Buildings
Northern Sales
| Address: | 135 Lombard Avenue |
|---|---|
| Use: | Office building |
| Original Use: | Office building |
| Constructed: | 1952–1953 |
| Other Work: | 2010, Renovations by Number Ten Architectural Group |
| Architects: | Charles Faurer Allan Waisman |
| Firms: | Waisman, Ross and Associates |
| Contractors: | A. A. Akman Construction |
| Tours: | Part of the QR Code Tour |
More Information
135 Lombard Avenue was constructed in 1953 and designed by Charles Faurer and Alan Waisman for the international grain company Northern Sales. A fine example of modernist design in Winnipeg, the building is an elegant, well-balanced composition of low, single-storey volumes finished in light-coloured brick and glass. Many aspects of the design echo the form of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s seminal work of early modern architecture, the Barcelona Pavilion of 1928-29.
Northern Sales operated from 135 Lombard Avenue until 2000. Ten years later, in 2010, the building was sold to Sigurdson McFadden Benefits and Pensions / Sigurdson Financial Group, who orchestrated a renovation of the building, conducted by Number Ten Architectural Group.
Design Characteristics
- Site frontage: 114.7 ft. (34.96 m)
- Plan area: 4,272 sq. ft. (396.87 sq. m)
- Gross floor area: 6,155 sq. ft. (571.8 sq. m)
- Original Plan/Building: Foundation and basement constructed with cast in place reinforced concrete piles, reinforced concrete beams, concrete basement walls, concrete slab basement floor. Superstructure constructed with brick walls, wood frame, wood floor joists covered with western board, sulphite paper and plywood, wood ceiling joists (perhaps reinforced with some steel) covered with shiplap, vapour seal, asphalt, cork insulation and a felt, tar and gravel roof.
- A feature of 135 Lombard is the 2,000 square foot walled patio/greenspace at the NE corner of property. This area is overlooked from the building's interior by extensive glass openings.
Sources
- Jack, Francis, "Lure of the grain market attracts Swartz family trio," Winnipeg Free Press, November 16, 1984, p. 24.
- "Swartz Appointed," Winnipeg Sun, October 20, 1985, p. 20.
- University of Manitoba Libraries, Department of Archives and Special Collections, Winnipeg Tribune Subject Clipping Research Files, Microfilm Roll #99, file on "Northern Sales (1963) Ltd."
- Brewster Kneen, The Rape of Canola. The Social Construction of Canola, 1950-1992. (Toronto: NC Press Ltd., 1992_ (A general history and analysis of the development and operation of the rapeseed/canola industry in Canada)
- Allan Levine, The Exchange: 100 Years of Trading Grain in Winnipeg (Winnipeg: Peguis Publishers Ltd., 1987) pp. 1, 17, 148, 219-21, 227, 238, 242-43. (Cited pages refer to Northern Sales and/or C.O. Swartz, Clifford Swartz and/or Max Nusgart.)
- Dan Morgan, Merchants of Grain: The Power and Profits of the Five Giant Companies at the Centre of the World's Food Supply (New York: Penguin Books, 1980) p.310.
- Barry Wilson, Beyond the Harvest: Canadian Grain at the Crossroads (Saskatoon: Western Producers Prairie Books, 1981), pp. 9, 12, 153, 162-64, 166-167, 193.
- C.F. Wilson, Canadian Grain Marketing (Winnipeg: Canadian International Grain Institute, 1979) (References to Northern Sales Ltd. are found on pp. 37 & 314-15.)