Duets – Winnipeg Free Press

Lights and ice prove to be a winning combination at The Forks during the winter months. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Winnipeg embraces its identity as a winter city -- and the world takes notice

Matthew Carreau 17 minute read Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018

The mercury has dropped below zero and the first dusting of snow covers the ground: welcome to another winter season in Winnipeg. Winter is often seen as an impediment to creating a vibrant city — something to be shovelled away, endured and managed rather than embraced.

However, in Winnipeg, a shift in thinking about winter is taking hold as our creative communities embrace the unique opportunities for place-making that winter provides.

Winnipeg is now at the centre of a growing global “Winter City” movement that is seeing northern cities explore ways to plan and design their urban infrastructure in a manner that is adapted to the needs of a cold climate.

This includes streets and public spaces designed to be comfortable and accessible in cold weather, and creating memorable winter experiences and events that bring people together, outside.

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Cultivating community, one garden at a time

Kristen Shaw 17 minute read Preview

Cultivating community, one garden at a time

Kristen Shaw 17 minute read Friday, Jul. 27, 2018

Though it’s pushing 30 degrees, there are several gardeners braving the afternoon sun to tend their plots at the Riverview Gardens. Six local garden experts and enthusiasts pick a shady spot under a large willow tree to explore the ins and outs of community gardening.

Maureen Krauss is a principal with HTFC Planning & Design and an avid home gardener. In the late 1990s, while working with FortWhyte Alive, she travelled to Boston to learn about community-shared agriculture (CSA), a model brought back to Winnipeg as a means to introduce urban agriculture to underserved youth. “Starting FortWhyte Farms was a big piece of the sustainability puzzle,” she says. “We were teaching environmental education, but we also wanted to embark into social enterprise.”

Ryan Pengelly splits his time between farming on a mixed farm with his family and being a community planner with HTFC, working in rural and northern locales with Indigenous communities on large-scale development projects. Currently, he grows quinoa and other grains, selling at various farmers markets and directly to restaurants around the city.

Nik Friesen-Hughes became interested in gardening while studying Greenspace Management at Red River College and Urban Environments at the University of Winnipeg. He’s been a volunteer with the Sustainable South Osborne Community Co-op People Garden for the past five years. He gardened with Urban Eatin’ Landscapes for the past three years as a designer and contractor, and now consults on and designs gardens independently with Shannon Bahuaud.

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Friday, Jul. 27, 2018

Setting the stage

19 minute read Preview

Setting the stage

19 minute read Saturday, May. 26, 2018

It’s an unseasonably warm early May afternoon and the Winnipeg Jets are only hours away from drawing thousands to the downtown core for Game 4 against the Nashville Predators when six people gather at a picnic table in Old Market Square to discuss public stages and performance spaces. Around them, food trucks set up for the lunch rush, while a group of four play Frisbee in front of the Cube, its stage lying in wait behind closed metal curtains. Sweaters are tied around waists or discarded on picnic tables as the space fills with Winnipeggers eager to soak up as much sun as they can on the first summery day of the year.

As Winnipeg’s outdoor festival season approaches, Maureen Krauss, principal with HTFC Planning & Design, opens the conversation by asking about some of their earliest outdoor performance memories.

Monica Giesbrecht, also a principal at HTFC, was born in Timisoara, Romania and has fond memories of taking in avant garde performances with her family in Piata Victoriei, a plaza outside the Romanian National Opera where her father worked. “In Europe, it’s common for many different artistic forms to be combined into one stage and the stage is often set within a large town square, very much like Old Market Square,” she explains. “On May Day everything would come outside and there’d be a festival. I was about five the first time my entire extended family went.”

Lois MacDonald, General Manager of Brandon Riverbank Inc., is currently overseeing the redevelopment of Festival Park in Brandon following two devastating floods. The park plan, which is in construction, includes a new outdoor stage and amphitheatre with seating for 3,000. She has similar memories, though in the more familiar setting of Minnedosa. “When I was a kid, it was our town centennial — a big outdoor gathering where everyone was there in a cute little park down by the rolling river; my whole family and everyone we knew in town. It was one of those really neat small town community experiences.”

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Saturday, May. 26, 2018

Maps affirm people, space and place through visual representation

Jason Syvixay 21 minute read Preview

Maps affirm people, space and place through visual representation

Jason Syvixay 21 minute read Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017

Whether it is a line drawing of coastlines or monochromatic and punchy text visualizing the best places of a neighbourhood, the business of map-making is on-trend. Maps are one of the most powerful communication tools in our society and as we become more visual through social media, the once-ancient technology has evolved to meet a growing demand. The public has become increasingly consumed with the maps of cities, choosing to put them on display in their living rooms or offices, or to offer as gifts for friends and family.

