A Tim Bousquet article from this weeks Coast.
TD Building re-design proposal revealed
Plans call for the demolition of 1820s-era Macara-Barnstead Building, now housing The Flower Shop
POSTED BY TIM BOUSQUET ON TUE, MAY 18, 2010 AT 2:43 PM
Toronto-Dominion Bank wants to nearly triple the size of its 18-storey Barrington Street tower. The plan calls for the demolition of the Macara-Barnstead Building on Granville Street, a registered historic property that dates to the 1820s.
Architect Bill Anwyll unveilled the plans last Thursday before the Design Review Committee. That committee reviews all building proposals and determines if they meet the design criteria established by the HRM By Design planning rules for downtown.
The TD building was built in 1972, explained Anwyll. The full tower sits to the south of the CIBC building on Barrington, and extends back only half a block, because at the time of construction TD didn't own the two lots on Granville. (One lot is occupied by the Barnstead building. The second is now empty, but once was the site of the historic Kellys Leather Goods Store, which was demolished in 2006.) TD has since acquired both lots.
Along George Street, the tower drops to a four-storey "podium," as to preserve the protected view shed from Citadel Hill down the George Street corridor to the harbour. That podium extends to Granville Street.
The TD proposal fills in the block, by extending the tower back to Granville Street. The podium would remain in its current configuration, but the facade at the corner of George and Granville would be reworked to be consistent with the larger building. There would also be a three-storey pyramid-shaped extension to the top of the tower, two storeys of which would be rentable office space, with the third storey housing some of the building's equipment.
The bigger building would increase the space on each floor from the present 3,500 square feet to 9,800 square feet, said Anwyll. He did not say, but that increase presumably does not include the podium or the pyramid. The overall increase in office space would be in the neighbourhood of 110,000 square feet; Anwyll gave no indication whether the bank would use the extra space itself, or lease it out.
Thanks to more efficient design, the bigger building would use less energy than the existing building, said Anwyll.
The Macara-Barnstead Building
TD's plans call for demolishing the Macara-Barnstead Building, although responding to a question from a committee member, Anwyll objected to that characterization. "We're not going to demolish the building," he said. "We’re going to deconstruct the rear of the building, which has very limited heritage value, but maintain the front facade... The intent is to get it looking like it looked in the 1870s."
Anwyll was referring to a brick extension to the rear of the building constructed in the 1880s, but in fact, the plan is to tear down the entire building, save for the facade and parts of three stone walls. Those walls now extend all the way to the rear of the original building (in the picture above, the exterior wall is one of the three walls), but TD intends to keep only the easternmost 12 feet of each wall. Keeping any more of the walls would interfere with the rentability of the space, said Anwyll.
Asked if The Flower Shop would be back in the reconstructed space, Anwyll said no. “The reality is that The Flower Shop is in this building because it’s a relatively inexpensive space to rent. When it’s new and it has air conditioning and proper heating and little things like that, and everybody wants to be there because it's in such a lovely condition on the street, the rent’s going to go up.”
"We think that entire building is important," said Phil Pacey of the Heritage Trust, after the meeting. "It's one of the few stone buildings left in the city."
The new building would also recreate the lost facade of the Kelly building along Granville Street.
Process issues
At a previous meeting, Pacey had asked to address the committee, to lay out his view that demolishing the Macara-Barnstead Building goes against the design guidelines laid out in HRM By Design. The committee, which was only created this year, had not yet drawn up rules for public presentations; at that time they voted not to allow presentations from the public.
That decision didn't sit right with four members of the committee, who insisted last week that their contrary views be recorded in the minutes of the earlier meeting.
"The developer just spoke before the committee for, what, an hour?" said Pacey after the meeting. "We think it's within our democratic rights to also address the committee."
As for the building proposal itself, TD will need two variances from the Halifax council in order to get permission to build. Both variances are needed to make the project economically viable, said Anwyll.
The first involves extending the front facade, above the Macara-Barnstead facade, to 41 metres before it is stepped back from the street. HRM By Design guidelines dictate a stepback after 37.5 metres in height.
The second variance would apply to the north side of the new portion of the building, facing the CIBC building. Planning rules say that after the first 33.5 metres of height, new construction must be stepped back at least 17 metres from the common property line. Abiding by those rules would leave a large blank space omitted from the otherwise square tower. Anwyll argued that it made no difference, except to the people in the CIBC building, if that blank space was filled in, because the existing tower already blocks views and sunlight.
The Design Review Committee will formally decide on the merits of the TD proposal at its next meeting, which hasn't been scheduled yet.