[Halifax] 1488 Birmingham - 5504 Spring Garden | 22 m | 7 fl | Completed

[Nouvellecosse]

I think it's great for downtown retail to be healthy but having a Sleep Country on Spring Garden just seems kinda stupid to me. I just can't imagine it being much of a spontaneous place or a foot-traffic place. Maybe move it to Quinpool or Gottingen and have this space be a Giant Tiger or Mark's WWH or Sport chek or something.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I think it's great for downtown retail to be healthy but having a Sleep Country on Spring Garden just seems kinda stupid to me. I just can't imagine it being much of a spontaneous place or a foot-traffic place. Maybe move it to Quinpool or Gottingen and have this space be a Giant Tiger or Mark's WWH or Sport chek or something.

They appear to be up on the 2nd floor. That never seems to work very well around here.

[Agricola]

I have to say, this is better than before. But it still isn't that appealing visually.

[ILoveHalifax]

Considering that BOM has Chinese writing on the front of their building and Halifax has a great number of Chinese and overseas students I suspect Sleep Country should sell a lot of mattress'

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by ILoveHalifax

Considering that BOM has Chinese writing on the front of their building and Halifax has a great number of Chinese and overseas students I suspect Sleep Country should sell a lot of mattress'

That BMO branch has a huge Asian customer base from the universities. Staff will tell you stories of 19 year-olds showing up barely able to speak English and getting periodic 6-figure wire transfers from the homeland.

Not so sure about the mattresses. Didn't I hear about an Asian entrepreneur selling huge numbers of cheap mattresses to fellow Asian students from a space in his apartment building? Thought I read a story about that.

[counterfactual]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I think it's great for downtown retail to be healthy but having a Sleep Country on Spring Garden just seems kinda stupid to me. I just can't imagine it being much of a spontaneous place or a foot-traffic place. Maybe move it to Quinpool or Gottingen and have this space be a Giant Tiger or Mark's WWH or Sport chek or something.

I think they're getting a tonne of business from students. Much easier to walk down to SGR than to wait around for 30min for bus that'll take 30+min to get you to HSC or Bayers Lake and another 30+min to get back. And because it's a franchised retailer, you're going to get the same pricing here as you will out in the biz parks. I used to do the same when living in Toronto. I'd buy a new bed during my lunch break at work, walking over to an urban-format bed store on Yonge or King st.

Far more convenient for exactly the same pricing.

[counterfactual]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

That BMO branch has a huge Asian customer base from the universities. Staff will tell you stories of 19 year-olds showing up barely able to speak English and getting periodic 6-figure wire transfers from the homeland.

Not so sure about the mattresses. Didn't I hear about an Asian entrepreneur selling huge numbers of cheap mattresses to fellow Asian students from a space in his apartment building? Thought I read a story about that.

Bang on, Keith.

And you're right about the Chinese student who came here as an business student at SMU (I think) and then basically started his own small business and actually created like 3 or 4 jobs, hiring local people as sales. He was importing from China and selling to Asian communities and making a killing.

Naturally, our 19th century clueless immigration laws, however, were causing him problems as in order to gain PR status, he had to actually be employed by someone else

Mattress entrepreneur forced to find other work to stay in Halifax
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scoti...-other-work-to-stay-in-halifax-1.2625617

Kid wants to stay, grow his business (and likely create more jobs), but now he has to find a second job in order to stay. Absolutely ridiculous.

[Hali87]

Untitled by Hali87, on Flickr


Untitled by Hali87, on Flickr

[OldDartmouthMark]

Nice shots!

I must say that building turned out better than I thought it would. Looks good with its surroundings.

[portapetey]

That building is very disappointing.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by portapetey

That building is very disappointing.

Of course it is, but I've learned to lower my standards. I've learned to not expect exceptional low to medium-grade developments in Halifax, even if it is on a major drag like SGR.

I've learned from this forum:

This isn't a public project, a developer isn't going to throw millions of dollars at a project just to make an iconic design in a place where it isn't worth the investment. I think we're lucky that they're building a decent looking building with decent materials, we could be getting far worse.

and

I agree that this proposal is a little bland, but I'm not sure what the criticisms are meant to accomplish. Is the suggestion that this shouldn't be built?

The reality is that this is a private development and this is the design presented. There might be some room for improvement, but nobody's proposing a showcase architectural project along the lines of multimillion dollar New York condos. And it's not really up to the public to demand exactly what should be done on this site.

With Doyle block about to put another blight on SGR, I've learned that we need to be happy with mediocrity, as they were all approved by the city - our leadership - without opposition. Therefore, my standards must be too high. I should be happy that a developer deems Halifax worthy of their investment dollars, and should welcome whatever they are willing to build here. If heritage restoration/preservation is too expensive, then I should be happy to watch them tear it down, because they are willing to build something "new", even if it turns to garbage within 30 years, at least the developer will be making profit, and there will be some local employment spin-offs.

Plus, Hali's photos are extremely complimentary to the subject, with the lighting balance and that cool cloud pattern overhead. So, to be honest, it does look better than I thought it would when I looked at the original renderings from page 1 of this thread. We could be getting far worse and after all, it's not up to us to demand what should be done, it's up to the developers.

+ + 1¢ more, to bring it into Canadian currency, and yes there is a slight taint of sarcasm contained within the words above....

[portapetey]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

Of course it is, but I've learned to lower my standards. I've learned to not expect exceptional low to medium-grade developments in Halifax, even if it is on a major drag like SGR.

I've learned from this forum:


and



With Doyle block about to put another blight on SGR, I've learned that we need to be happy with mediocrity, as they were all approved by the city - our leadership - without opposition. Therefore, my standards must be too high. I should be happy that a developer deems Halifax worthy of their investment dollars, and should welcome whatever they are willing to build here. If heritage restoration/preservation is too expensive, then I should be happy to watch them tear it down, because they are willing to build something "new", even if it turns to garbage within 30 years, at least the developer will be making profit, and there will be some local employment spin-offs.

Plus, Hali's photos are extremely complimentary to the subject, with the lighting balance and that cool cloud pattern overhead. So, to be honest, it does look better than I thought it would when I looked at the original renderings from page 1 of this thread. We could be getting far worse and after all, it's not up to us to demand what should be done, it's up to the developers.

+ + 1¢ more, to bring it into Canadian currency, and yes there is a slight taint of sarcasm contained within the words above....

Sarcasm?? Where???

I'll accept your rounding up to a nickel. I like it when that happens. Good reason to pay with cash.

[someone123]

From an aesthetic perspective it's a little bland but from an urban design perspective it's pretty good. There's no big parking garage entrance and there are 2 floors of retail that already have tenants. It seems like a net positive compared to the old building.

I think the "this isn't New York" type arguments are a bit fallacious. I'm sure a developer could spend many millions of extra dollars to make this development look better, but better design is not necessarily more expensive and many aesthetic improvements are only modestly expensive. A lot of public art is practically free compared to the budgets of these projects. My biggest complaint with the new buildings is that too many of them are grey or beige.

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

... I've learned to lower my standards. I've learned to not expect exceptional low to medium-grade developments in Halifax, even if it is on a major drag like SGR... we need to be happy with mediocrity... Therefore, my standards must be too high. ...

Now, I'm not going to say this is the most amazing building I've ever seen, but I will say that it's pretty close to exactly what we should be seeing on major commercial streets in the city centre: a street oriented building with extensive glazing at grade and higher-density residential above.

The detailing is not heart-stopping, but it appears to be good quality and should last.

It's a great foil for the public theatre of a city street.

Much of your other comments? I agree, we need to hold developers to higher standards, but this building is not indicative of low standards in my opinion.

[alps]

I also think this building is quite good from an urban design perspective. I like the mix of two floors retail with residential above. Such a fine-grained mix of uses would keep the building active around the clock and it seems like having retail on the second floor would act as a buffer zone, precluding noise complaints from second-floor residential tenants.

I don't mind that the building is plain. Not every building can or should be an architectural icon. Tokyo is comprised mainly of these kinds of dense, mixed-use, plain-looking "boring" buildings but the city is still very pleasant and liveable due to its variety of ground-level uses, walkability, scale of the street, etc. I love seeing these dense, small-lot developments in Halifax because they remind me of Tokyo.

My only complaint might be that in the first photo Hali87 posted, the building seems to call out for nice exterior lighting that illuminates both the sidewalk and the building.

[Hali87]

Something that doesn't come through very well in the pictures is that the building introduces some new materials/detailing that would be interesting to see in future developments (or at least is outside-the-box and not unattractive). The "wooden strips" aesthetic seems to be popular in BC and presents a lot of possibilities, and this building also has very-2015-looking French balconies.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Hali87

Something that doesn't come through very well in the pictures is that the building introduces some new materials/detailing that would be interesting to see in future developments (or at least is outside-the-box and not unattractive). The "wooden strips" aesthetic seems to be popular in BC and presents a lot of possibilities, and this building also has very-2015-looking French balconies.

I see no balconies? What are "French balconies" anyway?

[Phalanx]

Balconies that aren't really balconies (or, at best, very shallow balconies). See the large, floor to ceiling double windows? They have another, horizontal piece of glass across them. The windows can be opened like doors, effectively opening the room to the outside with the horizontal glass acting as a railing.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Phalanx

Balconies that aren't really balconies (or, at best, very shallow balconies). See the large, floor to ceiling double windows? They have another, horizontal piece of glass across them. The windows can be opened like doors, effectively opening the room to the outside with the horizontal glass acting as a railing.

Ah, I see them now, thank you. In truth, I am amazed they are permitted. Building codes seem to be becoming nannying codes more and more and I can see someone claiming these to be a hazard because of the transparency of the glass "railing".

[Jonovision]

I'm pretty happy with this one. While not stunning architecturally it works really well for the street and it actually has not 2 but 3 full floors of retail! (There is a really nice yoga studio in the basement) Which is super impressive for anywhere in Halifax.