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I thought this was an interesting view. It makes sense given the height, the relatively short buildings around, and the elevation, but I didn't think of Flynn Flats popping up like this:
https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram...67787008_n.jpg Source The Cunard Block will make a big difference to this view too. |
I hope we see more smaller infill projects like this. It makes the street so much more interesting.
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I really hope the old south suburb HCD covering this district gets approved ASAP. They Schmidtville HCD just came into effect, which is great, but it's not like there's a bunch of development pressure there. This should be the priority. This little stretch of Hollis and Barrington, and the cross-streets, still contains a really interesting mix of architectural eras rare in the country. I think that needs protection so that infill really is infill, not tear-downs and re-builds. |
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The building across the street, 1360 Hollis, still looks like this. It's clad in beige vinyl siding and surrounded by 200 year old sandstone buildings and national historic sites. It's great that the city is growing and experiencing development pressure but the municipality is doing a mediocre job of channeling this pressure into the right locations while protecting the character that makes the city interesting in the first place. I think Halifax has mostly just been "lucky" so far that there have been so many empty lots to redevelop. A lot of the remaining empty lots now are effectively land banks held by government and major institutions or companies (the province, Dalhousie, NSP, WDC, etc.). A bad but very possible scenario is that these will continue to languish as empty lots while developers start cannibalizing the nice adjacent built-out neighbourhoods because that is the only way to satisfy demand for downtown housing. |
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Having just returned from Ottawa and Montreal, and having visited Saint John in the spring, it has become very apparent to me that Halifax either doesn't value their historic structures as much as those cities, or just does not have the political will or ability to create better rules to ensure that the deferred maintenance/neglect situation doesn't continue to occur. It's really disappointing, and actually embarrassing to some extent. |
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The good and bad news I guess is that there's a lot left that is in poor shape. It could be torn down but it could also be restored. Halifax could have a lot of amazing-looking historic neighbourhoods with a relatively small amount of well-targeted investment (equal to a small fraction of the money that goes into building new stuff every year in the city). Example almost-great streetscape: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DgiJXT7XkAEa4I9.jpg:large Source Most Canadian cities have 0 buildings like Government House, Keith Hall, Black-Binney, or even Benjamin Wier. |
Don't wring your hands too much. We have this discussion here periodically and I always need to point out that we are not tearing down the equivalent of Penn Station here. What we have are mostly unremarkable wood-framed two-storey boxes frm the late 1800s that were never particularly great when new and with the passage of time have become slummy and stripped of most of whatever they originally had in the way of architectural detail. It is also worth pointing out that groups like the Heritage Trust spent most of their political capitol and goodwill fighting to preserve empty lots or utterly unworthy things like the old "dry canteen" on the Wanderers Grounds and various parking/empty lots, so they have lost any credibility they may have had.
Halifax never looked like Old Town Quebec so let's stop fretting. |
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Old Quebec wasn't merely preserved in its present state, it was actively enhanced and restored. Halifax had many blocks that could have been given the same treatment and there are still areas today that could be. The 1950's-60's pre-renovation pictures of Old Quebec look a lot like Granville Street did back then. In some cases the Quebec examples were farther gone. A 1970's shot of Place Royale in Quebec City: https://imageshack.com/a/img921/6250/tjNTje.jpg Restoration work: https://imageshack.com/a/img921/9782/5TWHop.jpg There's an article about the area here: http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/en/...of_a_City.html |
Cogswell demolition buildings that could have been integrated into a historic district similar to old Quebec (from here):
https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3764/3...77e06a66_b.jpg https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3837/3...332dbdbf_b.jpg Look how there was even a nice masonry building next to Morse's Teas that was torn down at some point then replaced decades later with a duller imitation historic facade: https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3764/3...2c5b42df_o.jpg Halifax even had and still has cobblestone streets. You can see an example in Granville Mall or around historic properties and there is another surviving example inside Scotia Square which was Buckingham Street before the redevelopment. Many other streets still have cobblestones that today are buried under asphalt, just like in those 1970's Quebec City photos. |
Sometimes in Halifax the right decision is made and good restoration work gets done. Usually with lots of complaining about cost, and usually at the 11th hour when the options are a huge overhaul or demolition.
https://i.cbc.ca/1.2550317.139332945...ns-cottage.jpg https://i.cbc.ca/1.3421217.145385041...-s-cottage.jpg The Power Cottage story: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...tion-1.4542238 |
The Power Cottage is an unfortunate example to use as it was wildly, ridiculously, extravagantly expensive project with absolutely no limits to what tax dollars were spent. A lovely but unused building that still has not found any real purpose except to shw how HRM likes to throw around money. We cannot preserve things without regard to cost.
The examples you cite that were victims of the urban renewal of the 1960s are typical of what occurred in many large cities at the time and were unfortunate losses in some cases. But it is not germane to what we are discussing, which is what is happening now. |
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Here's a shot of Argyle Street: https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram...32977920_n.jpg Look at the state of the buildings. The one on the left used to be a 3 storey facade but it burned down and never got rebuilt. The Nova Centre one looks like it's in the usual holding pattern of neglect before redevelopment happens. You can see another brick building in the background that got a 4th floor addition only a couple of years ago. It is now covered in an ugly stucco-like material or cladding. On the right there's another brick building with granite lintels that show how old it is but it still has an ugly brown 1970's mansard roof. Next to that is another building with sandstone work reminiscent of the courthouse on Spring Garden Road, so probably from around 1850. It's in OK shape but it still has the stucco treatment and an ugly cornice, and it's not a registered heritage building so it could easily disappear. All of this stuff could be torn down tomorrow simply because it may no longer maximize the profits of speculative property buyers like Dongdu. That is no way to run a city. |
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It's also important to point out that most of the heritage buildings in downtown Halifax have already been demolished. We are only debating whether to protect the 40% or so that is left. A couple blocks down from this there are multiple highrise development sites. |
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