Law, culture, and landscape architecture: Defining the sidewalk landscape in downtown Winnipeg (Manitoba)

This research examines the space currently protected for the movement of pedestrians within the downtown of Winnipeg as a sidewalk landscape. This complex landscape contains both cultural and ecological systems which need to be considered holistically in order to maintain a healthy sidewalk landscape. As an application of the United Nations' 'Healthy City' principles, a healthy sidewalk landscape includes healthy vegetation, ecologically responsible design and maintenance, and a safe, economically sustainable, and contextual experience for pedestrians.; The sidewalk landscape of downtown Winnipeg is well used as a functional corridor, but its systemic health is suffering. The growing requirements for urban vegetation, the climatic and experiential effects upon pedestrians, and the lack of an ethical approach toward groundwater and wind are examined by looking at this landscape as a right of way, a private and public sector investment, a public space, and as an ecological network. These perceptions of the sidewalk space are a translation of cultural values into the planning and regulatory legal documents written for this landscape.; In order to understand this landscape, this research examines the sidewalk as a product of cultural values serving many cultural purposes, and an evolving landscape affected by emerging civic goals and priorities expressed in provincial legislation, and municipal by-laws and planning policy. Two goals of this research were to educate landscape architects about the sidewalk as a cultural and outdoor landscape, and to prepare a framework for sidewalk design as a form of applied landscape theory. Landscape architects as teachers and designers can provide leadership toward a review of the practices and legal documents shaping the sidewalk landscape.