Winnipeg downtown design decision-making, the potential for institutionalizing collective place-making practices

Abstract

This practicum develops a strategy for the incorporation of collective place-making and collaborative planning principles into Winnipeg's downtown design decision-making processes. It responds to a local desire to better control and enhance the quality of downtown Winnipeg's physical environment. This project draws on certain post-modern planning and design theories, namely those on Place-Making and Collaborative Planning, to develop an understanding of the meaning of quality of place, and the best processes to nurture this. The Winnipeg planning and design context is explored through an analysis of local civic commitment to planning, design and the downtown, and of current local practices, to establish the potential for incorporating plac -making and collaborative planning principles. A review of downtown design decision-making processes and cultures in five other Canadian cities--Edmonton, Saskatoon, Hamilton, London and Halifax--provides insight into incorporation of such theories into other current Canadian settings. A more in-depth analysis of successful models of such incorporation is conducted through investigation of practices in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Edmonton, Alberta. Finally, comparisons are drawn between these practices, to establish elements which could be usefully addressed in the Winnipeg context. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)