Landmarks Unique and iconic Winnipeg locations

Landmarks is a monthly feature in which columnist Alison Gillmor explores unique and iconic Winnipeg buildings and locations.  

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Landmarks is a monthly feature in which columnist Alison Gillmor explores unique and iconic Winnipeg buildings and locations.  

 


 

Polo Park has weathered the whims of consumer culture

Winnipeg Free Press file
Polo Park reopened after a refurbishment on Aug. 13, 1986.

Posted:

In a strange twist of design history, the man who helped develop the North American shopping mall, Vienna-born architect and planner Victor Gruen, later repudiated it.

Read full story

 

Quirky Fort Garry neighbourhood combines urban planning and nature

Jodi Pratt cross country skiing in Wildwood Park, Sunday, April 14, 2013. (TREVOR HAGAN/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Posted:

In popular culture, planned suburban subdivisions are often used as a kind of visual shorthand for conformity and rigidity, for the slow death of the soul. Suburbia, at least according to the movies and TV, is bland, beige and uniform.

Read full story

 

Circular condo building looks spacey, but shape is grounded in practicality

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
The 62M Condo is project located on MacDonald Avenue near the Disraeli Bridge.

Posted:

I’m always interested in buildings that get nicknames. Usually these monikers indicate affection, occasionally the opposite, but they always mean people are paying attention.

Read full story

 

Précieux-Sang church fuses together modernist design and religious renewal

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Precious Blood Roman Catholic Church in Winnipeg on Tuesday, May 22, 2018. This is the 50th year of worship inside the unusual building.

Posted:

On my way to visit l’ Eglise du Précieux-Sang in St. Boniface, I got lost. There was road construction, and I somehow missed my turn. I managed to find my way, though, when I glimpsed that distinctive spiralling roofline in the distance.

Read full story

 

WAG's angular architecture combines form, function in a building both timeless and of its time

ken gigliotti  winnipeg free press  dec4 2002 feature on wpg architecture- Winnipeg Art Gallery WAG ,(old beater cars parked  at base  could not get better shot as building is underconstruction )-kg

Posted:

Asked to talk about the Winnipeg Art Gallery building, Stephen Borys pauses for a moment.

Read full story

 

Luxuries, amenities put to many uses during life of Academy Road building

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Winnipeg architect Max Blankstein’s design for the Uptown Theatre referenced the Moorish style, using architectural elements from the western Islamic world mixed with some Spanish forms.

Posted:

The Uptown Lofts, once the Academy Uptown Lanes and before that the Uptown Theatre, remind us that buildings can have long, varied and sometimes unexpected lives. The recent mixed-use renovation, which combines commercial spaces and residential apartments, is sleek, clean and contemporary, but it rests on layers of local memory and architectural fantasy.

Read full story

 

The Fort Garry Hotel hearkens back to a more glamorous time

The Fort Garry Hotel was one of the tallest buildings in Winnipeg when it was constructed in 1913. (City of Winnipeg archives)

Posted:

When you’re wedged into a middle seat on a packed airplane, sustained only by bad coffee and a packet of pretzels, glamorous travel can seem like an impossible dream.

Read full story

 

Curvy, confident Winnipeg Clinic appears to be reaching for a better tomorrow

ALEX LUPUL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
The Winnipeg Clinic with Its distinctive curved lines and layered canopies make it a familiar landmark in Winnipeg’s downtown.

Posted:

Nicknames can be a sign of fondness and familiarity, so it means something that people often affectionately call the Winnipeg Clinic “the Jetsons building.”

Read full story

Alison Gillmor

Alison Gillmor
Writer

Studying at the University of Winnipeg and later Toronto’s York University, Alison Gillmor planned to become an art historian. She ended up catching the journalism bug when she started as visual arts reviewer at the Winnipeg Free Press in 1992.

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

‘You’re just feeling so emotional’: Americans reunite with loved ones as the Canadian border reopens

Edward Keenan - Washington Bureau Chief, Toronto Star 6 minute read Preview

‘You’re just feeling so emotional’: Americans reunite with loved ones as the Canadian border reopens

Edward Keenan - Washington Bureau Chief, Toronto Star 6 minute read Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021

Americans waiting to come to Canada finally got their wish as the border reopened.

