Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
To me it seems like everything will just come down to how successful the building itself is. If it turns out to be attractive, it won't matter so much that it blocks other buildings. If the pedestrian paths and public space are successful, it will be better than the parking lot that was there and will knit the area together more rather than cutting things off from each other.
The Nova Centre is similar.
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Pretty much agree.
I'm on the fence about the building itself. It appears that the cladding materials will be of higher quality, but it'll all come down to how it presents when finished. I wouldn't call the overall design beautiful or inspiring, but it is at least 'interesting'.
The most important point is how it will relate to the public.
From the concept, it looks like reasonable thought has been given to how it will fit into its environment and provide public interaction. There are passes through the 'legs' of the building to let pedestrians continue along the boardwalk without walking around each section. The "Rise Again" section appears to be created almost entirely for public use, and the main building looks like it will have ground floor retail for restaurants, cafés, shops, etc. So it might well be a place where people will want to congregate. These are currently the types of areas along the waterfront that are busiest (i.e. Bishop's Landing and the ferry terminal/historic properties areas).
The residential/hotel aspect presents a concern in that it might limit public events in the area, such as concerts/entertainment, through noise complaints from residents or hotel guests.
This isn't exactly the same, but the Marriott Harbourfront closed the Fife and Drum pub a few years back, at least partially due to noise complaints from hotel guests. It was actually a good place to see a band and have a couple of 'pops' and some grub - busy but not as chaotic as the Lower Deck can be on a weekend. Additionally, the hotel was reconfigured to focus more on business clientele rather than private guests and public space, resulting in the harbour-facing restaurant (which was a nice place to go for brunch with nice views of the harbour) being replaced by conference space and the elimination of outdoor patios. The restaurant is now centrally located and far less attractive. In my opinion, the hotel has become less welcoming to the public and more focused on its customers. While not an unreasonable expectation for a private business, this example shows how direction can be changed by a private concern to transform a space to be less available to the public than originally intended. Maybe not a huge concern, but since the harbour boardwalk area is Halifax's 'crown jewel', I think every effort should be made to keep a certain part of it accessible, attractive, and welcoming for public use. Handing its control over to a private concern can cause the opposite to happen.
In the case of Queen's Marque, it's not that the surface parking lot was any great use of land, but at least it did allow for occasional festival usage, etc. There is still space for events such as this around the Waterfront Warehouse area, but one has to wonder how long it will be before it becomes developed and therefore more limited in potential usage.
Overall, as long as a dead zone is not created, such as the one that starts at the Marriott Harbourfront and continues to the casino, then I'm OK with it.
The Purdy's Wharf area could have so much potential but offers very little in terms of public interaction (ironic, since PW are probably the most attractive buildings on the waterfront) and the hotel and casino don't offer much more on the waterside, and thus that area doesn't see anywhere near the usage that the more southerly areas of the waterfront have.
Hopefully the QM project will be successful in engaging the public.
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