Peripheral Parkscape; Chief Peguis Trail Extension, Winnipeg

Abstract

The northern area of Winnipeg, Manitoba is currently undergoing urbanisation: the westerly extension of the Chief Peguis Trail, and the inevitable transformation of rural land into new communities to support population growth. Each component of development provides challenges and opportunities for the existing landscape conditions with public health implications. The Chief Peguis Trail Extension West imposes a physical barrier onto the landscape discouraging pedestrian access across and within the corridor. In turn, this provides and encourages efficient vehicular transportation for drivers utilising the inner ring road. This ultimately fragments existing and planned neighbourhoods and becomes a significant source of air pollution and noise from vehicular traffic that has health consequences for surrounding communities. Not just a landscape for people, the new roadway also threatens adjacent wildlife habitats, existing vegetation, and water movement within the area. What can be done to mitigate the effects of implementing a major roadway into the landscape and instead become an inviting space that connects people, communities, and wildlife? While the northern urban fringe also contains hot spots for new development such as suburbs, there becomes a concern with urban sprawl and the relationship with public health issues. The aim for the practicum is to explore and apply concepts and design solutions for enhancing the development of the Chief Peguis Trail Extension West while reducing its adverse effects concerning the quality of life for the surrounding people and the landscape. The practicum seeks to design a landscape for the Chief Peguis Trail Extension West that attempts to resolve the issues associated with the highway through fundamental landscape architectural interventions, with the notion of a park playing a key role in the design.