[Halifax] Barrington Espace | ? m | 5 fl | Completed

[worldlyhaligonian]

Originally Posted by someone123

Thanks for the updates!

I'm a little disappointed by the plain grey wall, but it doesn't really matter since this view will eventually be covered by the Nova Centre anyway. The Barrington side looks great so far. I love that scale consistent mid-sized scale.

Interestingly enough, I don't mind it in this application. I don't think glass would look as coherent from that view as from the street side and it seems in line with the look of the heritage building next to it.

[terrynorthend]

Originally Posted by someone123

I'm a little disappointed by the plain grey wall, but it doesn't really matter since this view will eventually be covered by the Nova Centre

Yes this is disappointing. And rather than being covered up by the Nova Centre, this will be the view FROM the Nova Centre.

[someone123]

I meant that you won't see that from street level on higher streets, but yes, you will see that from the second level of the Nova Centre. Not sure what material would have looked better there -- maybe some sort of metal cladding similar to City Centre Atlantic.

In that shot you can also see a structure covered in what looks like metal siding on top of the formers Eaton's Building. That was originally brick and it had a lot more character.

[Duff]

Maybe they could upgrade the roof of Toothy and make room for a roof top patio. That would at least put some life in front of this wall.

[Northend Guy]

Originally Posted by Northend Guy

I heard last week that the owners have a tenant for the top two floors of this building - some sort of tv studio...not sure of the details beyond that.

Sooooo...I messed this up a bit. The TV studio is not going in this building, but rather another of Starfish Properties' buildings. They are taking the top two floors of the Morse Tea Building, not Espace. The Studio is not a name I have heard before, I think is called something like AIO tv, or something along those lines.

[someone123]

I wonder if the studio has something to do with the desire to "rebrand" the building.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by Northend Guy

Sooooo...I messed this up a bit. The TV studio is not going in this building, but rather another of Starfish Properties' buildings. They are taking the top two floors of the Morse Tea Building, not Espace. The Studio is not a name I have heard before, I think is called something like AIO tv, or something along those lines.

Well, if true, that might shed some light on the whole Morse's Tea sign thing, eh?

[JET]

Originally Posted by someone123

I wonder if the studio has something to do with the desire to "rebrand" the building.

given the bad press it's hard to imagine who would now want their brand up there. it's one of the few things on this forum where there seems to be unanimity

[Jonovision]

Crappy cell phone pic of mine, but glass is starting to go up on the Barrington Street facade.

[haligonia]

Originally Posted by Jonovision

Crappy cell phone pic of mine, but glass is starting to go up on the Barrington Street facade.

I can't wait until they start installing windows into the old facades.

[Nifta]

And just in time for the end of the coldest part of the year! The workers must be so happy! All five of them

[someone123]

This view will be interesting in a couple of years if and when it features Barrington Espace, the Nova Centre, 1592 Barrington, and 1595 Barrington:



And this one shows how much of an impact TD will have (and how awful the Roy Building looks with no ground floor tenants -- it was a big mistake to kick out Dooly's!):

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by someone123

And this one shows how much of an impact TD will have (and how awful the Roy Building looks with no ground floor tenants -- it was a big mistake to kick out Dooly's!):

The Roy redevelopment is the only downtown project I'm not excited for right now--it'll rip the guts out of a half-block of Barrington. The Roy is unusually tall for a 19th century commercial structure in this city as well--if any building in the core is a candidate for adaptive re-use instead of a tear-down, it's this. Ah well.

[Nifta]

Aren't they keeping the facade at least?

[someone123]

I don't like the Roy project very much either, although I don't have a lot of ideas for fixing up the existing building.

It is a bit out of proportion with what you expect to see from something of that age built in that style. Reminds me a bit of the Chelsea hotel in New York, built in 1884:


Source

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Nifta

Aren't they keeping the facade at least?

My understanding is that they will be rebuilding the facade, perhaps using the old brick. It is meant to resemble the style of what's there now but I am not sure how likely that is to work out. Then again, the brick parts of the Vic look okay, so maybe it is possible.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by Nifta

Aren't they keeping the facade at least?

Yeah, they haven't really explained what they're doing, which I think should've been a prerequisite for approval for the project, but that's more the fault of the approval process that existed before HRMxD: endless tangles of red tape for developers, and then approval granted without even a clear sense of what will actually be built.

All we've seen are those basic AutoCAD-looking renderings that provide little sense of what it'll actually look like. The plan is to do a full demolition and build something "in a similar style". There was talk of maybe using some of the salvaged materials from the original, if possible, but hell, if it's not gonna be a full rebuild of the original, they may as well just do something contemporary, rather than some faked-in old-timey facade.

What's really unfortunate is that the Roy provides a heritage frontage not just to Barrington, but Hollis too.. It's quite a lot to lose in one go, and I haven't really heard any reasoning as to why it's not feasible to reno the building wholesale. (The answer, I think, is that they want to build a tower, and don't really care what's in the way.)

But the Discovery Centre project, which I'm not really a fan of either, will at least involve keeping the building's shell intact. That building is in much better shape than the Roy, I guess, but anyway, the whole thing is a bit mystifying to me...

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Yeah, they haven't really explained what they're doing, which I think should've been a prerequisite for approval for the project, but that's more the fault of the approval process that existed before HRMxD: endless tangles of red tape for developers, and then approval granted without even a clear sense of what will actually be built.

All we've seen are those basic AutoCAD-looking renderings that provide little sense of what it'll actually look like. The plan is to do a full demolition and build something "in a similar style". There was talk of maybe using some of the salvaged materials from the original, if possible, but hell, if it's not gonna be a full rebuild of the original, they may as well just do something contemporary, rather than some faked-in old-timey facade.

What's really unfortunate is that the Roy provides a heritage frontage not just to Barrington, but Hollis too.. It's quite a lot to lose in one go, and I haven't really heard any reasoning as to why it's not feasible to reno the building wholesale. (The answer, I think, is that they want to build a tower, and don't really care what's in the way.)

But the Discovery Centre project, which I'm not really a fan of either, will at least involve keeping the building's shell intact. That building is in much better shape than the Roy, I guess, but anyway, the whole thing is a bit mystifying to me...

The Roy Building does not go anywhere near Hollis. It backs on Granville and that entire side has been shedding chunks of its facade for 15 years or more, to the point where a permanent gallery had to be constructed over the sidewalk to protect pedestrians from injury. In that context reusing the existing brick seems foolhardy. The building itself is nothing special and would require a total interior gut in order to be competitive.

[ILoveHalifax]

I hope they demolish the Roy Building and build a modern tower. I had business in there years ago and cannot see any reason to keep it. It is not at all attractive.

[Nifta]

That's pretty sad to hear, Drybrain, but thanks for the details. My excitement for the build has just diminished.

Keith, are you becoming our resident forum troll? I shan't feed you with any comment.