[Halifax] The Anthony (5426 Portland Place) | ? m | 6 fl | Completed
 

Anyone know what is happening here, behind Marque/Seahorse. Digging a deep hole.

6 Storeys as of right revelopment. Jonovision had linked blurry pictures from Waye's instagram in the general thread. They are pretty bad:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi2uQ_-HGYU/
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi2q6HxHh3R/

This is being built by the same developer who did The Luxor buildings out on Larry Uteck & the building on Kaye St./Young St. that houses the Starbucks & the new building at Almon/Isleville.

This one is mostly bachelor & one bedroom apts.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/941/4...0bbc3858_b.jpg20180729_104729 by Jonovision23, on Flickr

A lot of progress on the excavation without blasting.
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1872/...f6a32304_b.jpg5426 Portland Place 2018-8-24 by DwN~toWN Halifax, on Flickr

A crane went up over the holidays.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7803/...c45f8e6b_b.jpg20190106_095105 by Jonovision23, on Flickr

There's a property listing here with some information: https://www.partnersglobal.com/prope...th-end-halifax

They mention commercial space on "every level", which I guess means that each ground floor moving up the hill will have some storefronts? Or does this mean that even the upper floors are mixed?

Rendering:

https://www.partnersglobal.com/sites...0.49.33_am.png

^Its commercial for 50' back from Portland Place on every level due to a weird bylaw that applies to Brunswick Street heritage district.

Case 21850 - 5426 Portland Place

That makes sense, thanks.

The latest rendering looks a bit better than I thought the building would. I figured it would be similar to a Clayton Park concrete building but with less setback. But the ground level isn't too bad and it looks like there will be some decorative balconies and siding (material unclear).

Michael Napier Architecture is behind this one. I expect it will be similar to Q Lofts or Harris East.

If this is being built by the guy who built The Luxor on Larry Utect I suspect it will be quite nice. He takes a lot of pride in his buildings.

The explanation makes sense. The bylaw itself, not so much because, HRM. :koko:

My understanding is that Schedule HA-1 no longer applies for this site. There is commercial on one level only.

Indeed it is the same developer as Luxor. I suspect it will not be unattractive when complete.

This building is primarily bachelor & one bedroom units.

If you look at the website posted above from the developer, it is actually commerical on every floor straight up to the top! I'm sure it'll be a mix of office and retail on the Portland street side.

We should expect better
 

This is another example of the low standards we've developed here. This is a giant missed opportunity to add density and start to tackle the affordability crisis here in Halifax. Instead we get a very basic attempt at what a building can look and function like in a urban setting. The metal paneling really holds up over time, all the PMQ's still look great 50 years later. :pinocchio:

The design on this one really surprised me, especially with it being right next to the brickyard townhouses. Huge missed opportunity to integrate it into the neighbourhood. Judging from the render it looks like it has a forgettable facade and then a monotony of glass behind it.

"Integration" attempts in Halifax have a pretty bad track record and don't seem to be any better than modern style buildings on average.

The Waterford was okay, and so were the small faux buildings around the base of Vic Suites (but most of Vic suites is modern and actually not too different from the Portland Pl building). Around Portland Place, the small newer brick building that went up looks pretty good while the Brickyard townhouses for the most part look like cheap knock-offs of the historic buildings nearby. When you see the old and new brick townhouses nearby one looks like a skilled work of masonry and one looks like a Lego version.

I think it's more accurate to say that there are high and low quality buildings. The high quality ones tend to look good whether they have modern or historical designs. They have more elegant designs and tend to use higher quality materials like stone or nicer glass curtain wall, and are more customized. The low end buildings seem to use more generic brick and precast blocks or siding.

I'm not sure we can expect all buildings in the North End to be high-end buildings right now, although maybe that will change in the future. I think it's better to just encourage a lot of development (as long as few old buildings are lost) to drive up land values and make the area attractive rather than hold out for expensive buildings, but the city probably could push a bit more for better designs. This is going to happen as the Centre Plan comes into effect.

This is a lot more nuanced than what I was getting at and I do agree. I think maybe my issue is more the form and scale - the Vic is undoubtably modern, but broken up so it better matches the existing pattern of the streetscape.

Walked by this one yesterday. The massing feels so off compaired to the rest of the neighbourhood. Maybe I'll be better once the tower on the corner of Brunswick/Cogswell goes up or the Staples gets redeveloped but in its current state it just feels... weird for the neighbourhood, despite being so close to "downtown".