ManitobaMock-ups for the docks reveal a bright revitalized space along the Red River by Waterfront Drive complete with community gathering places, renewed active transportation routes, a new dock surface and a memorial site for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and 2SLGBTQ people.The Forks estimates redevelopment of historic docks in downtown Winnipeg will cost $10.8M Bryce Hoye · CBC News · Posted: Aug 14, 2025 2:47 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours agoAn artist rendition of what the revitalized Alexander Docks will look like upon completion. (Submitted by The Forks)Designs are now public for a project years in the making that promises to transform the historic Alexander Docks in downtown Winnipeg.Mock-ups for the docks, which have been closed off to the public for nearly a decade, reveal a bright, green, revitalized space along the Red River by Waterfront Drive complete with community gathering places, renewed active transportation routes, a new dock surface and a memorial site for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and 2SLGBTQ people.”It’s deeply inspired by the rhythm of the Red River — its grace, its power and its unending movement,” said Desirée Thériault, architect and partner with Narratives Inc., which is designing the dock revitalization, dubbed Ebb and Flow, along with the firm Scatliff Miller + Murray.”For too long this part of our waterfront has been fenced off, unreachable, no clear path to the water, no invitation to stand at its edge. And Ebb and Flow changes that. It says you belong here.”The Alexander Docks have been closed off to the public since an ice storm rendered the site unsafe in 2015.The next year, the city tapped The Forks to take over public engagement over how to proceed. City council voted to grant The Forks a 99-year lease of the site and the contributed $600,000 through a fund devoted to helping downtown recover post-pandemic.The Forks estimates the redevelopment will cost about $10.8 million, and The Forks Foundation is leading fundraising efforts.The Alexander Docks along the Red River in downtown Winnipeg on Thursday. The dock has been closed for about a decade. (Warren Kay/CBC)Artists renderings released Thursday show a re-imagined community space that includes an enhanced active transportation corridor from Stephen Juba park to South Point Douglas.Roadside there are open outdoor spaces showing people meeting beneath a large red canopy space with a fire and cyclists biking by as people mill about a walkways that wind down toward the water.The dock itself will be made from reclaimed timber from the original dock with a new deck surface.Top: the Gathering Circle community space will be able to be used for neighbourhood functions and ceremonies near a new section of pedestrian and biking trails. Bottom: The Upper Deck and terraces include limestone benches and plants leading to the water’s edge. (Submitted by The Forks)The Spirit Tree area will be a site for reflection memorializing MMIWG2S.The site became associated with Tina Fontaine, 14, after her body was discovered in the Red River by the Alexander Docks in August 2014. Her death spurred calls for a national inquiry into MMIWG.”Today, we remember Tina,” Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham said Thursday at the design unveiling at the dock site. “Now, we’re turning the page and looking ahead.”The designs include tiered landscaping leading to the water, seating at the road and water levels, improved lighting and accessibility both by land and water, and areas ideal for picnics, play and ceremony, said Sara Stasiuk, president and CEO of The Forks.Seating is shown along this artist rendition of the revitalized dock area of the Alexander Docks. (Submitted by The Forks)Stasiuk said the dock will have improved access for canoes, kayaks and the waterbus, as well as spots for fishing.”This isn’t just about rebuilding a dock; it’s about reconnecting to the river, to each other, and to our shared story,” said Stasiuk.That shared story goes back a long time.”This history of this land and the relationships fostered with in it date back further than the colonial periods for which the Exchange District is known,” said David Pensato, executive director of The Exchange District Biz.An undated view of the Alexander Docks with moored fishing boats. (City of Winnipeg Historical Buildings and Resources Committee/Courtesy of Great West Metal Ltd)The dock, originally built almost a century ago, was once part of a network of docks going up the Red River associated with commercial fishing industries that moved millions of dollars worth of cargo by through the area annually.A brick building in the area once served as a fish filleting and cold storage plant. What is now Waterfront Drive was once a railway that shipped those goods across Western Canada.Across the river from the docks is Victoria Park, where the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike started.Anishinaabe war hero Sgt. Tommy Prince saved a man from drowning at the docks in 1955.The last big ships to unmoor from the docks were The River Rouge and Paddlewheel Princess, which gave riders tours along the river until 2009 and 2014.”Before that, we can assume that folks were paddling on canoes and putting up here because it was a shallow part of the river,” said Pensato.”There’s a very long and deep history…. We’re just excited to see this space come to life again with plans for community, for people, to enjoy the river, the land, to connect with each other, to connect with the past and to look to the future.”A bird’s eye view artists rendition of the revitalized Alexander Docks site. (Submitted by The Forks)Thériault said the design team has been drawing on all that history with guidance from members of the city’s MMIWG2S+ Advisory Committee, elders and community members as they re-envision a future for the Alexander Docks that reflects its varied history.”The Red River has always carried our stories. It has been a gathering place, a travel route, a source of life and trade, a witness to joy, to ceremony, but it’s also carried heavy truths,” said Thériault.”When we lose access to the water, we lose part of our connection to place, to each other and to ourselves. The Alexander Dock sits at a point where that connection can be restored. Here, the river can welcome us back.”A number of government officials join staff from The Forks and design teams working on the revitalization of the Alexander Docks, including Narrative Inc. landscape designer Desirée Thériault, third from left, on Thursday at a design unveiling event. (Warren Kay/CBC)ABOUT THE AUTHORBryce Hoye is a multi-platform journalist with a background in wildlife biology. He has worked for CBC Manitoba for over a decade with stints producing at CBC’s Quirks & Quarks and Front Burner. He was a 2024-25 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. He is also Prairie rep for outCBC. He has won a national Radio Television Digital News Association award for a 2017 feature on the history of the fur trade, and a 2023 Prairie region award for an audio documentary about a Chinese-Canadian father passing down his love for hockey to the next generation of Asian Canadians.Selected storiesEmail: bryce.hoye@cbc.caFacebookMore by Bryce Hoye
Newly unveiled designs reimagine Alexander Docks as vibrant community gathering space
