[Halifax] Maritime Centre Podium | ? m | ? fl | Completed
 

http://www.halifax.ca/boardscom/drc/...915Item9.2.pdf

Design review Cttee September 15
Also on Agenda : Governo'rs Plaza - http://www.halifax.ca/boardscom/drc/...915Item9.1.pdf

Damn you just beat me to it! :P

The Salter Street side leaves a bit to be desired but the Barrington Street addition is a definite improvement to what is currently there!

I created a new thread for Governor's Plaza.

Agreed that the Barrington side at least is a big improvement. This has been something I've been hoping would be proposed for a while.

Thank heavens, this has always been a horrible entrance! What about Niche's outside area, will they get rooftop access. It would be nice to have this as an outdoor area, looking up SGR.

yes. this. I like their covered patio now. it would be even better as a permanent roof top feature.

This is fantastic news. Really going to spruce up this drab brutalist concrete corner with some nice glass.

Excellent!

You are right on the money. In an earlier thread, which I wan't able to find quickly, there was some dicussion about this concept. Removing the wind-swept dead space between the Martime Centre and St. Matthews, better utilizing the cavernous lobby and lower floors, and eliminating the MC's Icy Stairs from HellTM, can only improve this corner. It will be a return of storefront retail to this intersection for the first time since the old Capitol Theatre Building was vacated in the late 60s.

I think I posited in that earlier discussion that this would be an ideal space to house a new urban department store, such as a return to Halifax of Hudson's Bay.

Bravo to Slate Office REIT for this welcome proposal after Fortis' long improvement-free reign.

Is this part of a larger refurbishment of the property or is the rest remaining as-is for now?

Apparently we'll learn more when it comes to Design Review Committee next week. I certainly hope and trust the plans include at least all of the subgrade levels of the complex, which have been a depressing, underutlized space for many years. (As any of us who have worked there can attest! :irked: )

A bit of a shame IMO. I agree the stairs leading up to the lobby leave something to be desired, but I've really liked how Niche has inhabited the lower split of the front. Especially enjoyed the outdoor World Cup experience there.

I'm not sold on the idea of blocking out the whole podium to the street, even with a spate of glass here and there, and I do love shiny glass...

On the other hand, a complete rebuild of the internal subgrades would be more than welcome!

It'll be interesting to see more details of what will be renovated inside and how everything will connect together. I'm not sure what caused the mini mall inside to do so poorly, but it seems to have a lot of problems. It's tucked away, dated looking, and was never big enough to be much of a destination that people would go out of their way to go to. To some degree there was probably also just a glut of retail space downtown.

There's a lot of interesting local businesses down there and I hope they don't get pushed out (or priced out). Dustjacket Books is probably the best used bookstore on the peninsula, run by nice people, and the Asian food outlets are good for lunch.

Looks good in concept. I wonder if it addresses the wind problem beside the blank wall. Wish they would incorporate a glass canopy of some sort to further protect against the wind and provide cover against the elements.

I saw HalifaxRetales mention something on twitter, could this be a Simons Department store at the end of Spring Garden Rd?

http://i67.tinypic.com/2qdweat.png

:previous:

Well, that would be a game changer for the downtown core. This would certainly qualify as a destination store and would put the downtown back in the game in terms of major retail (vs HSC, Micmac and the power centres). :)

:previous:

I just looked at the render on HalifaxRetales twitter feed, and the render doesn't show a Simon's sign on it.

Did you put it there q12?

Come on now, you got me all excited for nothing......... :haha:

Sorry for the confusion, I just read this on twitter and added the logo to the render to see how it would look.

It sounds like Simons has been looking at this spot for a while. It looks like a department store (even without the sign) unless they are building a 2nd library (without killerstairs™).

Kidding aside it would be a nice anchor and pillar of retail for Barrington st and Spring Garden rd stores (Like Lululemon and Urban Outfitters among many others]). Not to mention being a stone's throw from several massive 20+ stories apartment/condos under construction.

I had not heard these rumours but it's not inconceivable. In an article a year ago in the Montreal Gazette, company president/CEO Peter Simons declares the company plans to open eight new stores over the next three years, investing about $200 million. Downtown Ottawa opened a few weeks ago (in what had been a derelict old former Ogilvy's department store adjacent to the Rideau Centre) and Mississauga and Edmonton are listed on the company web site as next to come. Calgary and other Toronto locations are mentioned for future expansion.

Atlantic Canada is not mentioned in the piece but one would expect the company would have taken a look at the market. Simon is quoted as saying, "We're trying to build a national brand."

It would certainly be exciting to see a retailer of this quality gamble on downtown Halifax, though the vacant Zellers/Target space at Micmac and Dartmouth Crossing would also have to be in the running. (Finding space at HSC would be a challenge though, interestingly, the upcoming Mississauga expansion has them taking over space from an existing Sears store.)

While Maritime Centre is certainly a desirable, high-profile location, the lack of adequate indoor parking could be a drawback. The MC parking levels are cramped and over capacity now. An expansion of the adjacent MetroPark with pedway connection may be a possible solution.

The Montreal Gazette article

I am quite disappointed in the design for this. The more I look at it, the more I do not like it.

The architecture of Maritime Centre is so bold and strong with hard lines that any addition of this nature has to be sensitive to this and work with it, not against it. Either something big and bold and heavy or the complete opposite, very light and glassy.

Hopefully we will learn more after the DRC gets their presentation this week.

I see what you mean although I find it hard to assess how an addition like this will relate to the existing building based on a sketch like the one above. I like the glass facade but it's not clear what material will be used for the white portions.

In Halifax it does seem to me that there are lots of additions that appear to be designed in isolation according to the trends of the day, with little or no attention paid to the style of the existing building. Lots of glass or metal-clad boxes grafted onto 1970's brutalist buildings.

If Simons is indeed going into the podium, I wouldn't worry about the quality of the material. Their stores are built with great architecture and such a store would indeed be a game-changer for Halifax and I can see it doing well there.