Winnipeg Convention Centre expansion starts soon

Construction is due to start later this spring on an expansion to the Winnipeg Convention Centre. The $180-million expansion to the 1975 building will almost double the size of the downtown facility, with a 340,000-sq. ft. addition being built on land that is now a parking lot. The existing building of 492,000 square feet will also receive structural and electrical upgrades.

The expanded facility will make it the fourth largest publicly owned convention centre in Canada, next to those in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Winnipeg has been experiencing a building boom in new facilities to encourage visitors, including a new airport terminal, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, changes to the Assiniboine Park and Assiniboine Park Zoo, and the return of the NHL.

The addition to the Conference Centre includes a 26,000 sq.ft. ballroom on the main floor, a 36,4000 public lobby and concourse, and a 69,100-sq.ft. exhibit space on the third floor that will connect to exhibition space in the existing building.

A highlight in the centre of the third floor is a 46,000-sq.ft. exhibition hall known as the “City Room” which will have floor-to-ceiling windows on the east and west side overlooking York Avenue, creating transparency with the street.

Stuart Olson Dominion Construction is the design-builder who retained the consultants, as follows: LM and Number TEN in joint venture (prime consultant/architect of record); LMN (design architect); Crosier Kilgour & Partners (structural engineers); Magnusson Klemencic & Associates (structural concept asst.); SMS Engineering (mechanical-electrical engineers); McCleskey Consulting (mechanical-electrical concept asst.); MMM Group (civil and transportation engineer); Daniel Lyzun & Associates (acoustic and noise control); Crosier Kilgour (building envelope); LMDG (building code); Hilderman Thomas Frank Cram (landscape).