Construction Sites In your City II

[someone123]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Are there really ten plus 30 storey towers under construction or are you counting every tower in multiple phased proposals? Just sayin'; SSP Halifax is quite proactive when it comes to counting developments under construction.

This is meant only to include structures for which there is excavation or construction activity. For example, the Little Brooklyn development in Dartmouth is apparently eventually planned as 4x40 but only one is under construction in this phase so it counts as 1.

It's debatable when to consider something under construction but in practice it's rare (maybe 0 cases in Halifax in the modern era) for a developer to do a bunch of digging and for nothing to ever be built.

There are some more detailed renderings for Spring Garden West but they're a bit limited (I think they were a bit allergic to showing the full height): https://www.mlsarchitects.ca/work/spring-garden-west

I don't have much of an opinion on Waterloo highrises but I think this development is decent and fits in with the area. It is going to have some nice detailing and a masonry podium. Retail spaces all around the base, which this area needs. It's a prominent intersection along a transit corridor, and it's next to what was the city's tallest building back around the 60's (70 m Tupper Building). This area had some other highrise housing going back to the 50's and there is a huge amount of demand for housing here today.

[someone123]

Here is a rendering of the Little Brooklyn project (named after an old ballpark that used to occupy the site) around the bridge area in Dartmouth:


https://www.littlebrooklyndartmouth.ca/

The tower to the far right is under construction. The plain shapes meant to show massing are other developments. I'm curious about the one to the left of Metropolitan Place.

One could find many critiques of this development I'm sure but it's basically replacing a wasteland and it's right by a transit hub.

[TorontoDrew]

One Delisle testing out it's lights.

Source: urbantoronto.ca

One Delisle | 155m | 44s | Slate | Studio Gang

[LeftCoaster]

^ Looks fantastic!

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

One Delisle testing out it's lights.

Source: urbantoronto.ca

One Delisle | 155m | 44s | Slate | Studio Gang

I love this design!

It looks better than many of the much taller towers going up.

[GeneralLea]

Holy cow - that's crazy how dense Dartmouth is getting. It always came across as a rundown area near Halifax to me, but that's only based on walking through the area a few years ago.

[Harley613]

Odenak in Ottawa. Tower 1 will be the second tallest in the metro at 124m and 36 floors. You can also see the new Adisoke Central Library under construction to the right of the site, and to the right of the library you can see the kangaroo crane working on the second floor of the new third tallest in the Metro, the 118m 36 story Renaissance Marriott.



Edit: Another Angle

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by someone123

Here is a rendering of the Little Brooklyn project (named after an old ballpark that used to occupy the site) around the bridge area in Dartmouth:


https://www.littlebrooklyndartmouth.ca/

The tower to the far right is under construction.

If only the tower on the far right is finished, that would still be a landmark for Dartmouth - maybe even Halifax. Would it be the tallest building in HRM? It definitely helps that it has a classic skyscraper profile.

With all the Dartmouth stuff that's going up, Halifax will be the only city on the Atlantic coast other than NYC-Jersey City-Brooklyn to have 40+ storey towers on both sides of its harbour, so it'll make quite a grand entrance if you're visiting on a cruise ship.

[TorontoDrew]

I wish Ottawa, as our nation's capital, would do a little better with design. Right now, it looks like they are sharing developments with KW and London. They should be getting inspiration from QC, Mtl, or Van. I would say Toronto, but we all know of schizophrenic the design styles and qualities can be in this city.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

If only the tower on the far right is finished, that would still be a landmark for Dartmouth - maybe even Halifax. Would it be the tallest building in HRM? It definitely helps that it has a classic skyscraper profile.

What has happened is that the city used to have 30 storey zoning, but then due to the housing accelerator fund they permitted 40 storeys in a few areas. There is some 40 storey zoned land on both the Halifax and Dartmouth sides and each side has I believe one project that's in some form of construction or site prep (Young and Windsor on the Halifax side). There are now lots of 30 storey zoned sites and it's becoming a pretty standard residential highrise height in the city.

The area below the Citadel is under various height limits that allow at most 80-90 m, and often much less.

