90/100
On a long parcel at the edge of Winnipeg’s East Exchange District, 90/100, named for its address, unites a 1905 warehouse with a seven-storey contemporary volume to create a medium-density, mixed-use development. Containing 206 residential suites spanning new and old buildings and 6,000 square feet of commercial space, the project establishes a deliberate counterpoint to the area’s conventional, opaque residential buildings through careful choreography of massing, open space and glazing, rendering the building physically and symbolically open. It strikes a rare balance — contributing to the urban fabric while establishing a landmark distinguished by bold geometry and material precision.
The heritage building — once home to the W.J. Guest Fish Company and later Great West Metal — retains its original brick envelope, bearing traces of its industrial life: carved initials, layered paint, trolley-worn floors and scuffed plaster. Treated as an objet trouvé, it stands as a freestanding pavilion, visible from all sides. The new building bends, terraces and steps back in response to the warehouse and streetscape.
Residential floor plates remain shallow to maximise light and ventilation, shifting from single-loaded to double-loaded corridors above. The project employs a flexible system of one- and two-bedroom units interchangeable up to construction, including townhouses at grade, flats mid-building and skip-stop units above. Ground- and top-floor units eliminate interior corridors, increasing efficiency.
Inspired by the site’s past, the façade is clad in a custom-designed modular sheet-metal system, achieving unique texture and articulation at half the anticipated budget and with less material. Each panel is individually serviceable, allowing partial or full repairs and replacement without disturbing adjacent cladding.
At the sixth and seventh floors, the massing slopes towards the heritage structure, introducing terraces and semi-private roof decks with framed views of the river and city. Uniform upper-level screening responds to varying conditions, providing shade, privacy and enclosure for patios and mechanical areas.
At grade, porosity is achieved through exceptionally transparent commercial spaces and strategic voids that lift to weave views through the complex. Interconnected pedestrian passages and small plazas blend residential entrances, commercial uses and gathering areas while maintaining sightlines through to the heritage structure. Shared courtyards provide rare communal space within a typology often driven by private investment.
A lightweight exterior fire stair — serving both buildings — links them while maintaining separation, forming an elevated passage that brings residents into proximity with brick and sculpted metal alike. More than utilitarian, it becomes a hinge — an unexpected place to pause and experience both architectures simultaneously.
By embracing the existing structure, 90/100 positions adaptive reuse as an active tool of city-building, transforming a once-isolated industrial parcel into a layered civic connector engaged with the evolving character of the East Exchange.
