General Updates and News

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

One can disagree about actions or policies without being bleak and dark and sour constantly. Bousquet is all of those things yet he never articulates an alternate position that one can argue. That is what makes him so tiresome and irritating.

I agree. Tiresome is the right word -- I don't bother reading the articles anymore. If the flaws in Halifax and NS could be solved by whining and defeatism they'd have disappeared long ago.

[counterfactual]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

One can disagree about actions or policies without being bleak and dark and sour constantly. Bousquet is all of those things yet he never articulates an alternate position that one can argue. That is what makes him so tiresome and irritating.

That is certainly true. His constant bleating about Halifax never, ever, in our wildest imaginations, being "World Class" is the most tiresome...

[counterfactual]

Originally Posted by someone123

I agree. Tiresome is the right word -- I don't bother reading the articles anymore. If the flaws in Halifax and NS could be solved by whining and defeatism they'd have disappeared long ago.

haha. So true.

[someone123]

Here's an interesting shot with a few different construction projects. I didn't really think the Citadel apartment building would be visible from the waterfront:


Source

[worldlyhaligonian]

Neither did I.

TD is almost reaching the top!

[someone123]

Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian

TD is almost reaching the top!

Too bad they're not adding an extra 10-15 floors to TD. It'll still be a big improvement though.

[Empire]

Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian

Neither did I.

TD is almost reaching the top!

If the TD expansion is 23fl. above Granville they will be jacking the crane twice more and the building will be 4fl. above the height of the existing building.

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by Empire

If the TD expansion is 23fl. above Granville they will be jacking the crane twice more and the building will be 4fl. above the height of the existing building.

Based on the following document - https://halifax.ca/boardscom/drc/documents/17186AttachmentB-SupportingInformation.pdf (on page 53/61 of the pdf document) - an office floor level 19 will replace the existing mechanical penthouse (where the TD logo is), and two additional office floor levels, floors 20 and 21, will be added. So it will be 21 floors above Barrington Street, which is 3 floors of office space above the existing 18th office floor level. It will appear to be 22 - 23 floors above Granville Street (but part will be a fake facade so in reality it will only be 22 floors above Granville Street).

[Empire]

Originally Posted by fenwick16

Based on the following document - https://halifax.ca/boardscom/drc/documents/17186AttachmentB-SupportingInformation.pdf (on page 53/61 of the pdf document) - an office floor level 19 will replace the existing mechanical penthouse (where the TD logo is), and two additional office floor levels, floors 20 and 21, will be added. So it will be 21 floors above Barrington Street, which is 3 floors of office space above the existing 18th office floor level. It will appear to be 22 - 23 floors above Granville Street (but part will be a fake facade so in reality it will only be 22 floors above Granville Street).

Thanks, won't the new mechanical penthouse be on the new 21st. (23rd) floor of the new tower? On pg. 16 under design challenges a bullet item states "Demolishing existing mechanical penthouse after start-up of new penthouse followed by the construction of the new upper floors". I assume these new upper floors are 19, 20, 21 on the existing building.

[worldlyhaligonian]

Originally Posted by Empire

Thanks, won't the new mechanical penthouse be on the new 21st. (23rd) floor of the new tower? On pg. 16 under design challenges a bullet item states "Demolishing existing mechanical penthouse after start-up of new penthouse followed by the construction of the new upper floors". I assume these new upper floors are 19, 20, 21 on the existing building.

I was unaware of this. Will it then appear to be the tallest building in that cluster?

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by Empire

Thanks, won't the new mechanical penthouse be on the new 21st. (23rd) floor of the new tower? On pg. 16 under design challenges a bullet item states "Demolishing existing mechanical penthouse after start-up of new penthouse followed by the construction of the new upper floors". I assume these new upper floors are 19, 20, 21 on the existing building.

The following document gives more detailed information - http://www.halifax.ca/boardscom/hac/documents/H00356Attachments.pdf. The floor plans show the new mechanical room as part of the addition on the main floor behind the Macara Barnstead facade. So it appears as though the main floor mechanical room will replace the one in the current rooftop mechanical penthouse (just the elevator enclosure seems to be on the new rooftop).

Yes I believe that floors 19, 20 and 21 are the ones that replace the current rooftop mechanical penthouse. In the document link, the floor layout for floors 19, 20 and 21 are not shown (only the floor layouts up to floor 18 are shown) but the three new floors appear to be new office space based on other references in the document.

[Dmajackson]

HRM Planning is hoping to start working on the proposed Heritage Conservation Districts of Schmidtville and Barrington South this year. These distrcits will NOT come with maintenance funds like the Barrington Street are did. Apparently both neighbourhoods have residential densities of around 12'000 ppl.

Source : "Heritage Protection Coming For Schmidtville" (December 31st, 2013) - AllNovaSotia.com

[Empire]

Originally Posted by fenwick16

The following document gives more detailed information - http://www.halifax.ca/boardscom/hac/documents/H00356Attachments.pdf. The floor plans show the new mechanical room as part of the addition on the main floor behind the Macara Barnstead facade. So it appears as though the main floor mechanical room will replace the one in the current rooftop mechanical penthouse (just the elevator enclosure seems to be on the new rooftop).

