Quote:
Originally Posted by Drybrain
I don't think that's true. I've seen way more ambitious renovations of heritage buildings with no additional building footprint or height, in cities both poor (Saint John) and wealthy (Toronto).
The argument that there's insufficient economic case for restoration doesn't wash at all, to me. They just didn't want to do it.
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It seemed like there were more restoration projects in Halifax around the late 90's-early 2000's than there are today, even though the city's economy and the downtown area in particular are doing better now. A few examples I can remember are the Johnston Building, the white terracotta one on the corner of Granville and Duke, 1717 Barrington, and the "Renaissance" and Attica buildings on Barrington. Those used to be similar in shape to average not-recently-restored buildings along Barrington.
I suspect the demolition problems are related mostly to high property values and the lack of good heritage regulation. Without the regulation, heritage buildings get priced for demolition and redevelopment into a highrise. This wasn't so bad 15 years ago when interest rates were higher and demand for new development was lower, but it affects a huge number of properties today. If there were stronger rules preventing demolition prices would fall and the buildings could be profitably rented out to tenants. The Green Lantern as one example was sold for something like $5M+ and the (presumably) only way to make that work (as an investment with reasonable returns) was to add a bunch of extra floors and build it at the same time as the new tower next door. In an alternate universe maybe that building would have been $2M and a landlord could have just bought it, fixed it up, and rented it out. I don't think the Green Lantern outcome is bad but it's a good example of the dynamic at play.
Another problem that has been covered before is that for the most part Halifax's planning department seems to operate, and is treated by council, as, say, the driver's license office, a place where bureaucrats verify forms and hand out permits to whoever checked the right box. I don't really know the internal workings, but there doesn't much of a creative mandate to make the city as great as it could be (and if the city is in a situation like that then it will be hard to get out of it because the most talented and creative employees will go elsewhere). We saw a bit of direction when Andy Fillmore was around and HbD was developed.
My overall impression is that the city is making a lot of forward progress but that, with relatively few exceptions, this is in spite of rather than because of the layers of government and bureaucracy. I wouldn't get too discouraged because I think the city is broadly headed in the right direction, and will be a much more interesting place in the coming years, but there will be more disappointment to come along with the victories because of the city's mediocre urban planning and poor public sector coordination.
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