Construction hoarding revamped into ‘Urban Wallpaper’

Construction hoarding and vacant buildings never looked so good.That is what the Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone (DWBIZ) expects the public will be saying as its board adorns the perimeters of construction sites and vacant buildings in Winnipeg’s centre with displays of art.

Called Urban Wallpaper, the beautification initiative is an effort to "change the public’s perception of downtown," says Stephanie Voyce, of the DWBIZ, which markets the core on behalf of the 1,300 or so businesses.

It comes at a time when Winnipeg’s development industry is on fire, with a proposed $1.26 billion projects on tap this year, more than the total development for the previous five years, says Voyce, who is the placemaking, cleanliness and transportation manager of the DWBIZ.

"The notion that you have to have business owners, property owners and the public downtown feeling disgruntled by something like construction or vacant buildings…well, this is a way of seeing it as something positive," says Voyce.

Urban Wallpaper consists of three art designs. One is a whimsical display in a repeating pattern of food, including ice cream and hotdogs.

The program was launched in August at two vacant buildings downtown. One covers 23 windows and doors of a vacant building on Donald Street in a thriving section of the core. The art is on poster paper installed inside windows and over doors.

It is a radical change from the "yellowed paper" in the windows that preceded it, Voyce says.

She adds while it puts an attractive touch to a vacant building, she hopes property owners see it as an aid to finding future tenants.

Voyce expects that as more vacant buildings get made over, developers will see how attractive it can be and follow suit on their construction projects.

Where the printed artwork is exposed to the weather, such as on plywood hoarding or metal construction fencing, the displays will be printed on vinyl with graffiti-proofing agents and a UV protective coating.

"If a particular site requires a certain approach we leave that up to the expertise of SRS Signs & Services, (the sponsor printing the artwork)," she says.

The art displays are removable and designed for reuse on other sites.

Voyce says the three designs, two by graphic designers and one by a fashion designer, were selected from 90 submissions from 31 local artists by a jury made up of artists, a property owner, a landscape architect, a city planner and a graphic designer.

The designs were judged on a number of criteria, including their ability to be scalable — to fit different sized spaces, such as windows, doors and hoarding.

Voyce says the association’s impetus for Urban Wallpaper came from an urban design conference in Montreal two years ago that focused on leveraging design to improve construction sites.

The conference pointed to several examples in Canada and large-scale ones overseas and in the U.S. In one instance, antique painted doors were suspended over a facade during its renovation, while another saw huge ribbons wrapped around a building under construction, she says.

Voyce says the DWBIZ is putting the final draft together on a guide to Urban Wallpaper for property owners, developers and others. It spells out where the art can be applied — anything from sidewalk sheds to fences — and what resources downtown business will provide the users.

She says if a developer or property owner wants something other than the artwork on their projects, the DWBIZ has an in-house graphic designer who can provide alternatives such as historic or modern images of downtown.

Urban Wallpaper is wholly-funded by the DWBIZ and SRS Signs, she says, noting that all the association asks from property owners and developers is to not charge the association for advertising itself on the artwork.

"If it takes off the way we are hoping it does, we see running a competition every few years to add new designs," she says.