[Halifax] Promenade Robie South | 90 m | 31 & 30 fl | U/C
This is one of the 19 that was originally proposed to go for a DA prior to Centre Plan.
The design has been refined somewhat. Public meeting taking place Monday, June 4th, 2018, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at St. Andrew’s United Church, 6036 Coburg Road. More info: https://www.halifax.ca/business/plan...arlton-streets https://farm1.staticflickr.com/885/2...f148086c_b.jpgRobie and College 1 by Jonovision23, on Flickr https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1727/...032fb10a_b.jpgRobie And College 2 by Jonovision23, on Flickr https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1742/...33635dbf_b.jpgRobie And College 3 by Jonovision23, on Flickr https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1753/...77b1f935_b.jpgRobie and College 4 by Jonovision23, on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/878/4...fb7df283_b.jpgRobie and College 5 by Jonovision23, on Flickr |
Those renderings make it look like a really good high quality development. Has anything been approved yet?
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All in all, this looks incredibly solid.The high quality stone is the one thing about the Alexander I enjoy, so it is feasible for it to be done. |
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I really think this is a complete dog, aesthetically. The scale is right, the architectural is eccentrically bland early '00s suburban GTA. It's a jumble of fakey architectural embellishments and clashing colours, and nothing about it looks very contemporary. It's worse than the Trillium and its little hat. |
Although nice materials, the design of the podium looks 20 years old with the faux-heritage-regal facade. That will look dated the moment it's complete. We stopped doing similar designs here in Metro-Vancouver over a decade ago, trend now is to simpler, more modernist and timeless which will ultimately age better. Halifax needs to dump faux-heritage immediately, it never works.
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Unpopular Opinion: I kind of like the design.
I like the podium a lot. I feel like there is such a thing as having too many glass tower cities. We don't need every city looking like Vancouver and I think that in comparison to the rest of the country that this is a very bold design that goes against the glass tower trend. Faux heritage has its place, and although I personally think that faux heritage designs are better served by mid-rise and townhouse designs, I'm really not irked with this tower. I would like to see more renders. |
I can't say I'm all that impressed with the design, but then again it's a lot harder to get me excited about a proposal if it's a redevelopment than requires demos of some decent buildings rather than of a more poorly utilized site such as a parking lot or strip mall. The lowrise apartment building isn't much of a loss, but I hate losing Victorian-era houses.
But specifically in terms of the design, I don't see anything about the design language that connects it to the aesthetics or architectural heritage the city, province or neighbourhood. Stepping away from modern/contemporary design trends is fine - good even - as long as the result is something that integrates with and plays homage to its location. But then again, those type of design dues aren't actually a departure from contemporary design trends are they? Seems to be quite prevalent in contemporary populist design. |
Far too many cyclists in those renderings for me to believe the finished product will look anything at all like that. :haha:
I need to look at that block as it is today before I pass judgement on this one. |
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I really like the podium as well. I am an eternal optimist and hope that the material would be more than bad precast. I could lose that weird pergola on the roof though. And I don't think just because it has stone cladding it is faux heritage. There are a lot of contemporary designs that use stone and traditional window forms. I don't see it as trying to replicated anything or be something that it is not (aside from that pergola) And those deep inset balconies in the stone facade are definitely contemporary in nature. The towers however are a whole other story. Too many materials and the setbacks do not look fully resolved. I like towers that are have modular components and towers that gradually set back as they rise, but this seems to be trying to do both at the same time and its just not working. |
I looked at the site in Streetview to refresh my memory as to what is there now.
Most of the buildings affected by this are large Victorians that were undoubtedly impressive at one time, but which appear to have been cut up into many apartments in recent years. No idea what they are like inside but I suspect most of whatever grandeur they had has been lost. The exception may be on Carlton St but it is impossible to tell what their current use may be. This is an interesting case in that the scale of the proposal is very large and would undoubtedly add a lot to the property tax base of the city. The price is that many potentially restorable buildings of a type that are simply no longer built now will go away. |
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Developing parking lots is great but the city's supply of empty lots is dwindling fast. Most underused sites in the city today are owned by some level of government or a major public institution and are hard for private developers to build on. The giant empty lot behind the library is an example of this. |
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This is another one of those developments that looks to me like it is part of a vision of a larger city. It is proposing to turn what is currently a quiet medium density residential stretch of Robie into what looks like part of a major commercial artery. I think that's a huge improvement over the old tower-in-the-park or similar stuff built on sites like this that added density but not vibrancy. |
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As for what Waye and Sam can do, it's rally a provincial matter. The city's hands are pretty tied when it comes to strengthening the province's heritage act, which is very weak and in bad need of improvement. |
What the rendering doesn't show is the Dexel proposal at the corner of Spring Garden and Robie. Those towers are going to be tight together!
I'm not too optimistic about the materials. Kassner Goodspeed's favourite cladding is pre-cast. In fact, I can't think of any buildings they've designed that's not been pre-cast. The Doyle rendering appeared to show fancy marble cladding, and it ended up as pre-cast. |
Well - it gets points for integrating those heritage buildings at College/Carelton (including the relocation of one)... and the massing seems decent. I can't say that I'm a fan of the style yet.
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... and I see there are sunken courtyards at the heritage buildings. Not sure that'll be a nice space/garbage pit.
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