Quote:
Originally Posted by portapetey
I'm not one of those "tear it down!" people, but this one just doesn't feel like any loss to me. It's a plain beige box with no interesting architectural features at all.
|
It is not a landmark building but I think there are a few things to question about this.
The southern end of Hollis Street could and should be part of a heritage district, and "background" buildings contribute a lot to the character of the area in aggregate even if no single building makes or breaks the neighbourhood. Schmidtville is the same way; you could argue that no single building there is critical, but together they create a distinctive heritage district.
We hear arguments all the time about how it isn't economical to save these buildings, but really they are arguments about how it is
more profitable to tear them down and build something larger. This reasoning ignores the public good. In a city like Halifax where there are empty lots all over the place it is crazy to accept that we cannot support the 3% of the metro area (or whatever it is) that has buildings like this.
Another factor here is that the developer has wanted to tear down this building for a while, so they have no incentive to make the building look good and in fact probably have an incentive to let it get run down so that fewer people see it as a loss. There are other buildings of this style around the city that are well-maintained, have colourful wooden cladding, and look great. They have a fine-grained scale, good proportions, and features like the granite foundation that we are not likely to see in new construction.