Read
Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021

Police watchdog clears off-duty Mountie who handcuffed teen after prank

Tyler Searle 5 minute read Monday, Jun. 1, 2026

An off-duty RCMP officer “displayed questionable judgment” but will not face charges for chasing down a group of teenagers who pranked his home last fall, handcuffing and traumatizing a 13-year-old girl.

“Despite the fact that (the officer’s) actions displayed questionable judgment and seem to be extreme, considering the entirety of the evidence, I am not in a position to say that his actions are criminal,” Bruce Sychuk, acting civilian director of the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, wrote in his final report on the incident, released Monday.

“What is clear is that (the girl) continues to suffer trauma from the incident.”

Manitoba’s police watchdog was tapped to review the Oct. 19, 2025, incident after the unnamed officer was arrested by members of the Brandon Police Service, who responded to a 911 call at a home in the western Manitoba city.

Climate change a clear and present danger to the already-shrinking polar bear population

Sarah Lawrynuik 18 minute read Preview

Climate change a clear and present danger to the already-shrinking polar bear population

Sarah Lawrynuik 18 minute read Friday, Oct. 30, 2020

The rocks fly out from beneath the tires of Angela Mak’s Ford F-150 as she cruises down the gravel road along the coast of Hudson Bay just east of Churchill.

It’s a routine. Every day from July until November she comes out here looking for polar bears.

Mak and her husband Bill Fong are originally from Hong Kong, but moved to Vancouver in the early ‘90s. In 2017 they travelled to Churchill during bear season — October and November, when the bears move out onto the sea ice.

After that one trip, their hearts were set on Churchill. First they bought a house in town to host friends and other guests, then they bought a small hotel when it went on the market in 2019.

Read
Friday, Oct. 30, 2020

Alzheimer’s has sent my mother back in time

Pam Frampton 5 minute read Preview

Alzheimer’s has sent my mother back in time

Pam Frampton 5 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

My mother does a lot of time-travelling — time-shifting, the Alzheimer’s Society calls it.

I wonder how it feels to be in the present at one moment and then suddenly catapulted deep into the past. Is it a jolting experience or a smooth transition to go back and forth in time?

Mom will never be able to tell me. There is so much she can never tell me now.

She can still recite her children’s names when prompted, but she doesn’t ask us about our lives. Instead, she talks about her younger siblings, their grandfather who was hard of hearing, the isolated place where they used to live whose inhabitants were resettled nearly 60 years ago.

Read
2:01 AM CDT

Today’s horoscope

Georgia Nicols 4 minute read Preview

Today’s horoscope

Georgia Nicols 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

MOON ALERT: Caution. Avoid shopping (except food and gas) and important decisions from 5 a.m. until 10:15 p.m. After that, the moon moves from Leo into Virgo.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

This is a fantastic day to shmooz and romance is also favoured. In fact, this is most romantic day of the week. Intimate relationships will be affectionate and exciting. Enjoy socializing, sporting events and fun activities with kids. The arts are blessed.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Read
Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

Gov. Gen. Arbour embarks on first official visit to Manitoba

Chris Kitching 2 minute read Preview

Gov. Gen. Arbour embarks on first official visit to Manitoba

Chris Kitching 2 minute read Updated: 1:04 PM CDT

Gov. Gen. Louise Arbour began her first official visit to Manitoba on Wednesday with a welcoming ceremony before private meetings with Premier Wab Kinew, Indigenous leaders and others.

Arbour’s three-day stop in Winnipeg and Gimli will focus on activities related to civil engagement, youth and reconciliation while she also spends time meeting with cadets and members of the Royal Canadian Air Force, an official itinerary said.

Arbour was greeted by Lt.-Gov. Anita Neville, Premier Wab Kinew, Chief Justice Marianne Rivolan, Speaker Tom Lindsey and Mayor Scott Gillingham as she entered the Manitoba Legislative Building at 12:15 p.m., after meeting privately with Neville at Government House, the official residence of the lieutenant governor.

“Bienvenue au Manitoba,” Kinew said while welcoming Arbour.

Read
Updated: 1:04 PM CDT