Prairie Planning District had recently drafted a development plan for the entire rural municipality of Portage la Prairie, it was felt that the study area required a document that would outline some more specific development guidelines, due to its many unique characteristics. Students were given the task of identifying and evaluating the planning challenges facing the South Basin Lake Manitoba area at present, and developing policy guidelines that would guide growth in the area in future years. The studio used several green frameworks to guide the secondary plan development.

As a complement to the studio course, a GIS component was built-in to the project. Students completed three GIS ”modules,' in which they were able to learn GIS techniques while working with data from the South Basin Lake Manitoba planning area. The GIS component was led by University of Manitoba City Planning students Erin Ferguson and James Moore.

Fall 2006

Niverville MB

Instructors: Dr. Sheri Blake and Larissa Panachenko

In Winter 2006, students worked with the Town of Niverville, located southeast of Winnipeg. Students explored Integrated Development Plans, seeking to integrate economic concerns with environmental social and governance issues. Initially students explored the region in general, identifying resources, heritage, economies, and governance of the past, present and future. They then examined how the culture of different settlements, including First Nations, French Parish, Mennonite, and Ukrainian, influenced development patterns. As they explored Niverville in more detail, students developed a range of participatory planning techniques and tested them in a Town Hall setting, through a mail questionnaire, and on-site workshops with seniors, students, business owners and other stakeholders. Final documents, tied together through an integrated development plan framework, explored issues and strategies for active transportation, building community bonds, housing and site design, affordable housing, rural transportation, tourism, and town development. The final work was presented to the CAO, Mayor, and Councilors, together with interested residents, and various politicians and CAOs from surrounding communities.

Planning design 4

Indigenous planning / First Nations

Instructor: Dr. Janice Barry

Indigenous peoples have done planning since time immemorial. These ways of organizing social, cultural and natural worlds have often been overshadowed by European systems of planning. Although European systems of planning have contributed to the marginalization of Indigenous communities in Canada and other settler-states across the globe, many Indigenous communities have found that these systems can be adapted to suit their needs.

The Indigenous Planning Studio (Planning Studio IV) partners students with Indigenous communities who are reclaiming and reimagining planning in ways that contribute positively to the development of their communities. In the studio, City Planning students work with a First Nation on a project selected by the community. Projects have ranged from cultural mapping, land use planning, housing surveys and community planning.

Throughout the project work, students work closely with a community planning coordinator who ensures the First Nation maintains direct community control over how the planning project is developed and shared. Together, students and community members build knowledge and exchange skills and approaches.

The department has formally partnered with several Manitoba First Nations and engaged over 50 students since 2010. These partnerships often span several years.

Indigenous Design and Planning Network

The Indigenous Design & Planning Network is an informal association of First Nation partners, interested community members, students, technical experts, university faculty and others -- anyone with a passion to learn, share, and network about planning. Facilitated by the Department of City Planning, the Network creates opportunities to share and build planning knowledge.

The Department of City Planning also helps to coordinate Network Gatherings, welcome past, current and potential partners to share knowledge and build on the momentum of community planning initiatives taking place in communities.

Connections: space, time, and culture at The Forks

Instructors: Dr. Ian Skelton and Dr. Richard Milgrom

This studio raised questions and addressed issues related to urban aboriginal communities and urban design. The goal of the studio did not be to devise a plan or a set of design guidelines, but to explored the issues and illustrated the ramifications of different approaches. This exploration led to the development of materials that could be used in processes of public education, and that could fuel further discussions about the directions that development should take. The Forks North Portage Partnership sponsored the studio and might carry its work forward at a later date.

An opportunity for the type of exploration conducted in this studio arose at the end of 2008 when The Forks North Portage Partnership considered changes that would have to happen on The Forks site to accommodate the new Canadian Museum of Human Rights. Rather than just addressing the need for additional parking, the Partnership suggested that some consideration should be given to the provision of housing as well. This studio started with the assumption that housing can be an appropriate use for the site, but will seek to place the design of specific built interventions into broader physical and socio-cultural contexts.

In articulating its broad concerns with urban aboriginal communities and urban design, the studio gave particular attention to addressing connections. The Forks is separated from the rest of the city at present, by the CNR railway berm to the west, the rivers to the east and south, and by a major roadway to the north. Although The Forks pitches itself as a special place in the centre of the city, should it be better integrated with the rest of downtown? And, if so, how?

