General Updates and News

[kph06]

A tower crane is being assembled today for the new IWK expansion on University Ave.

[IanWatson]

Centre Plan identifies a bunch of planned heritage districts, but of course the challenge is the time and resources it takes to get them in place. I think a major focus right now is transitioning the Barrington Street HCD from the Downtown Halifax Plan to Centre Plan so that the Downtown Halifax Plan can be discharged in full.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

I’m not too pessimistic about those two; there are about two dozen individual heritage registrations on Inglis, which create a sort of defacto heritage district. Tower Road has a real mix, but the Centre Plan zoning rather torturously weaves around all the historically valuable buildings, keeping them under low-rise zoning. A bunch are also registered. There’s no coherent plan as to how to develop the district, but it doesn’t feel like it’s in particularly worse shape than it used to be.

They are pretty dumpy looking overall though, even though they have some great buildings and fixing these stretches up dramatically would take relatively little investment (just vinyl -> wood siding and paint in a lot of cases). The improvements seem to be coming very slowly or not at all, unless we're talking about new infill construction.

The St. John's heritage bylaws include items like:

"Building and Cladding/Siding Materials: ... However, veneer manmade products and similar products are not permitted."

A lot of cities are opinionated about heritage districts in this way and seem to make progress toward better appearance and integrity. I am a bit skeptical that this requires some kind of herculean planning effort that can be done in St. John's but not Halifax (really most comparable Northeastern cities probably with Halifax being an outlier).

Many of the worst offending property owners are probably landlords who are raking in the cash right now.

[someone123]

Some examples of what I mean.





This one's from 2009 because it's easier to see without leaves on the trees but hadn't changed much by 2019. Honestly I'm not sure if any of them have improved since 2009.

[someone123]

Is this in the Schmidtville heritage district or next to it? You can see how one property owner renovates the historic house on the right, but then there's an ugly hole on the left and then a bunch of vinyl-clad houses. The duplex on the left actually has a pretty grand scale:

[Keith P.]

Student housing would get very expensive very quickly if all of those old buildings had to be restored to historic commission standards.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Student housing would get very expensive very quickly if all of those old buildings had to be restored to historic commission standards.

I don't think these are a significant portion of the housing or student housing supply. Rents are already at "because we can" prices in Halifax and they went up by about 9% last year. Likely increased maintenance requirements would eat into landlords profits to the extent they're not subsidized and these properties would remain super profitable.

Requiring wood shingles and paint is probably a fairly low cost relative to rents in central areas.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by someone123

Some examples of what I mean.

Oh for sure, the variable state of repair is very noticeable and unfortunate, and really ought not to be allowed to continue. The Barrington/Inglis nexus is especially bad for having a high level of quality buildings but basically no controls on how they’re maintained, nor any heritage status. I remember a nice, relatively ornate Victorian on South Street was completely covered by vinyl siding a couple of years ago, and then went on the market with the listing touting “new siding!” Really a case of absentee property owners with no idea how to treat their assets.

[coastalkid]

Not sure if there is a thread, but here is progress on the new FBM studio on Cunard:

[Dmajackson]

2393 MAYNARD STREET - Demolition underway


Halifax Developments Blog (Photo by David Jackson)

[stevencourchene]

ANS reported Dexel and paramount just bought the old salvation army building on Barrington street a new redevelopment which will preserve and restore the 130 year old Renner-carney house at 1351 Barrington street along with the 206 year old T.N. Jeffery House at 1333-35 Barrington street

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by stevencourchene

ANS reported Dexel and paramount just bought the old salvation army building on Barrington street a new redevelopment which will preserve and restore the 130 year old Renner-carney house at 1351 Barrington street along with the 206 year old T.N. Jeffery House at 1333-35 Barrington street

Interesting. Dexel has been owned the heritage buildings for years without moving forward. I wonder if they were just waiting to get their hands on the SA building as well. Will be good to see this move forward with a restoration of those heritage structures. Louis Lawen once mused about restoring (i.e., rebuilding) the facade of the historic but literally defaced building in-between Renner-Carey and T.N. Jeffery. Would be amazing, though I doubt it will actually happen.

[ManWithTheMug]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Louis Lawen once mused about restoring (i.e., rebuilding) the facade of the historic but literally defaced building in-between Renner-Carey and T.N. Jeffery. Would be amazing, though I doubt it will actually happen.

Just looking at Google Street View now and never even realized that was an older building, but the mansard roof and stone foundation suggests it's probalby of the same vintage as 1351. I couldn't find any historical photos of what it used to look like but I assume they exist. It's a shame it looks the way it does now.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by ManWithTheMug

Just looking at Google Street View now and never even realized that was an older building, but the mansard roof and stone foundation suggests it's probalby of the same vintage as 1351. I couldn't find any historical photos of what it used to look like but I assume they exist. It's a shame it looks the way it does now.

Yep. If you check out the sidewalls in person it's clearly Victorian-era brick. I saw a picture once--quite attractive, though less ornate than 1351.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Yep. If you check out the sidewalls in person it's clearly Victorian-era brick. I saw a picture once--quite attractive, though less ornate than 1351.

It's here:

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showpost.php?p=9607331&postcount=1346


Source

Unaltered photo:

Source

[someone123]

Not sure where this house is or what the story behind it is but the posting suggests it's new and it's interesting to me how it matches the style of the house next door:


Source

I wish there were more small buildings constructed in local rather than generic styles, as well as adaptive reuse of heritage houses that increases the density while maintaining the style (for example add a floor on top).

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Yep. If you check out the sidewalls in person it's clearly Victorian-era brick. I saw a picture once--quite attractive, though less ornate than 1351.

It is a great building and highlights how much better this part of Barrington used to be and could be. Given the value of this area, it would be easy to support reconstruction of that facade through added density elsewhere, such as on the former Salvation Army site. Something like Vic Suites, ideally taller, would look great there. Put a medium scale podium in front that reinforces the feel of the area and then a lighter modern tower above.

This area south of downtown is one of the "almost great" parts of Halifax that is packed with gems but has a lot of architectural duds and gaps that detract from the whole. Although the Bishop Street area is getting there.

[Keith P.]

Westwood built a bunch of those retro-style houses on Gladstone as part of the development there.

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by someone123

Not sure where this house is or what the story behind it is but the posting suggests it's new and it's interesting to me how it matches the style of the house next door:


Source

I wish there were more small buildings constructed in local rather than generic styles, as well as adaptive reuse of heritage houses that increases the density while maintaining the style (for example add a floor on top).

Looks like the house on the left is 2731 Northwood Terrace... which would make the construction site a new build (would have been an empty lot to the west(ish) of the Narrows, on Gottingen... The tape on the windows says 2725, and if you check out 2725 Northwood Terrace on Google Maps you can see the empty lot and check out the existing next-door-neighbour.

https://goo.gl/maps/RVfTg3E8MfSCCTf16

[ns_kid]

Originally Posted by eastcoastal

Looks like the house on the left is 2731 Northwood Terrace... which would make the construction site a new build (would have been an empty lot to the west(ish) of the Narrows, on Gottingen... The tape on the windows says 2725, and if you check out 2725 Northwood Terrace on Google Maps you can see the empty lot and check out the existing next-door-neighbour.

https://goo.gl/maps/RVfTg3E8MfSCCTf16

I believe you are correct. I parked opposite that site recently when dining at the Narrows pub on Gottingen. I was also impressed by the attention to period detail on the new build. The owners/builders deserve credit.