[Halifax] The Olympic (1140 Barrington) | 26 m | 8 fl | U/C

[ArchAficionado]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Back to the project, as much as you might dislike the faux-Victorian mansard frosting and decorative window bays down low layered on to a typical HRM box apartment, it is still a damn site better than the Highfield Park Special built across the street from it on the north side, from back about 20 years ago when that was all HRM planning liked to allow.

100% agree. Probably the only thing that drab older building has going for it is that its units are probably 2x the square footage of the new build.

[ArchAficionado]

Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian

This photo might not be the most recent, but it shows the potential of this area.



A tower on the Tim Horton's site would add great density to this area with transit and grocery stores.

This area has always felt like south downtown, even though there isn't anything of height immediately until you go up the hill to the Vuze (which I consider to be South end proper).

I just noticed it, but this pocket is really one of very few mid-density neighborhoods in the city, where there is a combination of townhomes, small apartment buildings, and midrises.

[someone123]

It is quite good overall and even has a stock of older apartment buildings like the one on Morris Street. A lot of the gems are on side streets, like the row along Smith St, which might be the longest uninterrupted Victorian row in the city.

But then again there were so many bad piecemeal demolitions and mediocre new builds, and there's always been a "two steps forward, one step back" feel. For example, the Maritime Command building got replaced by what looks like a wood frame 90s build of similar height. Even the trade of the brick row that used to have Taj Mahal for that midrise residential building was quite poor. It would have been such a nice stretch of old buildings running along South St.