Are these commercial maps educating and informing a person’s understanding of a place — or are they simply decorative? This question about contemporary maps was one of many posed to HTFC Planning & Design’s Tim Hogan and Dustin Brooks, along with Parlour Coffee’s Nils Vik, city planning student Lissie Rappaport, Skip the Dishes logistics expert Rossel Sabourin and artist Kal Barteski.

The group discussed the variety of ways in which people engage in map-making. Maps, as described by HTFC’s Hogan and Brooks, can serve a technical purpose — providing detail about a community’s history, developments and land use. Maps can also be powerful storytellers — communicating a community’s land interests or vision for the future. In this regard, maps are inherently political and can often support or justify decision-making.

Hogan, a principal at HTFC, has been a practising professional planner for almost 20 years. His interest in maps stems from road trips visiting extended family as a child. “We spent long days on the road,” he said. “I was always excited about where we were going. I’d be in the back seat of the car, looking at maps trying to figure out where we were and where we were headed.”

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Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017

Maps help shape communities, define policies and tell stories. (Kal Barteski)

Piano at Portage Place addresses underserviced and overlooked civic life

Jason Syvixay 15 minute read Preview

Piano at Portage Place addresses underserviced and overlooked civic life

Jason Syvixay 15 minute read Saturday, Nov. 18, 2017

To celebrate the arrival of the 2014 Junos, the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ led an initiative to position pianos throughout the downtown. It was a way to promote the event but also an opportunity for people to gather, to enjoy public space and to take in public art.

The pianos, designed by Graffiti Art Programming’s youth and guided under the mentorship of artists such as Kenneth Lavallee, were unique blank canvases. The initiative, called Play Your Part, attracted thousands of visits to the downtown, and photographs of musicians performing at the pianos.

At 4 p.m. sharp, the sound of Portage Place Shopping Centre’s clock tower sounded – marking the start of a beautiful conversation. Lavallee, HTFC Planning & Design’s Adam Kroeker, Freshcut Downtown’s Melanie Bernadsky, Winnipeg Folk Festival’s Lynne Skromeda, and nine-year-old Sadie Pusiewich sounded off on the piano initiative as an example of how to add public amenities in a civic life that is often underserviced and overlooked.

Kroeker has worked on plans across Manitoba, Ontario, and the Northwest Territories to make communities healthier, happier, and more enjoyable for people of all ages. He is also active in Winnipeg’s music scene as a member of The Mariachi Ghost.

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Saturday, Nov. 18, 2017

Artwork based on this conversation by Kal Barteski. (Photos by David Moder Photography)

Diversity and culture help shape Dakota Collegiate's new field

Jason Syvixay 19 minute read Preview

Diversity and culture help shape Dakota Collegiate's new field

Jason Syvixay 19 minute read Friday, Oct. 20, 2017

Teamwork and communication — two tenets of sport — between design consultants and Dakota Collegiate’s students and staff were fundamental in the development of the school’s new athletic field.

A conversation among HTFC Planning & Design’s Bruce Dixon and Dakota Collegiate’s Robbie Mager and Dean Favoni, and Wayne Ruff, a former principal and school trustee, reveals how the field — officially called Murray Field — is more than just a place to play and practice football. It is a public asset and amenity for the surrounding neighbourhood.

In 2013, HTFC Planning & Design was retained by the Louis Riel School Division and Dakota Collegiate to develop a master plan for a professional-grade multi-sport athletic field that could accommodate football, soccer, rugby and ultimate, as well as track and field activities. In 2016, a cricket batting cage opened as part of the plan’s first phase. The second phase of the project — Murray Field — recently opened, having had raised $2 million, with $1.18 million from the city, and the remaining from community fundraising initiatives and the private sector. As the quartet explained, adapting to the needs of varying stakeholders was a major part of the design process — as funders became increasingly engaged and committed to the field’s success.

Dixon, a senior associate at HTFC, was the lead landscape architect and project manager. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Bruce studied at the University of Manitoba and completed his master of landscape architecture degree at Kansas State University, where he specialized in golf course design.

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Friday, Oct. 20, 2017

The Vinyl Salon DJ collective creates space for collaboration and reinvention

Jason Syvixay 20 minute read Preview

The Vinyl Salon DJ collective creates space for collaboration and reinvention

Jason Syvixay 20 minute read Saturday, Sep. 16, 2017

In Winnipeg, a collective known as The Vinyl Salon is beginning to create space to play music, learn from one another and collaborate. Co-founded by Renee Girard, Brittany Curtis and Rachelle Bourget, The Vinyl Salon convenes in coffee shops, cocktail bars and on stage at places such as The Forks.

