The City of Winnipeg held a competition to design a monument on Lily Street at Market Avenue for the 1919 Strike, Monteyne Architecture Works Inc beat out 13 other firms with their design, 1919 Marquee - A Monument to the Winnipeg General Strike.
On vacant land near the site of the violent confrontation that culminated the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, we propose a monument made primarily of weathering steel and multiple, conflicting meanings. The archetypal struggle for a fair deal that gripped the city almost 100 years ago mirrored the clash between classes and values that was occurring in other places, and the various oppositions that existed then continue to dominate our political and social discourse to this day. Our goal with this monument is to create a unique and memorable civic space where all members of the community are welcome.
Our design inspiration for the 1919 Marquee is derived in large part from the site and its surroundings. The proximity to the actual places where the most dramatic events of the General Strike of 1919 happened - our own “ground zero” - creates a charged atmosphere that we are reacting to. Our design responds to the scale of the site by being visible from key vantage points like City Hall, as well as from Rorie and Lilly Streets. The architecture is both new and old at the same time, sitting comfortably amid mid-century cultural building and the warehouse buildings contemporary to the events of 1919.
Photographs: Lindsay Reid
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