Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
It might be the worst city in the country for quality of heritage buildings vs. level of upkeep. Halifax has a lot of dumpy looking national historic sites. The Citadel is okay for example but York Redoubt is in awful shape. The Prince of Wales tower is from 1796, the oldest of its type in Canada, and it has a fake looking roof that was built only after the masonry in the tower started to degrade. The original roof looking significantly different and better proportioned.
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I used to think of York Redoubt as an interesting counterpoint to the Citadel - a similar fort that was left to ruin and largely return to nature as opposed to the (comparatively) meticulously maintained Citadel. However I agree that it feels like it's in "awful" shape now that large sections have been chain-linked off due to structural degradation and the condition of the Martello Tower at York Redoubt is just plain pathetic TBH (boarded up with plywood, etc). There's a reason that one doesn't get mentioned in the tourism brochures.
It's nice that some of the more prominent, visibly-falling-apart buildings like the Armoury, Ralston, and Dennis buildings and St. Patrick's Church are getting restored or redeveloped. I don't mind the original design of the Ralston for example but the utilitarian metal bracing (very obviously in place to keep the facade from falling apart) was not a good look. The Pacific Building's "awning" is simliar, although it does at least provide weather protection. Two other areas that I think suffer from visible degradation are the Historic Properties facing Hollis Street (The "Welcome to Historic Properties" sign itself is in pretty rough shape), the Westin hotel (seems poorly maintained compared to most of the railway hotels). The old BMO building also looks a bit awkward with just a big stain remaining where there used to be logos.
One park that's really been improved lately (I don't think it's a historic site, but maybe) is Fort Needham park, especially the area around the monument. Fleming Park also got a restored seawall a few years ago (before that it was starting to crumble). Hopefully SMU can fix their stadium sometime soon.