[someone123]

I agree that this proposal is a little bland, but I'm not sure what the criticisms are meant to accomplish. Is the suggestion that this shouldn't be built?

The reality is that this is a private development and this is the design presented. There might be some room for improvement, but nobody's proposing a showcase architectural project along the lines of multimillion dollar New York condos. And it's not really up to the public to demand exactly what should be done on this site.

My take on this is that cities improve gradually over time, and architecture evolves based on what's already been built. As long as nothing major is torn down and nothing terrible is built, it is better to encourage lots of construction to increase density and to create a more vibrant ecosystem of architecture and urban design that is likely to produce better designs in the future. The quality of new proposals in Halifax has already gone up dramatically since 2000 and it is likely to be better still in the next few years. Had we had a "perfect buildings or nothing" attitude in 2000, the downtown would likely just have a lot more parking lots. Criticism does not by itself cause better buildings to materialize.

Something else to keep in mind is that there really hasn't been much demolition along Spring Garden Road. This project will mark the second plain boxy wooden structure (sorry, but standard windows are not really exceptional architectural features) to be knocked down recently, but there are another half a dozen or so projects that have gone up on parking lots or on top of existing buildings. On balance this part of town is dramatically more successful now than it was back before the new construction. I remember when Spring Garden Road had a bunch of fast food places and developments like City Centre Atlantic were mostly vacant. In a few years it will be on a completely different level from all of that.