With all the Dartmouth stuff that's going up, Halifax will be the only city on the Atlantic coast other than NYC-Jersey City-Brooklyn to have 40+ storey towers on both sides of its harbour, so it'll make quite a grand entrance if you're visiting on a cruise ship.

It's already kind of like this, but with 25-30 storey buildings right now. The most impressive views are from a boat or from higher vantage points in Dartmouth or Halifax were you can see the different areas. There are also some elevation differences. Richmond Yards is on a 60 m hill for example.

It's true that there's a huge difference with US Northeast cities as far as growth and the type of development that's happening. Halifax used to look a lot like Portland ME back in the 1950's but it's very different now.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by someone123

What has happened is that the city used to have 30 storey zoning, but then due to the housing accelerator fund they permitted 40 storeys in a few areas. There is some 40 storey zoned land on both the Halifax and Dartmouth sides and each side has I believe one project that's in some form of construction or site prep (Young and Windsor on the Halifax side). There are now lots of 30 storey zoned sites and it's becoming a pretty standard residential highrise height in the city.

The area below the Citadel is under various height limits that allow at most 80-90 m, and often much less.

Halifax's path sounds like Toronto's about 20 years ago, where builders sort of "organically" push the height limit based on the economics of feasibility and what they're able to get away with, so it's like a rising tide where 30 storeys is the new norm, then 40, then 50...

I don't think this is due to market demand or even land costs. The cost of land in downtown Toronto would have still been higher in 2005 than it is in Halifax in 2025, especially when you compare to places like Dartmouth or the north end of Halifax. But that's when Toronto developers started to plan and build towers the heights of which Halifax is building now. There are many cities where land is much more expensive than Halifax that don't build 40 storey towers, or even have developers propose 40 storey towers with the expectation that it'll be cut down in size.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by someone123

Here is a rendering of the Little Brooklyn project (named after an old ballpark that used to occupy the site) around the bridge area in Dartmouth:


https://www.littlebrooklyndartmouth.ca/

The tower to the far right is under construction. The plain shapes meant to show massing are other developments. I'm curious about the one to the left of Metropolitan Place.

One could find many critiques of this development I'm sure but it's basically replacing a wasteland and it's right by a transit hub.

Thanks. Just sayin'. I've noticed projects listed as under construction on SSP Halifax with some preliminary demolition site prep. Also noticed complete projects talked about as under construction when only the first phase has started.

I'm a non conformist towards better than a parking lot or population density increase as they tend to be discussed when a project is architecturally unsatisfactory and an architecturally unsatisfactory tower typically is as unsaitsfactory in its community planning.

Most of Dartmouth towers projects leave a lot to be desired if height and skyline aren't at the forefront. In most cases, the 30 to 40 storey heights make them even worse than if they were 10 to 15 storeys. You can get away with mediocrity at a human scale better than with tall towers from an architectural and urban functionality perspective. instead a 20 storey block.

As for the above photo, architecturally, it is satisfactory however, the layout is not. There are actual grass areas but, they are all bisected by streets into useless small open spaces. That's not good enough for the expected population. The tall towers create the feel of towers in a park than urban walkability.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

I don't think this is due to market demand or even land costs. The cost of land in downtown Toronto would have still been higher in 2005 than it is in Halifax in 2025, especially when you compare to places like Dartmouth or the north end of Halifax. But that's when Toronto developers started to plan and build towers the heights of which Halifax is building now. There are many cities where land is much more expensive than Halifax that don't build 40 storey towers, or even have developers propose 40 storey towers with the expectation that it'll be cut down in size.

There isn't really that much of a market in Halifax where developers buy and sell sites like this, and it's mostly rentals, not condos with pre-sales. Most of the builders own lots of properties and have a pipeline of projects planned. This system has the drawback of causing some prime sites to sit derelict for a long time.

For many years the city made it difficult to build so I think there is enormous pent-up demand for housing in some areas. Halifax also has pretty bad traffic and no rapid transit so there's a big difference between living in a more central area and living just a few km farther out.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

As for the above photo, architecturally, it is satisfactory however, the layout is not. There are actual grass areas but, they are all bisected by streets into useless small open spaces. That's not good enough for the expected population. The tall towers create the feel of towers in a park than urban walkability.