Questions about the connections, however, go beyond the purely physical. Urban design is concerned with the configuration of the public realm, and like all planning and design, is value laden. Other questions are implied. Is the “public” a useful category for analysis and design? Whose values are represented in the physical environment? Whose identities are expressed? We are going to specifically ask these questions in relation to aboriginal and First Nations communities in Winnipeg and Manitoba. In doing so we drew on the precedents and principles in the emergent area of indigenous planning.

Undergraduate

Landscape + Urbanism Studio 5

EVLU 4012 Studio 5: Winnipeg General Strike
Instructor: Dr. Sheri Blake
Fall 2011

The Winnipeg General Strike is considered by some to be a critical historical event, not only for Winnipeg but for Canada as well. Yet, Winnipeg contains only a couple of obscure memorials to the event, Some students in Landscape + Urbanism Studio 5, Possible Urbanisms, explored the background issues that led to the Strike and focused their final projects on a riverfront site fought over by developers wanting to build a boutique hotel, condo owners who believed the same developer had lied to them about retaining their unobstructed view of the river, and a small group of activists referred to as the Friends of Victoria Park, who wanted to build a memorial park celebrating the Strike events, together with supporters of the Selkirk Settlers who also considered the site of value relevant to one of the first European settlements in western Canada. Students were able to attend a four-hour planning hearing and explore the competing views of these constituent groups, with the outcome favouring the development of the hotel. In their final projects, students were allowed to explore the site with or without the soon to be built hotel, in support of the Strike or not, or take another position about the development of the site.

Landscape + Urbanism Studio 6

EVLU 4014 Studio 6: Haiti Ideas Challenge
Winter 2011

Department of City Planning news

Planners call for safety overhaul of Winnipeg crosswalks - time to design our crosswalks for "human error." CBC News. 3 October 2019. (crosswalks and pedestrian safety)

Winnipeg planning department's troubles reflected in the building it occupies. CBC News. 17 August 2019. (City of Winnipeg's planning department)

Time for Winnipeg to park cars, create community with people-friendly pop-ups. CBC News. 27 July 2019. (Parking lots and pop-ups)

Lessons from the loo: what we can learn about making cities better. CBC News. 30 June 2019. (Public toilets)

Reimagining Point Douglas: how the historic district could become a model for a changing Winnipeg. CBC News. 22 April 2019. (Historic districts and Point Douglas)

Winnipeg's Bay building presents an opportunity to rethink connections between heritage, reconciliation. CBC News. 31 March 2019. (The Hudson's Bay building, heritage and reconciliation)

On Foot and Underground at Canada’s Crossroads. Ian Austin. New York Times. 26 October 2018. (Portage and Main)

Winnipeggers to decide what the future holds for Portage and Main. CBC News, The National.  23 October 2018. (Portage and Main)

'The forest is gone': City reviewing removal of last trees from forest on Parker Lands - Fulton Grove developer says he didn't need a permit to remove trees. Shane Gibson. CBC News. 13 October 2018 (Parker Lands)

Power at the Perimeter: Recent residential growth has brought much-needed vibrancy to Winnipeg's downtown, but unbridled development to the city's edges and beyond creates very different priorities for civic election candidates. Ben Waldman. Winnipeg Free Press. 28 September 2018. (Suburban electoral power)

'Got to have some courage': Getting support for big public projects a challenge in Winnipeg, experts say.  CBC News. 16 September 2018. (Portage and Main)

True North deal to scrap affordable housing requirement sets a disturbing precedent: advocate. Austin Grabish. CBC News 16 September 2018. (True North Square)

No one showed us what Portage and Main could become — so it will stay the same, urban planners say. Ian Froese, CBC News. 12 September 2018. (Portage and Main)

Mayoral candidate Motkaluk wants to spend $581M to expand, electrify transit fleet. Bartley Kives. CBC News.  14 August 2018. (Transit)

'A desperate time:' Why Portage and Main was closed to pedestrians in the first place. Darren Bernhardt. CBC News. 1 July 2018. (Portage and Main)

Can't imagine what a pedestrian-friendly Portage and Main would be like? Here's a glimpse.  Darren Bernhardt. CBC News. 9 June 2018. (Portage and Main)

Editorial: High hopes for a low-rise downtown. Winnipeg Free Press, 23 April 2018. (Urban Design Studio 2018 – Downtown Redevelopment)

Getting to the core of the matter: Architecture students offer vision to attract thousands of residents downtown.  Winnipeg Free Press 18 April 2018. B1 (Urban Design Studio 2018 – Downtown Redevelopment)