Winnipeg Sun

Don't expect the new Manitoba Hydro building downtown to be a run-of-the-mill office tower and plaza, says a design architect for the project. Instead, Bruce Kuwabara has a vision of a 600,000-square-foot "vertical campus." Some of the ideas he floated yesterday at the Better Buildings 2004 Conference and Exhibition included stacked atriums, spiral staircases, windows that open and solar shading. He wants the Hydro building on Portage Avenue to be the type of open space people will enjoy, to be energy efficient and encourage more pedestrian activity downtown. "It will create a supportive workplace environment," said Kuwabara, a partner at Toronto-based Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg. "Gone are the days where everybody is locked up in their offices."