Sport meets history

Published in Building Connections:
When Sport Manitoba went looking for a new home, it didn’t expect to find it in a century-old Winnipeg heritage building. But that’s what it chose, and president Jeff Hnatiuk couldn’t be more pleased.
“We’re really proud of the fact that we’re taking what really is a five-storey heritage building and we’re going to turn it into a building that can be used for probably another 100 years,” he says.
The umbrella group for nearly 80 amateur sport organizations intends to make 145 Pacific Avenue its new headquarters by December 2009, when its lease at 200 Main Street expires.
Bockstael Construction is project manager for renovations designed by Number Ten Architectural Group.
The old Smart Bag Company Building at Pacific’s intersection with Lily Street was in the city’s Historical Buildings Inventory, essentially a roster of candidates for the more important Buildings Conservation List (BCL).
The city’s property and development committee added it to the BCL in January as a Grade III building, a classification which gives Sport Manitoba considerable latitude in altering the building to suit its needs.
The city has more than 200 entries to its BCL, which designates structures to be protected from demolition or certain types of alteration.
Buildings on the list are classified by a tri-level grade system. The loftiest category, Grade I, is reserved for the relative few considered “outstanding examples of architectural and historical merit.” The Bank of Commerce Building at 389 Main Street and the neighbouring Bank of Hamilton Building are two examples.
The city allows restoration and maintenance of Grade I buildings’ interior and exterior features, but essentially no alteration.
Grade II and III designations carry fewer restrictions. In Grade III, the exterior is protected from alterations but there are few if any restrictions on interior renovations.
The acquisition 145 Pacific, officially announced in early March, means Sport Manitoba has a place for to develop the Sport for Life Centre as a new home for amateur sports in the province.
First up in Sport Manitoba’s two-part plan for its newly acquired heritage property is $11.5 million in renovations to the five-storey section that was built in 1913. Those changes will prepare the building for administrative offices, the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, and more.
The second, more expensive phase of renovations will involve converting the Smart Bag Company Building’s older three-storey section (built in the 1880s) into a training centre and recreation complex for several sports. Hnatiuk says that phase will commence after funding is secured.
That three-storey section, the building’s northwest portion, is one of the city’s oldest standing examples of the Romanesque Revival-style architecture that was popular for several decades in warehouse and commercial districts across North America.
Sport Manitoba was looking for a downtown location big enough for office space plus the multi-purpose fieldhouse the organization has never had when a realtor “pointed us in the direction of the site on Pacific,” Hnatiuk says.
The organization liked what it saw but soon discovered the building’s Grade II restrictions on development, and encountered opposition from heritage advocates who were concerned the structure would be demolished.
Soon after the city’s re-designation of the property to Grade III, the sports organization proceeded with a renovation plan that “really does justice to the historical requirements and fits in well with the area,” Hnatiuk says. Workers were on site this spring.
The neighbourhood includes museums, making it a suitable location for the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame.
With a Hall of Fame and a multi-purpose fieldhouse, Sport Manitoba expects its home in the northeast section of the historic Exchange District could draw 400,000 visits per year.
“We’re excited with what this will do for the area,” Hnatiuk says. “It could have a huge impact.”
Eight buildings were added to the BCL in 2008. All are classified as Grade II or III.
The Robinson, Little and Company Building at 54 Arthur Street is, like 145 Pacific, a brick and stone warehouse structure in the Romanesque Revival style. Designed by architect James H. Cadham, the six-storey building is 106 years old.
Just down the street, at Arthur’s intersection with McDermot Street, is the R.J. Whittia and Company Building, of the same style as the Robinson building. Its original four-storey structure, completed just before the dawning of the 20th century, was also designed by Cadham; additions in 1904 and 1911 made it the seven-storey building you see today.
One block away, at 250 McDermot, stands the 111-year-old Merchants Building. Originally built for a wholesale hardware business, this sturdy Exchange District icon also was designed by Cadham in the Romanesque Revival style.
The three-storey Hample Building, 271 Portage Avenue, is named after a prominent business family that ran a butcher and catering business at that address. For 42 years ending in 1989 its ground floor was occupied by People’s Credit Jewellers. The brick-faced building, built in 1906, has been vacant in recent years.
Two churches designed in 19th-century Gothic Revival style were added to the list last year: Augustine United Church on River Avenue and the Holy Trinity Anglican Church across Donald Street from the MTS Centre. Drawing inspiration from medieval architecture, Gothic Revival was a popular style for churches and is the style of the Parliament buildings in Ottawa.
St. Michael Ukrainian Orthodox Church at 110 Disraeli Street was added to the list in March 2008. It has served as a place of worship for two faith groups: Anglicans for its first 16 years, its present denomination since 1918.
When it was built more than 105 years ago, the Queen Anne-style building at 159 Mayfair Avenue was one of Fort Rouge’s luxury homes. Originally owned by regional tycoon John Duncan McArthur, it’s now occupied by Macdonald Youth Services and Marymound Inc.