# Let Winnipeg Architecture Foundation’s Places \+ Spaces guide you \- Winnipeg

**URL:** [View](https://winnipegdev.dci-test.com/let-winnipeg-architecture-foundation-s-places-spaces-guide-you/)

**Last Updated:** 2026-11-05T18:49:46+00:00

**Summary:** Beautiful guidebook details the city’s best buildings as you’ll learn in our Q&A

Winnipeg is full of lovely buildings, and I’d wager no one has shown them more love than Susan Algie and the [Winnipeg Architecture Foundation (WAF) (opens in new window)](https://winnipegarchitecture.ca/).

 Since 1996, Algie has led the volunteer-run non-profit WAF, after its original six members had helped stage the successful annual Association for Preservation Technology conference in Winnipeg.

 Algie, a retired heritage resource planner with Parks Canada, serves as its volunteer board president, with the WAF having documented more than 3,000 buildings across the city. Its primary focus is post-World War II architecture, although they really do cover all periods and design styles, celebrating the city’s architecture while educating the public about the city’s architects and history.

 The [ WAF’s website (opens in new window)](https://winnipegarchitecture.ca/), which was launched in 2012, provides fascinating details on everything from downtown and The Exchange District’s most eye-catching buildings, to houses, churches and parks across the city.

 I use it all the time.

 For instance, should you be biking past a mid-century modern home on Waterloo and you say to yourself, ‘Wow, what a cool house. I wonder what that’s all about?’ Next thing you know you can use your phone to discover it’s in fact the [Blankstein Residence (opens in new window)](https://winnipegarchitecture.ca/95-waterloo-street/), built in 1956 and designed by Morley Blankstein; that there’s a U-shaped courtyard style garden; and that the “house’s lines are angular \[and\] while there is no applied decoration, the interior maintains a grandeur nevertheless well-suited to comfort.” Fascinating.

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 Along with this massive website, the WAF also stages [The Architecture + Design Film Festival (opens in new window)](https://adff.ca/) (A+DFF) –– Canada’s only architecture and design film festival, which just celebrated its 14th year in March. The WAF also regularly hosts walking tours, holds talks, and has published 23 books.

 Its latest-and 23rd publication, *Winnipeg Places + Spaces*, is a must-have guidebook for anyone looking to explore and uncover our unique urban landscape.

 Ideal for both tourists and locals alike, this beautiful book details 400 locations in the city, providing the stories behind Winnipeg’s vibrant neighborhoods and public buildings. It features stunning photography from the city’s top photographers, along with a map that doubles as a book cover. It was all designed by [Robyn Shesterniak (opens in new window)](https://robynchristine.ca/), who, in the words of Algie is, “an amazing young woman who has done every scrap of design for us –– website, merchandise, you name it.”

 To celebrate its release, we’ve interviewed\* Susan Algie to learn what makes Winnipeg’s architecture so special, where you can purchase and how you can use *Winnipeg Places + Space*s, and what hidden gems you must seek out when you are visiting Winnipeg.

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 **For me, you have one of the most stylish and user-friendly websites in the country, and you folks are always updating it and holding public events that do so much for the city’s design scene. How does the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation operate?** 
 SA: We haven’t had a cent of operational money in all our time –– so we run on pins. I’m a full-time volunteer and we get little grants for little projects and we kind of stitch it together. And we sell things to pay our rent –– we have a range of merchandise and publications, and we use that to pay our bills and stuff.

 So, [buy the book (opens in new window)](https://shop.winnipegarchitecture.ca/product/winnipeg-places-spaces/112) \[she says with a laugh\]! We have lots of them! And it is the first guidebook that’s been done for the city.

 **Why do you love researching Winnipeg’s buildings, and how do you do it?** I like to describe it as being a detective. It’s a detective story, right? You go in, you find something, you find a little more… somebody may hear about it, then they tell you more.

 In the early days it was mainly dealing with newspapers and primary sources, but we’ve also done oral histories for the last 15 years with different architects and interior designers and landscape architects. We have a growing archival collection, which we have collected from quite a few different architects now, where their families have given it to us. So we use a variety of sources for our research.

 **How do you bring a building to life in your publications, website and tours?**  
 We’re lucky that we have various partners who we work with. There’s [Christian Cassidy (opens in new window)](https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/biographies/christian-cassidy), who’s an amazing researcher and storyteller, who will do a few tours for us in the summer. And we try to bring in people who have a certain expertise in an area.

 I think just talking about bricks and mortar is not good enough. We want to get people engaged in what went on in a building. For instance, we’ve worked with Matt Cohen who is the expert in Canada on [Ghost Signs (opens in new window)](https://www.ghostsigns.ca/) on buildings. When he hosts a tour \[for us\] he’ll also bring along some of the products, so you can see a can of ham and the ad. There’s a real appetite for that, locally and by visitors. And we get a lot of out-of-country visitors.

 On the website and new guidebook we have lots of information on the architects and interior designers that did the work, as that’s important too.

 **How did you land on the 400 landmarks in the book?**  
 That was a hard one, because some neighbourhoods are so dense. But, we wanted to cover the whole city. My husband and I walked every neighbourhood to do a street-by-street canvas. We had other people contributing, plus our previous research to draw on.

 My thought is, people go to the city, and they go the CMHR, or the Manitoba Museum, and that’s wonderful. But I also want them to go to Elmwood, to go to Transcona, and find out there’s amazing stuff out there.

 I didn’t grow up in Winnipeg, and one of the things I love about this place is the whole idea of unicity. When you go around to individual neighbourhoods you’ll find all these little community centres with these little town halls and fire stations, and I think it’s really unique in the country for that.

 **What are a few hidden gems that tourists must see, that they can use the guidebook for?**  
 Windsor Park has really interesting stuff. There’s schools, churches, unique houses and a whole area designed by \[celebrated architect\] Étienne Gaboury… it was one of the very first designed suburbs in the country, and that’s very interesting.

 **Who is an under-appreciated, or lesser-known architect whose buildings you like to highlight?**  
 From the more historic period, there’s John D. Atchison. He came from Chicago, he worked with the biggest firms there, and then he came to Winnipeg and designed almost 200 buildings.

 In contemporary times, I think the work by Leslie Stechensen who did the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the [Pantages Theatre (opens in new window)](https://winnipegarchitecture.ca/pantages-playhouse-theatre/) \[the 1992 addition\]. He’s a really significant architect, but not necessarily a name a lot of people would know.

 **Top five buildings everyone must see in Winnipeg?**  
 Yikes! Okay, my number one might be the Manitoba Theatre Centre. Second would be City Hall/the modernist Centennial Corporation area. Third could be anywhere in the Exchange District, but McDermot Avenue in particular. Fourth I’d take people out to the [Manitoba Teachers Society building (opens in new window)](https://winnipegarchitecture.ca/191-harcourt-street-2/) on Portage Avenue, it’s an amazing brutalist building. Then maybe [St. George’s Church (opens in new window)](https://winnipegarchitecture.ca/168-wilton-street-1118-grosvenor-avenue/).

 **Where can you buy *Winnipeg Places + Spaces*?**  
 You can purchase it directly from [our website (opens in new window)](https://shop.winnipegarchitecture.ca/product/winnipeg-places-spaces/112), and it’s also in several bookshops in town including [McNally (opens in new window)](https://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/9781988321103/winnipeg-arch-founda/winnipeg-places-spaces) and [Whodoneit (opens in new window)](https://whodunitbooks.ca/), and we’re hoping you’ll soon find it at the Manitoba Museum and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

 *\*This interview has been edited for length. 
The Winnipeg Architecture Foundation posts its* [tours and public events here (opens in new window)](https://winnipegarchitecture.ca/events/)*, while you can also find its virtual and self-guided interactive* [tours here (opens in new window)](https://winnipegarchitecture.ca/tours/)*.*