‘Eyesore’ billboard on Portage Ave. to promote art gallery

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This article was published 22/02/2018 (2247 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After five years, a huge blank canvas that has been called an “eyesore” on top of the building at 650 Portage Ave. will be replaced with art.

A City of Winnipeg appeals committee decided Friday to grant a conditional use permit for a billboard poster atop the heritage building that will be used to promote Winnipeg Art Gallery exhibits.

“It won’t be an eyesore,” Winnipeg architect Tom Monteyne told the appeals committee. “It will be the return of an old friend.”

Monteyne is a Manitoba Heritage Council member, who asked the appeals committee to approve the billboard’s use.

The billboard mounted, on a huge metal frame, sits atop the Casa Loma apartments, built in 1909. The billboard structure was erected before the 1950s and hasn’t been used since 2013.

The owner of the building applied for the required conditional-use permit to install the WAG-promoting poster/billboard, but was turned down by the city’s board of adjustment in January because the structure violates zoning bylaws in several ways: it is three times the maximum allowable size for the area, it is in view of nearby residential apartments, it is mounted on a rooftop and it is on a historic building.

At an appeals committee hearing Friday, John Prystanski, the lawyer representing building owner Sussex Realty, said the billboard has the support of the WAG and Lions Housing Centres, which operates 708 various long-term care, independent living and seniors residential units in several nearby buildings.

Sussex Realty has a 20-year ­agreement with the art gallery and will provide the billboard space as a gift in kind, he said. A sign company has offered to produce and install the WAG posters, the lawyer said.

Stephen Borys, director and chief executive officer of the WAG, told the appeals committee the billboard is “incredibly exciting.”

Having use of the billboard space would help the gallery promote future exhibits and Manitoba artists, and help “brand” the downtown, he said.

“Our vision is to bring art to the city streets that will transform the public space,” he said, adding there is “industrial charm” in the billboard atop Casa Loma that contrasts with the speed of electronic visuals people are bombarded by.

“In a world saturated by digital images, it’s wonderful when someone can fixate on an image for more than 20 or 30 seconds,” Borys said.

The committee approved the billboard on the condition it is in use by Sept. 1.

“I’m ecstatic because I think this a watershed moment for Winnipeg,” Heritage Winnipeg executive director Cindy Tugwell said after the appeal was granted.

“Art is part of architecture and it brings not only focus to the entry east to downtown, it brings focus to the art gallery and the Inuit centre and a non-profit who couldn’t afford advertising. And it showcases a beautiful heritage building.

“It shows to Winnipeggers and visitors that we care about the esthetics of our downtown. And these structures are part of our downtown, not just the buildings themselves.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca