Development Rumours

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

The gas station or the "elephant" MT&T logo?

We live in a city, not a museum.

Hey Keith, this one's for you, buddy!

24 Sussex should be torn down, says acclaimed architect Brian MacKay-Lyons

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...bate-1.3294994

There are, actually, some good points made in the article, though one would think the historical nature of the building would be grounds enough for saving it.

Hey... they could turn it into a museum!

[ILoveHalifax]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

Hey Keith, this one's for you, buddy!



http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...bate-1.3294994

There are, actually, some good points made in the article, though one would think the historical nature of the building would be grounds enough for saving it.

Hey... they could turn it into a museum!

If they worked real fast they could just board the place up before harper leaves. hehehehhehehe

[someone123]

Rumour has it that the company that developed Southport has acquired a development lot on Queen Street. I think it's the one right across from Sobeys, labelled "Queen Street Plaza" on Google Maps.

That area could really use some nice new buildings.

[IanWatson]

Originally Posted by someone123

Rumour has it that the company that developed Southport has acquired a development lot on Queen Street. I think it's the one right across from Sobeys, labelled "Queen Street Plaza" on Google Maps.

That area could really use some nice new buildings.

Yeah, it's the one where the Salvation Army was. I hope Crombie does something with the former Blockbuster location soon.

[someone123]

Louis Lawen has acquired more land near Spring Garden and Robie. There's going to be a 30 storey residential proposal there soon.

[teddifax]

Originally Posted by someone123

Louis Lawen has acquired more land near Spring Garden and Robie. There's going to be a 30 storey residential proposal there soon.

Was there something on this not too long ago?

[counterfactual]

Originally Posted by someone123

Louis Lawen has acquired more land near Spring Garden and Robie. There's going to be a 30 storey residential proposal there soon.

Great!

[worldlyhaligonian]

Originally Posted by someone123

Louis Lawen has acquired more land near Spring Garden and Robie. There's going to be a 30 storey residential proposal there soon.

The corner with Subway would be a nice spot for a 30+ story tower!

[Drybrain]

Honest to God, what with the whole heritage-property situation on Barrington, I'm not inclined to be very excited on behalf of Mr. Lawen. The apartment building Subway in is a really cool, unique-for-Halifax Victorian job, too. The rest of the block can go, but it'd be great of that were maintained on the corner.

Is it normal for a city to have such a tiny pool of property developers, owning massive swathes of contiguous streetscape? It seems like our development community is dominated by a handful of dudes essentially controlling the built environment of whole neighbourhoods. Reznick has Barrington, Chedrawe has half of Spring Garden, Lawen has the other half. The fact that some of these guys are actively indifferent to the existing streetscape (Lawen's bullshit demolition proposal on Barrington) or have barely been able to put together a halfway-passable building, architecturally speaking (Chedrawe), is becoming a big problem.

The quality of development and architecture has been rising (Southwest, Starfish and Fares Group especially), but the recent crop of proposals for demolition and re-development, especially the Barrongton/SGR corridor, is of extremely dubious value, for the city, IMO. And it's just a few developers responsible.

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

...It seems like our development community is dominated by a handful of dudes essentially controlling the built environment of whole neighbourhoods. Reznick has Barrington, Chedrawe has half of Spring Garden, Lawen has the other half. The fact that some of these guys are actively indifferent to the existing streetscape (Lawen's bullshit demolition proposal on Barrington) or have barely been able to put together a halfway-passable building, architecturally speaking (Chedrawe), is becoming a big problem.

The quality of development and architecture has been rising (Southwest, Starfish and Fares Group especially), but the recent crop of proposals for demolition and re-development, especially the Barrongton/SGR corridor, is of extremely dubious value, for the city, IMO. And it's just a few developers responsible.

amen

[ILoveHalifax]

Hopefully 30 + will be 39 and again hopefully the demolition will start soon before the powers that be start a campaign to shrink the proposal down to 3 stories (human scale) and hopefully that apartment over subway will get torn down before it gets burned down.

[counterfactual]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Honest to God, what with the whole heritage-property situation on Barrington, I'm not inclined to be very excited on behalf of Mr. Lawen. The apartment building Subway in is a really cool, unique-for-Halifax Victorian job, too. The rest of the block can go, but it'd be great of that were maintained on the corner.

Is it normal for a city to have such a tiny pool of property developers, owning massive swathes of contiguous streetscape? It seems like our development community is dominated by a handful of dudes essentially controlling the built environment of whole neighbourhoods. Reznick has Barrington, Chedrawe has half of Spring Garden, Lawen has the other half. The fact that some of these guys are actively indifferent to the existing streetscape (Lawen's bullshit demolition proposal on Barrington) or have barely been able to put together a halfway-passable building, architecturally speaking (Chedrawe), is becoming a big problem.

The quality of development and architecture has been rising (Southwest, Starfish and Fares Group especially), but the recent crop of proposals for demolition and re-development, especially the Barrongton/SGR corridor, is of extremely dubious value, for the city, IMO. And it's just a few developers responsible.

Do we even know that Subway is the location?

I like several restos along there -- Mary's Place and Istanbul Cafe are both great.

[worldlyhaligonian]

Originally Posted by counterfactual

Do we even know that Subway is the location?

I like several restos along there -- Mary's Place and Istanbul Cafe are both great.

I don't know... I was just speculating because I thought there was another proposal for the Carlton part of the street and there is already a church, bank, and tower on the other corners.

[someone123]

I am not sure exactly which properties are included but I would not be surprised if the intent were to redevelop that entire strip of buildings.

There's a bit of a problem in that, politically, the detached housing neighbourhoods have been taken off the table for new development. So instead as the city grows the inner neighbourhoods must be redeveloped over and over. This is probably inevitable to some degree in a growing city, but I don't think the right balance has been struck in Halifax. It doesn't really make sense that a 5 storey apartment building is considered a huge deal west of Robie but 30 storey block-sized buildings can go in east of Robie.

[curnhalio]

Originally Posted by someone123

There's a bit of a problem in that, politically, the detached housing neighbourhoods have been taken off the table for new development. So instead as the city grows the inner neighbourhoods must be redeveloped over and over. This is probably inevitable to some degree in a growing city, but I don't think the right balance has been struck in Halifax. It doesn't really make sense that a 5 storey apartment building is considered a huge deal west of Robie but 30 storey block-sized buildings can go in east of Robie.

If you look at the peninsula from a birds eye view, you see almost all of the taller buildings are on or east of Robie. The western half looks like a canopy of trees. It's an interesting look that might almost be worth preserving at this point. I'm fine with intensification on the eastern side.

[Empire]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Honest to God, what with the whole heritage-property situation on Barrington, I'm not inclined to be very excited on behalf of Mr. Lawen. The apartment building Subway in is a really cool, unique-for-Halifax Victorian job, too. The rest of the block can go, but it'd be great of that were maintained on the corner.

Is it normal for a city to have such a tiny pool of property developers, owning massive swathes of contiguous streetscape? It seems like our development community is dominated by a handful of dudes essentially controlling the built environment of whole neighbourhoods. Reznick has Barrington, Chedrawe has half of Spring Garden, Lawen has the other half. The fact that some of these guys are actively indifferent to the existing streetscape (Lawen's bullshit demolition proposal on Barrington) or have barely been able to put together a halfway-passable building, architecturally speaking (Chedrawe), is becoming a big problem.

The quality of development and architecture has been rising (Southwest, Starfish and Fares Group especially), but the recent crop of proposals for demolition and re-development, especially the Barrongton/SGR corridor, is of extremely dubious value, for the city, IMO. And it's just a few developers responsible.

We have novice developers demolishing significant buildings from an architectural perspective and then rebuilding novice looking buildings. In terms of demolition there should be stricter guidelines when more than one building is scheduled to be demolished. You would think that this town would have learned a thing or two when dozens of buildings were demolished for Scotia Square and Cogswell interchange.

The BMO block case underlines how vulnerable every building in the city is. There have been several cases lately of multiple buildings being demolished at once. The trillium, the VIC, South & Hollis St. and everyone's favourite Letson Ct. Letson Ct. looks like it is straight out of the eighties and is wearing very poorly. We are destroying Victorian buildings for extremely bland architecture.

Letson Ct.
https://www.google.ca/maps/@44.64145...7i13312!8i6656

[worldlyhaligonian]

Originally Posted by Empire

We have novice developers demolishing significant buildings from an architectural perspective and then rebuilding novice looking buildings. In terms of demolition there should be stricter guidelines when more than one building is scheduled to be demolished. You would think that this town would have learned a thing or two when dozens of buildings were demolished for Scotia Square and Cogswell interchange.

The BMO block case underlines how vulnerable every building in the city is. There have been several cases lately of multiple buildings being demolished at once. The trillium, the VIC, South & Hollis St. and everyone's favourite Letson Ct. Letson Ct. looks like it is straight out of the eighties and is wearing very poorly. We are destroying Victorian buildings for extremely bland architecture.

Letson Ct.
https://www.google.ca/maps/@44.64145...7i13312!8i6656

I agree with your overall point, although I think the BMO building and the brick row houses are significantly more valuable than what you cite (e.g. run down woodframe houses where other examples exist within residential blocks).

I found the comments about the HT caring about "people history" and not architectural history interesting. From an architectural view, the BMO building, etc is much more important that the Morris house.

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian

... I found the comments about the HT caring about "people history" and not architectural history interesting. From an architectural view, the BMO building, etc is much more important that the Morris house.

The Morris House still sits vacant and unfinished. Even the heritage advocates can't manage to properly save what they're considered to be an important building.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by eastcoastal

The Morris House still sits vacant and unfinished. Even the heritage advocates can't manage to properly save what they're considered to be an important building.

The Morris House was a nice save, but it's literally the HTNS' only tangible accomplishment in years and years. And indeed, it was still covered in plastic sheeting the last time I saw it.

And let's be real, the current Doyle Block is worth a dozen Morris Houses

[Empire]

Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian

I agree with your overall point, although I think the BMO building and the brick row houses are significantly more valuable than what you cite (e.g. run down woodframe houses where other examples exist within residential blocks).

I found the comments about the HT caring about "people history" and not architectural history interesting. From an architectural view, the BMO building, etc is much more important that the Morris house.

Maybe the Canadian Art Deco Society could have some input? Anyone want to contact them?

The Mandate of the Canadian Art Deco Society is:
•To encourage the study and understanding of the Art Deco styles in Canada on a local, regional, and national basis in terms of: 1.historical and cultural influences
2.contemporary issues

•To support the conservation of the Art Deco environment that we have inherited, such as structures, interiors and furnishings
•To promote public awareness concerning the Art Deco environment through lectures, publications, tours, and newsletters
•To collect and preserve records of Twentieth Century architecture and design

Can Art Deco Society:
http://www.canadianartdecosociety.org/about.html