Yes I believe that floors 19, 20 and 21 are the ones that replace the current rooftop mechanical penthouse. In the document link, the floor layout for floors 19, 20 and 21 are not shown (only the floor layouts up to floor 18 are shown) but the three new floors appear to be new office space based on other references in the document.

It appears that in addition to the elevator enclosures there is a 1263sq. ft. mechanical room on 20 & 21 of the new addition. On pg. 11 of the document they are showing louvers facing Granville on two levels. The sq. footage on 18 combined is 9222sq. ft. and on 20 & 21 the total sq. footage is 7959sq. ft. This would indicate a space of 1263sq. ft. perhaps for some mechanical services?

[counterfactual]

Originally Posted by Empire

It appears that in addition to the elevator enclosures there is a 1263sq. ft. mechanical room on 20 & 21 of the new addition. On pg. 11 of the document they are showing louvers facing Granville on two levels. The sq. footage on 18 combined is 9222sq. ft. and on 20 & 21 the total sq. footage is 7959sq. ft. This would indicate a space of 1263sq. ft. perhaps for some mechanical services?

Or perhaps a secret floor to install a concrete communications bunker to monitor tenants and display crude war propaganda!!!!

Creepy Pictures From The Hidden 5th Floor Of A North Korean Hotel


The 5th floor of the hotel is a concrete bunker


"Get revenge a thousand hundred times against the Americans."

http://www.businessinsider.com/north-kor...or-yanggakdo-hotel-pyongyang2011-12?op=1

[someone123]

Another shot with a few cranes:


Source

[Nilan8888]

HRM Planning is hoping to start working on the proposed Heritage Conservation Districts of Schmidtville and Barrington South this year. These distrcits will NOT come with maintenance funds like the Barrington Street are did. Apparently both neighbourhoods have residential densities of around 12'000 ppl.

I don't know about Barrington South, but to think of Schmidtville as a Heritage Conservation district kinda ticks me off: I hadn't even HEARD the term 'Schmidtville' until sometime around 2005, and I'd lived in HRM for 28 years at that point. No doubt it was a known term to some of the people that lived in the neighborhood, but if there wasn't all this development right now, I hardly think we'd have heard it any more frequently now than back in say, 1985 or 1992. Which was not at all.

It ticks me off that people just started bandying the term about as if everyone had always known about it, and it's just silly. I'm sure there's the odd building worth saving in 'Schmidtville', but that entire area is precisely where Downtown will probably have to grow in the long term, and I don't see what's worth saving about the entire district.

[RyeJay]

Originally Posted by Dmajackson

HRM Planning is hoping to start working on the proposed Heritage Conservation Districts of Schmidtville and Barrington South this year. These distrcits will NOT come with maintenance funds like the Barrington Street are did. Apparently both neighbourhoods have residential densities of around 12'000 ppl.

Source : "Heritage Protection Coming For Schmidtville" (December 31st, 2013) - AllNovaSotia.com

Apparently, eh.
Is HRM going to ban redevelopments?

[JET]

Originally Posted by Nilan8888

I don't know about Barrington South, but to think of Schmidtville as a Heritage Conservation district kinda ticks me off: I hadn't even HEARD the term 'Schmidtville' until sometime around 2005, and I'd lived in HRM for 28 years at that point. No doubt it was a known term to some of the people that lived in the neighborhood, but if there wasn't all this development right now, I hardly think we'd have heard it any more frequently now than back in say, 1985 or 1992. Which was not at all.

It ticks me off that people just started bandying the term about as if everyone had always known about it, and it's just silly. I'm sure there's the odd building worth saving in 'Schmidtville', but that entire area is precisely where Downtown will probably have to grow in the long term, and I don't see what's worth saving about the entire district.

Given that many of those buildings are privately owned and many date back to the early 1800's, and are very well maintained, it is surprising that you see it as an area for development and not worth saving; those 3 blocks are quite unique in Halifax.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by JET

Given that many of those buildings are privately owned and many date back to the early 1800's, and are very well maintained, it is surprising that you see it as an area for development and not worth saving; those 3 blocks are quite unique in Halifax.

Entirely agreed. Nilaan's argument is like saying Corktown in Toronto should just be redeveloped 'cause it's nearly adjacent to the financial district, and they could put towers there instead. Could. Don't have to. The mistake here (I think) is talking about heritage as being about individual important buildings worth saving. Individually, the houses in the area are attractive but not super significant. The value is actually in the abundance of them, all in one place.

In any case, the buildings are in great shape and are owned mostly by individual homeowners with a vested in interest in keeping them around, so I doubt they're in any danger, conservation district or not.

[someone123]

There's value to the neighbourhood as a whole, but even setting that aside there are some exceptional buildings in Schmidtville. It's worth exploring. For example, there's a group of cottages from the late 1700's/early 1800's built into the block in an unusual way. There's also an old carriageworks building with a porte-cochère built into the facade. There used to be a lot of those in Halifax but they are mostly gone now.

Morris Street has a bunch of large houses with granite foundations from around 1800. Queen Street has lots of nice houses too. It really is a pretty nice collection, and it is fairly unique in Canada.

The same thing goes for the southern part of Barrington. There are not a lot of Henry House type buildings in Halifax or even in all of Canada.