Looks incredible. Kudos to the developers of the QM for bringing Halifax this civic delight.

I agree. Queens Mark has become a new icon for the Halifax waterfront - innovative, unique and contributes to the pedestrian experience of the boardwalk. Very impressive. :tup:

https://i.imgur.com/4KB1L4X.png

https://i.imgur.com/lYWEWFJ.png

https://i.imgur.com/l3yRGkl.png

https://i.imgur.com/dUYsc0z.png

https://i.imgur.com/nWlePlU.png

:yeahthat: :stunned: :omg:

^Is this Halifax or a city in Western Europe? The street level feel here is world class. It makes me want to go on a vacation in my own Downtown.

More of this please.

Well, I went to check this out at Low Tide this weekend... happened to be just about at sunset, and I thought it was pretty good - not as exciting as in the Vimeo link, but some of that is due to the dynamism of filming from the air and how dark it was in the video... I suspect that if we had been even 15 minutes later from sunset it would have been even better.

The plaza area was full of people going back and forth, the patios had diners and drinkers, and the flickering lights added even more interest to a pretty nice-feeling space. Two thumbs up in-person... emphatic two thumbs up with a dark sky.

https://i.imgur.com/bEWZsf7.png

https://i.imgur.com/gnR8NKU.png

https://i.imgur.com/sLBAqmk.png

https://i.imgur.com/BFdLwXm.png

https://i.imgur.com/ORFZmEK.png

https://i.imgur.com/bcmS2st.png

https://i.imgur.com/YkegLWf.png

https://i.imgur.com/x6L85nf.png

Great shots, that has really turned out nicely - especially at night with all the lighting features. Thanks for posting them.

What do the creepy statues depict?

My guess is the four cardinal directions / "four winds", although I'm not really sure. Each of them faces a different direction but I think they're lined up more with the street grid than with actual N/E/S/W. They are each identical (or roughly identical) with the front faces being flat and reflective, and the backs looking vaguely like a figure from ancient world mythology (I'm not sure whether it's supposed to be anyone specific). I find them a bit more interesting during the day - they're very reflective and shiny, and the obelisk-like podiums are striking.

The red/green lights under the docks are also a navigational reference - boats and aircraft use red and green lights to mark their left and right sides.

I assume the door/elevator (?) inside the Tidal Beacon is an accessibility feature, but at this point it's not really clear where it leads to, or if it even leads anywhere, which adds to the intrigue.

It's all a far cry from the steel lighthouses and paint-your-own-lobsters that were the reference points for "public art" here until pretty recently. It feels like there has been an abrupt and rather extreme shift over the last few years from a somewhat cheap, folksy-kitschy aesthetic and approach to arts and culture (including architecture) to a sleeker, more highbrow and/or flashy, and emphatically "of the times" approach. There's a sense that the late 90s/early 2000s stuff was mostly designed to placate people (without truly aiming to impress anyone) while the new stuff is mostly designed to impress or intrigue people, with varying degrees of success.

The four statues are indeed facing the four cardinal directions. The figures are meant to represent sirens, which are part of Greek Mythology. Sirens were humanlike female figures that sailors would see in the distance in the fog, the sailors would sail toward them to meet them and wreck on the shore in the fog. The granite blocks that each one sits on top of are single pieces of solid granite that weigh 20,000lbs. They are so heavy they aren't even fastened down. "Sirens continued to be used as a symbol for the dangerous temptation embodied by women regularly throughout Christian art of the medieval era."

The elevator on Rise Again leads from boardwalk level to the top of Rise Again, so that those who need it can take it rather than the stairs.

Extremely well said!

Meanwhile, Tim Bousquet used his blog yesterday to crap all over this development as part of his campaign against Scott McCrae and Armour Group, hinting that they would be using their influence to abscond with the NSCAD buildings on Granville once they relocate.

Thanks for the interesting info! It's nice to have some context when seeing the site in person.

Hopefully something good will be done with the NSCAD buildings on Granville. I worry that once they are vacated, they will be left to deteriorate until tearing down or facadism are the only options left (in other words, usual practice in Halifax). :)

Half of that stretch already got the facadism treatment, a bunch was torn down for Cogswell (Pentagon and a Morse's Teas twin), then Waterside Centre IMO degraded the historic feel of that block a bit.

It seems to happen incrementally without much overall sense that as the heritage assets disappear the remaining ones (including complete buildings and not just facades) become more valuable. It's completely reasonable for a Halifax-sized city to maintain a few blocks of old buildings in pristine condition. And even rebuild some. It would be transformative if the NSCAD block were given a good restoration (it's not in great shape right now) and then another block or two of historically accurate facades were built with some towers on top. And whether or not the ramparts bylaw is followed makes ~0 difference to that public benefit equation, but might lower the budget and overall possibilities.

As well-meaning as the accessibility mandate is, I do wonder if it might be the death knell for many old/historic buildings such as these which cannot easily be made accessible in any sort of cost-effective manner.

Article about this project in Architectural Record (some nice photos too): https://www.architecturalrecord.com/...axs-waterfront

"...best known for deft residential work informed by the area’s vernacular barns and fishing shacks."

sigh

Thank you so much for sharing this article. I come to the Halifax thread on almost a daily basis hoping to see something new about this beautiful addition to the waterfront. Cheers.