General Updates and News

[kph06]

Here's a couple of the Arthur Street crane by me from today:

[kenandpat]

Originally Posted by kenandpat

I see B.D. Stevens is putting up a new building in the parking lot of the Dartmouth Gate complex in Woodside. It is opposite Valve Village beside Highway 111. It looks like it could be a fast food restaurant based on the size of the pad. Just wondering if anyone has info on what it might be.

I heard today this is a new Starbucks location.

[someone123]

There's going to be an information session tomorrow night on the Crombie project for the corner of Duke and Albemarle. I think the renderings are somewhere in this thread; it's a 100,000 square foot office building to be built on an existing pad, but it only amounts to an additional 3 storeys. It's not a very visible corner either, but just about anything would be an improvement over what's there now:

http://goo.gl/maps/LL3GJ

IBM or BMO are possible tenants.

It will be interesting to hear about other Crombie projects like the possible redevelopment of Brunswick Place (Trade Mart).

[teddifax]

Originally Posted by someone123

There's going to be an information session tomorrow night on the Crombie project for the corner of Duke and Albemarle. I think the renderings are somewhere in this thread; it's a 100,000 square foot office building to be built on an existing pad, but it only amounts to an additional 3 storeys. It's not a very visible corner either, but just about anything would be an improvement over what's there now:

http://goo.gl/maps/LL3GJ

IBM or BMO are possible tenants.

It will be interesting to hear about other Crombie projects like the possible redevelopment of Brunswick Place (Trade Mart).

The project - Westhill on Duke - almost looks like the main entrance will be taking over the existing entrance for the Bell Aliant offices. I wonder will these offices be affected, maybe consolidating the area nearer to the mall entrance to allow for this new project?

[Northend Guy]

Originally Posted by kenandpat

I heard today this is a new Starbucks location.

It is a small strip mall - and it does include a Starbucks. There will also be a Pizzatown, and I think there are 2 or 3 other tenant spaces in there.

[macgregor]

There's a Development Application notice up on the side of Winsby's Shoes (SW corner of Spring Garden and Birmingham). I only caught a glimpse but remember it saying Westwood Developments and 7 floors.

There were rumours last year that it might be a copy of the 4 floor Westwood building now housing a TD branch. (Which is diagonally opposite to it).

Looking forward too seeing what they are planning.

[bluenoser]

Wow, Spring Garden Road is undergoing incredible change these days. There will be an entire area of new buildings at almost the same time including Winsby's, the library, Chickenburger/Mills, both sister sites and the TD building. I remember hearing about this potential redevelopment awhile ago and I was excited - I really don't think a lot of people will miss this particular building.

7 stories sounds pretty good but in this area I am even more interested in quality and consideration of the street frontage (the latter being somewhat lacking in their TD building).

[Drybrain]

I'm really anxious for a rendering too—I'm wary as well though, since Westwood's developments and proposals tend to be really lacklustre (Drum Condos, anyone?) The TD building is the best thing they've ever done, and it's not that great—street frontage in particular being lacking, as bluenoser points out.

I'm also nervous for the Chickenburger/Mills site. The SGR frontage works really well as-is, and Micco is yet another "meh" developer.

2013 could be a great year for SGR, or it could be the year we look back on as when a whole bunch of junk went up due to some mediocre developers. I think the neighbourhood's really got to keep their quality-control metres tuned up in the next few months.

[Dmajackson]

Good to hear! Though I wonder if there is such as thing as too many proposals in such a small area. Just think how messed up it would be to be a pedestrian if this, Mills Brothers, the fire lot, and the Library all underway at the same time.

Anyways ~7 floors is a good height for the area. It's tall enough to allow for the needed density to reach critical mass but short enough that it doesn't overwhelm the street and block out the sunlight. IMO 12+ floors should be the norm along South Park St from the hill down to Morris, 6-9 floors should be the buffer around Schmidtville, 4-9 floors should be allowed near SGR (say half a street width from the edge of the sidewalks), and 12+ floors should be allowed in the Park Lane block.

BTW since this is in the HbD zone we will likely get more information before January 10th (next DRC meeting). Also on the agenda could be the redevelopments for Mills Brothers lots and the fire lot next to Eastlink.

Also for those worried about the quality remember that Westwood is behind Gladstone Ridge & Gladstone Ridge North.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by Dmajackson

Also for those worried about the quality remember that Westwood is behind Gladstone Ridge & Gladstone Ridge North.

Uh, Gladstone is a terrible development (IMHO)—cheap-looking facade, ugly massing, poor street frontage, weird setbacks. It looks like it ought to be on the side of a highway somewhere in an architecturally-scarred suburb.

Halifax deserves more decent stuff in the Vic Suites/Grainery Lofts vein. Or, what's so hard about this kind of stuff:

[essaysmith]

Anyone know what's going in at the old Seaside Book and Stamp in downtown Dartmouth now that the old building is coming down?

