Winnipeg | Richardson Innovation Centre | 4 floors | U/C
 

Location: Winnipeg, MB
Number TEN Role: Prime Consultant
Client: Richardson International
Size: 62,000 sq. ft.
Completed: 2020 (targeted)

Sean Kavanagh
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Hartley Richardson and JRI president Curt Vossen announce $30 million food research and education facility in downtown Wpg. 4-story building scheduled to be up and operational by spring 2020.Richardson says it was "high priority" to build downtown. #cbcmb


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RICHARDSON INNOVATION CENTRE
With its dramatic angular form of transparent glass and contrasting tyndall stone, the new Richardson Innovation Centre will project Richardson International’s commitment to community building and innovation in the heart of downtown Winnipeg. Designed for advanced food product development, the four-storey laboratory building will actively interact with its unique downtown location, serving as a catalyst for future pedestrian-oriented redevelopment between historic Portage and Main and the East Exchange District.

The 62,000 sq. ft. facility will create interest along Lombard Avenue with an assortment of pedestrian friendly landscaping features and unique views from the street into the spaces inside. The building’s orientation and strategic use of glass floods the interior spaces with natural light and provides dramatic views of downtown.

Inside, a large glass atrium contains a feature staircase to establish direct connections to each floor and the different functional areas of the building. The staircase provides a striking architectural statement set against a full-height wood feature wall designed as an artistic representation of a DNA barcode, offering visual warmth and conceptually expressing the building’s various scientific uses.
https://www.numberten.com/projects/r...ovation-centre

RICHARDSON TO BUILD WORLD-CLASS INNOVATION CENTRE IN DOWNTOWN WINNIPEG
https://www.richardson.ca/richardson...town-winnipeg/
April 4, 2018 (Winnipeg, MB) – Richardson International is investing more than $30 million to develop an innovation centre in the heart of downtown Winnipeg, featuring state-of-the-art technology and equipment for research and product development. This world-class facility will complement Richardson’s food and ingredients division and will provide an extensive opportunity for industry collaboration. The new centre will not only facilitate agri-food research and product innovation, it will help invigorate the downtown area and serve as a lasting legacy for the Winnipeg community.

“Our goal is that the Richardson Innovation Centre will become a centre for collaboration – as a training facility for our employees and customers and an education centre for food science students and the culinary community,” says Chuck Cohen, Richardson’s Senior Vice-President, Technology. “As a Winnipeg-based company, we look forward to bringing our customers, suppliers and partners from around the globe to this centre to showcase our products and capabilities and provide them with a rich experience in a very unique setting.”

Richardson Innovation CentreThe four-storey, 5,800 square metre (62,000 square feet) facility will house Richardson’s food development team, product development suites, analytical laboratory and a culinary test and demonstration kitchen. To support Richardson’s quality assurance and food safety teams, the centre will boast a cutting-edge microbiology lab and an extensive quality analysis area. The building will also include office areas with room for expansion to focus on innovation such as the increased use of robotics and automation in food packaging and processing. The strategic positioning of these core departments within the same multi-level space will optimize research, analytical and educational activities and facilitate the efficient development of truly innovative products.

“The process of product development requires a modern platform for testing solutions, troubleshooting issues and exploring new ideas as they relate to market needs and evolving customer taste profiles,” says Curt Vossen, Richardson’s President and CEO. “In order to test derivatives of existing products or create entirely new product streams, our team’s technical capabilities must be backed by the right technical facilities. We anticipate the Innovation Centre will provide them with the technical capacity and resources necessary to meet and exceed customer expectations.”

Located at the corner of Westbrook Street and Lombard Avenue, the Richardson Innovation Centre will be in close proximity to Richardson’s head office at Portage and Main. Construction will begin in April and is targeted for completion by the spring of 2020.

Richardson is Canada’s leading agribusiness and is recognized as a global leader in agriculture and food processing. The company is a worldwide handler and merchandiser of major Canadian-grown grains and oilseeds and is a vertically-integrated processor and manufacturer of oats and canola-based products. Over the past two decades, Richardson has become a significant player in the global food business, producing a wide variety of food products and ingredients for the retail, foodservice and industrial markets. One of Canada’s Best Managed Companies, Richardson is headquartered in Winnipeg with over 2,600 employees worldwide.

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For more information, please contact:
Tracey Shelton
Director, Corporate Communications
204.934.5169 or 204.799.2838
Tracey.Shelton@Richardson.ca

Looks like a very high quality design and materials, which isn't surprising for a company like Richardson. Clearly no scrimping here. I like how it helps close in Lombard a bit, given that the eastern end is currently plagued by parking lots.

It's interesting how the layout creates a little island behind the new building, between itself and the rail line. I wonder if it's doomed to be a parking lot for all eternity now?

Also, as I said before, I thought this project was going to be built on the west side of Westbrook. The fact that that space will remain vacant makes me wonder what the long-term plan for it happens to be.

Well at least the parking lot will be mostly hidden. Down the road that can be revisited as land values increase.

As for the other side of westbrook, that is a very intriguing opportunity indeed. That has the potential to be a really incredible development one day. the views from the other side of the river of it would be amazing. Imagine even a 25 floor building there. It would stand out.

Richardson to build new research facility in downtown Winnipeg
https://globalnews.ca/news/4122551/n...medium=Twitter
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^^^I was there today, hard at work already.

who owns the piece of land next to the rail line? or will it be used for parking?

Fairmont really needs to clean the exterior.

The building looks great and be will a welcome development to a bleak area of parking lots. With that said i wish the Lombard facade (north end) had better interaction with the street, otherwise great project.

This will definitely bring some flash to that corner. Great design

It is partially a railway right of way....its not really a piece of land I could ever seen being developed....until the rail line is gone at least. It will be a small parking lot...less than 20 cars....surrounded with lots of landscaping and hidden by the building....with a new sidewalk along the existing lane connecting to the ballpark.

agreed....it has planters and benching along the sidewalk like you'd find on broadway...the windows looking into the labs along that wall are 10' high....its the problem with the building type...typically very introverted.

I’m glad that the Can-D-Man viewplane has been so punctiliously respected.

For sure, it's not a big deal if it stays that way if it's hidden out of sight. I'm glad that this project will block that little no man's land from view.

I thought you would.

amazing, so much style! not at all cookie cutter like so many other buildings! way to go Vike! way to go Richardsons!

I thought the correct thread title had projects as "Proposed" until they were above grade in their construction.

Other than the fact that Building>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>parking I'm left a little sad with this one... zero street interaction, no retail, surface lot behind it.

I had always hoped that area would be something to unite the exchange and the forks, but we have a *VERY BEAUTIFUL suburban office building...

*Seriously Viking that looks amazing, and I know you worked with what you had - Please don't take my dislike of the result as a slam on you. I'm more sad with the limited application of the building itself.

^^ha ha. No problem!

I wish every commercial building downtown had a retail ground floor too. It’s not realistic but it would be great. Richardson’s need a lab. They spent more building downtown than the suburban option they looked at. I’m glad they did. I didnt have a realistic expectation that they would build and run retail in their lab. As great as that would be.

It has as much street interaction as almost every other building in the exchange. But I agree. I wish it had retail units.

I don’t really get the fixation on the tiny parking lot. It’s not possible to build a building right up to the CN main line. The only reason there is any parking is because it’s not feasible to build there. They didn’t want any parking but there was no point in leaving the space empty.

This seems like really fantastic news for the city, both economically and from an urban development perspective. Major win guys, cheers!