Quote:
Originally Posted by balletomane
The early-1910's in Manitoba was certainly a little too optimistic, anticipating a Winnipeg of 4.5 million a few decades down the road, laying down a city plan for a Churchill of 500,000 and hoping that The Pas would be our "third city", connecting the metropolis of the south with the metropolis of the north.
Had Winnipeg continued the tremendous growth of that decade a little longer, its possible that Memorial Blvd. would have been our equivalent to Washington's mall. There was a plan for the Bay building to be about 10 stories, extending all the way from Portage to St. Mary - topped with a massive dome that would've dwarfed the Legislature's. Even the massive Eaton's building was meant to be temporary, eventually to be replaced by a new 10 story structure extending from Portage to St. Mary, with Graham forming a tunnel like York does with the WCC. There was even a competition to design a new city hall, some inspired by Greek architecture like the Parthenon. Even our Legislature was built to have enough MLAs for a province at least 2-3 times Manitoba's current size.
I love "what if" situations like this. Hypothesizing what could've been is so intriguing.
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The replacement stores for Eaton's and the Portage ave was 12 full floors
Same for the Eaton's catalogue Building.12 floors as photographed in the Winnipeg Tribune.
The Bay building was to be about 11 full floors but up to 14 in certain spots such as a dome on top and would have run all they way to St Mary avenue. It was to be spectacular.
Both plans were ambitious and had they gone through, it might have made quite the difference in Winnipeg retaining its regional and national importance with regards to retail in general.