[halifaxboyns]

Originally Posted by Dmajackson

Good to hear! Though I wonder if there is such as thing as too many proposals in such a small area. Just think how messed up it would be to be a pedestrian if this, Mills Brothers, the fire lot, and the Library all underway at the same time.

Anyways ~7 floors is a good height for the area. It's tall enough to allow for the needed density to reach critical mass but short enough that it doesn't overwhelm the street and block out the sunlight. IMO 12+ floors should be the norm along South Park St from the hill down to Morris, 6-9 floors should be the buffer around Schmidtville, 4-9 floors should be allowed near SGR (say half a street width from the edge of the sidewalks), and 12+ floors should be allowed in the Park Lane block.

BTW since this is in the HbD zone we will likely get more information before January 10th (next DRC meeting). Also on the agenda could be the redevelopments for Mills Brothers lots and the fire lot next to Eastlink.

Also for those worried about the quality remember that Westwood is behind Gladstone Ridge & Gladstone Ridge North.

Keep in mind that most of the SGR area is painted with Viewplanes 9 and 10; so 7 is likely the best most sites can do.

EDIT: I see I posted a little quickly. The block where Trillium is located and the block next to it (heading away from Victoria Park) are not painted in a viewplane and as I understand it were specifically exempted from the views so that if the area ever built up, these could be the high density blocks.

I think now that you have park vic and trillium, with some of the adjacent high density it's safe to say that there is sufficient context to support 20-25 stories in the block where Trillium is located. But I would keep the height low adjacent to Schmidtville, as a carrot to them to not complain. The parking lots, unfortunately, are high by VP9/10 so 9 is as best as it will get, depending on the slope of the VP.

[worldlyhaligonian]

Originally Posted by essaysmith

Anyone know what's going in at the old Seaside Book and Stamp in downtown Dartmouth now that the old building is coming down?

It would be great to see high density residential all along that section of Alderney. The ferry is right there!

[haligonia]

Originally Posted by macgregor

There's a Development Application notice up on the side of Winsby's Shoes (SW corner of Spring Garden and Birmingham). I only caught a glimpse but remember it saying Westwood Developments and 7 floors.

There were rumours last year that it might be a copy of the 4 floor Westwood building now housing a TD branch. (Which is diagonally opposite to it).

Looking forward too seeing what they are planning.

I like what I'm seeing:


Source

[halifaxboyns]

Not bad - my only issue is there are no balconies. So unless there is a roof top amenity area for common use, I'm not a fan of that. I've lived in a condo for a long time and I love my balcony. I use my bbq all year long (when I was in Fort Mac and it was -42, I was still out bbq'ing, granted not for very long!!) and since we get nice Chinooks here in Calgary, I use it when it's warm. Not having one would feel weird to me.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by halifaxboyns

Not bad - my only issue is there are no balconies. So unless there is a roof top amenity area for common use, I'm not a fan of that. I've lived in a condo for a long time and I love my balcony. I use my bbq all year long (when I was in Fort Mac and it was -42, I was still out bbq'ing, granted not for very long!!) and since we get nice Chinooks here in Calgary, I use it when it's warm. Not having one would feel weird to me.

If I lived in the condo, I'd definitely agree, but it's really hard to make balconies graceful on a building facade, unless they're set back.

Anyway, this is better than I thought it'd be--not amazing, but better than anything else Chedrawe has done.

[someone123]

Everybody makes trade-offs when they buy housing. The balconies must not be that big of a deal to some people because they are willing to buy in buildings without them.

The quality of building designs can vary a lot between different projects undertaken by the same developer. HRM has better design guidelines now and there are more examples of good buildings out there. I agree that the TD building is not perfect but it was built for a bank. There are only a few tenants like that on the whole street. Most retailers probably prefer a more open entrance.

[teddifax]

Originally Posted by someone123

Everybody makes trade-offs when they buy housing. The balconies must not be that big of a deal to some people because they are willing to buy in buildings without them.

The quality of building designs can vary a lot between different projects undertaken by the same developer. HRM has better design guidelines now and there are more examples of good buildings out there. I agree that the TD building is not perfect but it was built for a bank. There are only a few tenants like that on the whole street. Most retailers probably prefer a more open entrance.

They can always build in those recessed balcony door types with the wrought iron railing in front of sliding glass doors, giving the illusion at least of having a balcony, maybe putting them in alcove-type windows jutting out a bit... Also, can we get a thread started for this one!

[bluenoser]

Here is a small building planned at Mount St. Vincent, for which they are currently fundraising. The "Margaret Norrie McCain Centre for Teaching, Learning and Research". I'm not sure what else they could do in an academic building...


http://www.msvu.ca/en/home/alumnae/projecttwenty12/thecentre.aspx

[fenwick16]

I really like the Mount St. Vincent design. I especially like how the grade change is terraced. The landscaping design looks fantastic.