Public Safety Building to be demolished, no date yet

Winnipeg's Public Safety Building is coming down.

The architect and heritage advocatesmade last-ditch attempts to save the51-year-old building at city hall on Tuesday, but they were unsuccessful. After lengthy discussion and debate,the property and development committee voted to send in the wrecking ball.

But that won't happen until a firm plan is in place for the property, which is bordered byWilliam and James avenuesand King and Princess streets.

Public feedback will be taken on options for the landand then a redevelopment plan will be presented for approval.

• Winnipeg's Public Safety Building not worth saving: report

PSB architectLesStecheson, who's battling a flu bug,made his way to city hall in an effort to convince councillors to preserve thebuilding. The old police headquarters will becomevacant byJuly, after the police service has entirely moved into its new locationon Graham Avenue.

Stechesondescribedthe PSBas"one of the most important buildings I've worked on in mycareer"and disagreedwith a city-commissionedreport thatcalled for its demolition.

"It's an important style of that erathe '60sand probably one ofthe best in the country," he said."It's a gross exaggeration to say that since the building isexperiencing some structural issues that the building is unsound."

Clad inTyndalllimestoneand designedin thebrutaliststyleof modernism, the PSB was built in 1965, but Winnipeg's extreme weather and years of freezing and thawing have taken atoll on it.

Since 2006, a plywood-covered walkway has lined the street outside the buildingto protect pedestrians from the risk oflimestone cladding falling from the facade.

The city commissioned a$275,000 report to consider options for the building and its attached parkadeacross King Street from city hall.Theparkadehas been closed since August 2012afterengineering reportsraised structural concerns.

• Winnipeg closesparkadedue to structural concerns

Thereport recommending demolition was presented to the property and development committee last month. Preserving or renovatingthe building would be cost prohibitive and the landcould instead be usedto create a smallpublic space, it states.

It's a suggestion that Mayor Brian Bowman has supported.

"What we've been advised is it's essentially beyond repair. The coststhat we would have to incur in order to save itis one that I don't favour," he said last month.

• Mayor Brian Bowman wants Winnipeg's Public Safety Building bulldozed

The property and development committee first considered thePSB'sfuture at a meeting in Marchbut heldoff making adecision in order toget opinions on its heritage value.

Heritage Winnipeg executive directorCindy Tugwellalso spoke to the committee on Tuesday and called the PSB one of the top five examples ofbrutalistmodern architecture in Canada.

She urged the city to do a proper assessment of the buildingso it can be placedon the historic buildings list.

"Every privately owned building, every publicly owned building that is suspected of having historical significance goes through this transparent process with an evaluation on recommendations of historical significance, and this building deserves that," she said.

She insisted it wassound and it would only take $8.7 million to restore it. City administration has previouslyestimated the cost to renovate the building at $40 million, whichincludes the cost of demolishing the parkade.

'It's almost like a bad dream'

Coun. Russ Wyatt wasn't impressed with the decision.

"We have over 100,000 square feet in this building. We spent millions in the last number of years just trying to maintain that building, and now, we're going to knock it down?" Wyatt said after the vote. "It seems somewhat disastrous. It's almost like a bad dream."

Wyatt said the city purchased a "fiasco of a building" to replace the police headquarters.

"Now, you're knocking down a perfectly good building? You couldn't write a book [about this] and sell it. Nobody would buy it. It's such a bad story," he said.

Wyatt said the public engagement portion of the redevelopment should happen soon.

He also suggested there still may be some hope for the building if other alternatives come forward through that process.

"There was no information in that report provided to council advising them that they technically couldn't dispose of PSB building because the PSB is sitting on land that we are restricted to in terms of a revisionary right that goes back over 100 years," said Wyatt. "That information should have been made to council so they could've made a proper decision. I think it would've been a different decision had they had that information."

Recommendations from report

The report presents three options for reusing the space once the PSB and parkade and removed. They include:

• Large public space/private development

This option recommends the city create apublic space onportions of the land, with surplus land sold toa private sector developer.

• Civic campus

This option recommends the development of a small public space, the construction of a new building for the planning, property and development department, the construction of a small, 95-stall parking structure with office space for the Winnipeg Parking Authorityand the sale of surplus land.

• Large parking structure

This option recommendsthe development of a small public space, the construction of a 520-stall parking structure with office space at grade for the parking authorityand the sale of surplus land.