The Winnipeg Library Foundation, in partnership with the City of Winnipeg and the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ, is creating a unique and versatile green space in the heart of downtown Winnipeg: Millennium Library Park.

UPDATE: See recent photos of the park construction here.

The park will enhance and extend the success of the Millennium Library, which is the single best-used facility in the downtown, used by Winnipeggers from every part of the city.  Use of the library following its redevelopment increased by more than fifty percent  to over a million and a half visitors a year. Library Park will extend this energy to an adjacent outdooor space,  providing a much needed new stopping place for library users, downtown workers and residents, shoppers, and other visitors to the downtown.  As well as adding a vital new green space for quiet leisure such as eating lunch, reading, and people watching, Library Park will be  multifunctional with interactive learning features and programmed activities. The new role of  the Millennium Library  itself  in providing  public space for cultural and educational activities will be extended to Library Park, a venue that will accommodate a large variety of  social events as well as  lectures, meetings, and public announcements in an outdoor setting.

Millennium Library Park will provide an outdoor space for reading and programming. This centrally located common space will strengthen Winnipeg’s urban landscape, adding palpable energy, life and vibrancy at street level.  As the only public green space in the downtown core area bordered by Portage Avenue to the north, Main Street to the east, Broadway to the south and Memorial to the west, an area of office towers, skywalks, and concrete, Library Park will create a welcoming and interesting  outdoor leisure and meeting spot for Winnippegers and visitors alike.

We believe that Millennium Library Park will contribute to the quality and enjoyment of life in our city. The Downtown Winnipeg BIZ has committed to a strong presence and programming role in the park. This initiative will make a very significant contribution to safety as well as to sustained activity. Many design elements have been included to dramatically alter safety features of the park, and in combination with these features,  the BIZ role will ensure that the park undergoes an immediate transition from a virtually unused space into a vibrant, active and well-used one. The renewed Park will significantly impact the health of downtown Winnipeg and will contribute tangibly to the social, leisure, cultural and educational experience of Winnipeggers and visitors alike. The proposed design takes into consideration four-season use even in Winnipeg’s climate, and will be available for events and programming year-round.

There is a comprehensive vision and fully articulated plan for Millennium Library Park which recognizes Winnipeg’s emerging dynamic  urban culture. The plan seeks to meet the needs of businesses, workers, library patrons, downtown residents,  shoppers and other visitors to the downtown and in turn to seize the opportunity through the creation of an exciting new legacy green space to contribute  to a growing outdoor dynamic within the space that all Winnipeggers share in common: Winnipeg’s downtown.

The plan requires a  total of $7.4 million to complete Millennium Library Park, with the project to be completed in three phases.  Significant support has already been received from all three levels of government, and the first phase of renewal is underway,  to be completed by late spring of 2011.

The park’s cutting-edge design incorporates the newest of technologies in a spacious setting. It will be organized into five interconnected development zones or outdoor rooms – the Millennium Plaza, a place for the community to come together; Crossroads Plaza, a place for food, entertainment and information; the Learning Commons, a place to explore literature and the power of ideas; the Urban Wetland, a place to get close and learn from Nature; and the Jim Pattison Foundation Reading Garden, a place to listen and learn from great stories and story-tellers.  And, Millennium Library Park was chosen as the site for the major public art project announced in July 2010. This project is part of the Winnipeg Cultural Capital of Canada 2010 program, funded through Canadian Heritage, and was proposed by the Winnipeg Arts Council on behalf of the City of Winnipeg. (Read more about the Public Art Project here.)

Help us transform Millennium Library Park into a downtown destination that is active, sustainable, flexible and fun!

To support this project click on the button below. You can also donate by mail or phone.