Girard, Curtis, and Bourget joined HTFC Planning & Design’s Constantina Douvris and Chelsea Synychych to explore the resurgence of vinyl records.

This trend follows the adage, “Everything old is new again,” as more people desire a return to what once was. Douvris, a landscape architect of nearly 20 years and senior associate at HTFC, recalls how she proudly purchased her first record when she was 12, at a time when music couldn’t be streamed online.

She reminisced about a time when records created a reason to congregate.

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Saturday, Sep. 16, 2017

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Cycle advocacy transforms Winnipeg streets

Jason Syvixay 20 minute read Preview

Cycle advocacy transforms Winnipeg streets

Jason Syvixay 20 minute read Saturday, Jul. 15, 2017

It all started at a birthday party when three friends decided the evening’s festivities would continue into the early morning. With speakers fastened to their backpacks, Will Belford and his friends explored some of their favourite neighbourhoods – stumbling upon new ones along the way. Over time, this cycle celebration has evolved into what is now known as the Bike Jam, a monthly group bicycle ride led through the streets of Winnipeg, augmenting the city around them with music and celebration.

HTFC Planning & Design’s Elly Bonny and Jim Thomas sat down with Belford to explore the impact Bike Jam has had on the city — as a quick, cheap, and do-it-yourself tool to affect and change urban space. Natalie Bell, a recent Bike Jam participant, joined in on the conversation, offering insight on how this initiative has influenced her own perspectives about cycling.

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Belford attributes Natural Cycle, a bicycle repair shop he manages in the Exchange District, as a motivating factor in his desire to improve a community’s economic, social and cultural conditions.

“Natural Cycle is a worker co-op and this factors into my perception and how I view the world, and how I interact with it. I’m all about people coming together to make positive changes for themselves and others,” he said.

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Saturday, Jul. 15, 2017

Red Ember food truck creates conversation around public space activity

21 minute read Preview

Red Ember food truck creates conversation around public space activity

21 minute read Saturday, Jun. 17, 2017

In The Social Life of Small and Urban Spaces, William H. Whyte provides an intuitive critique of urban spaces and proposes ideas for how these places can be improved upon. As Whyte suggests, some of the city’s most active public spaces can be easily traced with your nose. In Winnipeg, your nose will likely lure you to Broadway, where some of the city’s finest chefs have become mobile with food trucks, adding new activity along this historic street.

When HTFC Planning & Design’s Robyn Gibson and Lana Reimer sat down with Steffen Zinn, Konrad Zinn and Thomas Zinn, an appetite for a change in public policy around street corner eateries was sparked.

The group also talked about how the built form could better respond to the temporary nature of food trucks — considering design features such as portability, durability, cost-effectiveness and ease of movement — from bistro tables and chairs that can be easily stored and moved around by patrons to parklet-style patios for food truck operators to use and transport from one festival to the next.

Steffen, Thomas, and Konrad come from a family genealogy of landscape enthusiasts. Their rural upbringing has seemingly influenced their desire to build things: “There were lots of long days out at the farm playing with Lego,” Steffen says. “We used to strip telephone wires and make battery-powered streetlights. We were amateur engineers.”

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Saturday, Jun. 17, 2017

Kal Barteski's visualization of this month's conversation. (David Moder Photography)

Urban breweries serving up investment and pride

17 minute read Preview

Urban breweries serving up investment and pride

17 minute read Saturday, May. 20, 2017

Winnipeg’s positive redevelopment efforts and sense of community innovation are major draws for creative people outside the province. Kevin Selch, Braden Smith, Mark Bauche and Shannon Baxter are all non-natives to Manitoba, but each has found a home here, both for themselves and their creative endeavours.

Selch is the owner of Little Brown Jug, a 10,000-sq.-ft. brewery on the fringe of downtown’s Exchange District. He was born in Tisdale, Sask., and raised in Winnipeg. At 18, he left the city for university in Wisconsin and later migrated to Vancouver to further his studies. He worked in Ottawa as an economist for 10 years, then got to work on a business plan and moved back to Winnipeg in 2015. It took nine months to build out the space; now Little Brown Jug has been open for several months.

Smith has been Winnipeg’s chief planner for four years. He grew up in the Kootenay Rockies and then found himself in Tofino on Vancouver Island where he served as the town’s chief administrative officer. Smith marvels at the fact he has an incredible opportunity to work in land-use planning in one of Canada’s fastest growing cities: “Our growth rate has actually exceeded Toronto’s, Vancouver’s, Montreal’s, and Ottawa’s over the past two or three years and so it’s a really exciting time to be in Manitoba.”

Bauche and Baxter both moved to Winnipeg to study landscape architecture at the University of Manitoba.

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Saturday, May. 20, 2017

Kal Barteski's art from this month's conversation.

Dining and design create appetite for community collaboration

Jason Syvixay 16 minute read Preview

Dining and design create appetite for community collaboration

Jason Syvixay 16 minute read Saturday, Apr. 15, 2017

A seat at the dinner table can be just like a seat at the drafting table for Max Frank, Maureen Krauss and Danielle Loeb. Kal Barteski, the talented artist behind the featured Duets graphics, agrees.

Frank, chef and manager of Have a Nice Day, has always had an appetite for food and fun. If not in the kitchen, he can be found on sheet six of the local curling club ordering a rye-and-ginger and a plate of curly fries.

Krauss, one of five principals at HTFC Planning & Design, attended the University of Manitoba, achieving degrees in fine arts and English literature. After a successful career at FortWhyte Alive and operating an art gallery in the Exchange District, Maureen transitioned to HTFC, as it was instrumental in shaping the FortWhyte landscape. “That’s how I made the connection. I saw the diverse things they were doing and thought, ‘Hey, this could be my next career, my next me.’”

Loeb, who recently received her full membership to the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, pursued her graduate studies in Winnipeg, turning down an opportunity to study in Vancouver. “I stayed, because I prefer Winnipeg — it’s a beautiful city with a lot of potential and I wanted to be part of that.”

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Saturday, Apr. 15, 2017

Kal Barteski's art notes from this month's conversation.

Broadway's design and cuisine scene create reasons to gather

Jason Syvixay 12 minute read Preview

Broadway's design and cuisine scene create reasons to gather

Jason Syvixay 12 minute read Saturday, Mar. 18, 2017

Amanda Kinden, local shop owner of Oh Doughnuts, sat down with HTFC Planning & Design’s Glen Manning and Rachelle Kirouac to whip up a new batch of ideas for Winnipeg’s downtown – from what Broadway could look like in the next five years to how food and urban design can support social gathering.

What they couldn’t agree on, however, was the flavour for a Winnipeg-inspired doughnut. With tastes inspired by Winnipeg’s climate and native flora, the trio dreamed up flavours ranging from Manitoba-grown rhubarb pie to blueberry-stuffed polar bear claws smothered with a white-chocolate glaze.

Kinden, an Environmental Studies graduate, likens her life to a Choose Your Own Adventure book, with her personal motto being: “Just go with it.”

With a passion for cycling and alternative transportation modes, Amanda found herself managing the widely successful Commuter Challenge at Green Action Centre. As a way to acknowledge the contributions of the many volunteers and community members, she baked all sorts of flavoured treats. With encouragement from satisfied friends and family, Amanda turned her pastime into what is now a Winnipeg doughnut institution.

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Saturday, Mar. 18, 2017

Kal Barteski's image of the doughnut and design discussion. (David Moder Photography)

Urban and fashion visions share common thread

Jason Syvixay 10 minute read Preview

Urban and fashion visions share common thread

Jason Syvixay 10 minute read Monday, Feb. 13, 2017

When we gathered Constantina Douvris and Kaili Brown, landscape architects from HTFC Planning & Design, with Jane Puchniak, manager at Kit and Ace, it was clear how the disciplines of fashion and urban design have more in common than one might initially assume. What was more inspiring: a mutual love for Winnipeg’s burgeoning Exchange District.

In their earliest forms, fashion and urban design shared roots in basic protection and shelter. Today, according to Douvris, Brown, and Puchniak, fashion and urban design represent an opportunity to make people feel comfortable, both in their own skin and in public spaces.

Kit and Ace, a retail store located on one of the Exchange District’s more prominent strips, McDermot Avenue, has found success not only by Canadian design-led clothing, but also by featuring artwork and photographs by local artists. With a focus on innovations in apparel, Kit and Ace creates products that reflect the community by creating with their customers. In the same sense, Douvris and Brown design communities for communities, drawing inspiration from the area’s residents, history and businesses.

Both mothers and trained landscape architects, Douvris and Brown bring to HTFC Planning & Design years of design experience, and are described by their peers as the office fashionistas. Puchniak, having lived in Japan, Australia and England, found herself moving back to Winnipeg working for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and within the music industry.

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Monday, Feb. 13, 2017

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