I don't think a rendering like this shows the final landscaping design or even building stylings of future phases. It is showing heights and potential massing. The Dartmouth Common is one block away (bridge terminal also a block away, ferry about a 12 min walk) and not used much due to the existing population density being so low around there so I don't think they should worry too much about street-level greenspace.

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Most of Dartmouth towers projects leave a lot to be desired if height and skyline aren't at the forefront.

It depends on the developer and project. I suspect this one will be mid-range and will be relatively affordable rentals. Given the housing crisis that exists, I'm not offended by these towers being 40 floors instead of 20.

The situation is also pretty different from Toronto. Many areas of metro Halifax have a low population density and relatively modest transit usage. There's lots of car traffic but shifting development closer in to the core helps with that and in some cases completely bypasses bottlenecks. Car-free living will probably be pretty common in these developments around the Macdonald bridge area in Dartmouth.

[someone123]

One thing about Halifax being mostly rentals (apparently around 10k apartments under construction at this moment and only hundreds of condos) is that the pre-construction marketing is limited compared to condos and they don't put the same effort into the materials. Early renderings often look little like the completed project or sometimes there are no renderings at all. This development in Dartmouth is not being directly "marketed" right now to people who might rent it in 2029.

The municipality isn't very particular on aesthetics most of the time so unless you have something like a registered heritage building you probably won't have very specific design requirements. They do care about servicing, densities, and height limits.

The quality of development has generally been going up over the past 20 years and in general the final products are a bit nicer than the last round of construction and whatever early materials are available.

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

I wish Ottawa, as our nation's capital, would do a little better with design. Right now, it looks like they are sharing developments with KW and London. They should be getting inspiration from QC, Mtl, or Van. I would say Toronto, but we all know of schizophrenic the design styles and qualities can be in this city.

They are doing a LOT better with design. Take a look at Claridge Hintonburg, Odenak, The Dale, Ascent, Releve, Marriott Renaissance, Soho Italia, Moxy Marriott. Many more great designs in the pipeline.

Also, the 2 billion dollar reclad of the current 2nd tallest in the metro (will be 4th tallest by the end of 2025), Les Terrasses de la Chaudiere.

[WhipperSnapper]

I couldn't care less about the bloated price tag. There is nothing to promote about the reclad happening in Quebec. It's just average. Worst still, the end result is two expansive complexes of towers will all look the same.

The whole Eastern Block look of Ottawa is fitting. The architecture shares many cues with standard "infill" (for lack of a better word) in Quebec however, for some reason it comes across as government developed housing than Griffintown. I guess its Ontario except that the oversized transit oriented skyscraper villages in the GTA (and mainly proposed at this point) don't look like socialized housing for the working class on the surface.

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I couldn't care less about the bloated price tag. There is nothing to promote about the reclad happening in Quebec. It's just average. Worst still, the end result is two expansive complexes of towers will all look the same.

The whole Eastern Block look of Ottawa is fitting. The architecture shares many cues with standard "infill" (for lack of a better word) in Quebec however, for some reason it comes across as government developed housing than Griffintown. I guess its Ontario except that the oversized transit oriented skyscraper villages in the GTA (and mainly proposed at this point) don't look like socialized housing for the working class on the surface.

I knew you would be the first person to comment

I wholeheartedly disagree that Ottawa has an 'Eastern Block' look in it's 2020s development, and I have spent significant time in Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Poland over the past year. The worst thing happening in Ottawa is the 'CharcWhite' trend propagated by Roderick Lahey Architecture and NEUF, but that hasn't spread to the 90m+ towers thankfully. Look at the projects I mentioned on my last post and you'll see that the city is finally progressing in architectural design and breaking out of the tabletop.

[jc_yyc_ca]

Yellowstone Tower in Calgary Beltline.

[digitboy]

Rimouski construction update. All photo copyrights belong to Eric Berger.

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Hotel Rimouski