General Updates and News

[planarchy]

Originally Posted by JET

thanks for that info, looks like a great addition to Gottingen Street. I have been watching the renos on this bulding and was worried that it might be a poor effort, and now the drawings and the Hub 2.0 info gives me optimism.

This is a fantastic project for the street. And its size is deceiving. Floor area for the finished building is around 15,000sf. You can grasp the scale better on the Maitland Street side.

[someone123]

Ah, they didn't say what it will be on the architect's website.

In the first rendering you can see that the building is fairly large and extends all the way back to Maitland.

[JET]

Originally Posted by someone123

Ah, they didn't say what it will be on the architect's website.

In the first rendering you can see that the building is fairly large and extends all the way back to Maitland.

driving down Gottingen street the roofline does go back quite a bit, the back bit seems to be covered with an orange tarp, and initially that was a worry for me

[someone123]

Originally Posted by JET

driving down Gottingen street the roofline does go back quite a bit, the back bit seems to be covered with an orange tarp, and initially that was a worry for me

That reminds me of the Glubes Loft townhouse site, which looked horrible for a long time as they were doing renovations behind the old facade. It can be hard to make predictions based on how something looks mid-renovation.

Like I said, I'm mostly impressed with how quickly Gottingen is evolving. If it takes off I think it could really add a lot to the city, particularly if it is tied back in with the downtown core (we are already getting a bit of that with projects like the Citadel Hotel). I'd love to see Halifax as a more mid-sized city with a variety of vibrant neighbourhoods and a bigger, busier downtown core.

[planarchy]

Originally Posted by someone123

That reminds me of the Glubes Loft townhouse site, which looked horrible for a long time as they were doing renovations behind the old facade. It can be hard to make predictions based on how something looks mid-renovation.

Like I said, I'm mostly impressed with how quickly Gottingen is evolving. If it takes off I think it could really add a lot to the city, particularly if it is tied back in with the downtown core (we are already getting a bit of that with projects like the Citadel Hotel). I'd love to see Halifax as a more mid-sized city with a variety of vibrant neighbourhoods and a bigger, busier downtown core.

Since you mention the Glubes, looks like they are on a second phase. You can see new walls going up behind the brick facade on Gottingen (http://goo.gl/maps/r3rm). Think this its called Glubes Courtyard Residences or something like that. Not sure how it will meet Gottingen Street, but nice to see more infill. They've been working on it for months.

[someone123]

Interesting. I wonder if they are replacing that building or if it is just a renovation of the part behind the facade? Hopefully there will still be storefronts along Gottingen afterward. The brick facade itself is not too bad.

[worldlyhaligonian]

Halifax is booming! We must have more construction than any of the smaller cities with higher populations!

This construction season alone is insane.

[NewBalearic]

It is very likely that Andy Fillmore is leaving HRM for the Director of Planning job at Dalhousie.

Big blow for HRMbyDesign, RP+5 and the Centre Plan projects...

[Keith P.]

What does the Director of Planning at Dal do? Is it a teaching job?

Frankly, this may be a good thing. Fillmore is smart, but he has led HRM down a rabbit hole in terms of promising all sorts of plans that really are more theoretical than useful and he also has a certain point of view that creeps into the results. Plus there seems to be turmoil within the HRM bureaucracy that he would probably be glad to be away from.

[RyeJay]

Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian

Halifax is booming! We must have more construction than any of the smaller cities with higher populations!

This construction season alone is insane.

Halifax is booming -- in stark contrast to the rest of the province, especially Cape Breton.

The changes in EI will make this contrast even more dramatic.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian

This construction season alone is insane.

It's an interesting time. It feels like many of the projects that were talked about but never quite happened for one reason or another are finally getting off the ground.

[someone123]

I think this photo from flickr shows the Hub 2.0 building under construction:


Source

The foreground is the former Enviro Depot site which is supposed to be developed in 2013.

[DigitalNinja]

http://www.halifaxnewsnet.ca/News/2012-06-05/article-2996326/Halifaxs-Yellowstone/1

The plan for a huge park in HRM is unveiled. I don't think it's appropriate to compare it to Yellowstone though...

It's a good step in creating something close where people can go for a day and hike or go and camp within it. I personally will be using it a lot! I only hope that it will have some sort of bus service to go there depending on where the entrance it.

[-Harlington-]

I think its a good idea, its a beautiful area and protecting more space like this could reduce sprawl at least just a bit

Heres the thread for the area: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=152942

[someone123]

The park sounds nice but the tone and content of the article are kind of warped.

Yellowstone isn't important because it's a big preserved space, it's important because it's a unique environment with rare geology and ecosystems. This potential park near Halifax doesn't seem remotely comparable and it's not clear that it's different from the millions of other acres in the same coastal NS ecosystem, such as the Williams-Colpitt Lake area which suddenly became a special wilderness area as soon as a developer wanted to put a subdivision there.

The other aspect of the article that rubs me the wrong way is the bloated sense of importance of the small number of people who go to these consultations. I noticed this because the author made a point of the "overwhelming support" at the meeting and because of the dramatic comment that people are "doing all they can do" by showing up.

The overwhelming support is meaningless. You are probably not going to get taxpayers to show up to these meetings because they are upset about a tiny percentage of their dollars going to a park, but they are the ones paying the cost. Others stand to gain far more if a park goes up in their neck of the woods and those are typically the ones you see at the meetings. The 200 people giving themselves high fives are not paying a significant part of the cost of this project.

Public "goodies" are falsely placed on the same level as projects built by private owners or projects that are necessary evils when they are gauged equally according to public opinion. That about as misguided as feeding your four year old a diet of ice cream because he voted down broccoli. The attendees are not four years olds but on average they tend to have a limited perspective biased towards immediate personal payoff that does not properly account for costs.

[kwajo]

That quote from Ray Plourde is more than a little over-the-top.

[worldlyhaligonian]

Hmm, they better shut their traps when they say "there are no parks / green space" in the future.

[worldlyhaligonian]

Cheers of applause, give me a break... have these people not been to one of our amazing parks in NS?

"Large quantities of biodiversity" ... they better not allow dogs, mountain bikers, etc.

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by someone123

... Yellowstone isn't important because it's a big preserved space, it's important because it's a unique environment with rare geology and ecosystems. This potential park near Halifax doesn't seem remotely comparable and it's not clear that it's different from the millions of other acres in the same coastal NS ecosystem...

Public "goodies" are falsely placed on the same level as projects built by private owners or projects that are necessary evils when they are gauged equally according to public opinion. That about as misguided as feeding your four year old a diet of ice cream because he voted down broccoli. The attendees are not four years olds but on average they tend to have a limited perspective biased towards immediate personal payoff that does not properly account for costs.

Well put

[kph06]

The Potain mobile tower crane that was last up on Larry Uteck is now working on 222 Portland Street, a 4ish level apartment complex (photos by me):



The building from the New Years Eve fire is now almost entirely demolished (behind the treatment plant):