[Halifax] Parkland at the Common (6009 Quinpool) | 78 m | 25 fl | U/C

[teddifax]

Originally Posted by kph06

The Roy measured from the Granville side would be a fairly tall demolition. Different type, but the smokestacks at the old Lower Water Street generating plant were tall objects to demolish.

I know with the Roy and the Bank of Canada building where the Maple now is, the floors were reinforced with temporary bracing for the excavators. Although I heard the Bank of Canada building was very well built, they likely were not needed.

The round apartment building on Willet will be a tall demotion whenever that happens.

Has anything been set up to demolish the building at 210 Willett St.? (The Round Tower)

[Good Baklava]

Originally Posted by stevencourchene

this is a huge disappointment what a waste!!! i know we need more seniors housing but doesn't have to be in a location such as this.

I would actually say this location is well suited to retirement living. It’s walking distance to the Quinpool superstore, the common, and right beside the future next-gen QEII. The location is far more strategic than Northwood.

[Good Baklava]

I was reviewing some older comments and saw renderings from other shannex projects. If you go to the Halifax website you can find very similar structures proposed for the seton ridge area. This leads me to believe the willow tree development will be more similar to their Mississauga location instead.

This is a 21 storey shannex tower that would easily be permitted within the confines of the Willow tree site. It’s pretty bland though, I would personally hope they don’t replicate it.

https://experienceparkland.com/en/lo...d-on-the-glen/

[kph06]

Originally Posted by teddifax

Has anything been set up to demolish the building at 210 Willett St.? (The Round Tower)

There is an HRM Application underway for the site. Although a site with an empty building has higher costs than a site with no buildings, I don't suspect there will be action until the development is approved.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by atbw

16 years of priiiiime parking.

Halifax has a really miserable track record of redevelopment of government-owned sites and maintenance of government-owned buildings.

Around 2000 it used to be a bit more common to hear that this was because the market for new buildings was weak but that excuse is clearly no longer valid.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Jonovision

^^ Nice find! There was a later addition that had a taller building that ran up to Spring Garden too.

I will echo Keith's comments in that my recollection of the corner of Queen and Spring Garden (current library site) is that it was occupied by a parking lot at least back into the late 1980s, when I was a student at TUNS.

Here's another pic of the Infirmary as I remember it along Queen Street - this was apparently taken sometime in the early 1960s:


Source

This is getting way off topic, but the library lot to which you are referring had previously been occupied by Bellevue House, pictured below:


Source

Gutted by fire in 1885:

Source

In 2011, before the build for the new library could be started, an archaeological excavation was done of the site, outlined in this linked article. To bring it full circle, the article states that at this time it had been a parking lot for 46 years, which would bring it back to 1965, five years before the pic I had previously posted of the complex.

However, further information indicates that the parking lot could actually have been there as far back as 1955:

Bellevue was gutted by fire in 1885 and reconstructed by 1887. During the reconstruction an addition was made to the front (Piers 1947: 30). During the early twentieth century, Bellevue was converted to an Officer’s quarters and offices. The portion of the property that contained Bellevue house was turned over to the City of Halifax as military surplus in 1948. That same year, the City sold the property to Maritime Telegraph and Telephone Company. The property was expropriated by the Nova Scotia Technical College in 1955 and Bellevue was torn down and the property turned into a parking lot.

Source

As usual, an offhand comments leads me down yet another historical rabbit hole...

Sorry for the derail!

[bluenoser]

Thanks for the photos, Mark. I find the history of the SGR area in particular to be fascinating!

[someone123]

I took a photo of this area in 2001 (with a point and shoot film camera). It is too bad that the older part of this complex was lost. It had some nice masonry detailing.

[Jonovision]

I was only just starting university and coming downtown regularly when they started to tear down the infirmary so I guess my memory is a bit foggy on the site.

[Amanita]

My mom used to work here, many years ago. I have memories of my dad, and sister, and I coming to meet her after work on numerous occasions.

As for Willow Tree Tower, I have lots of pics taken both with a proper camera and my iPhone, I'll have to post them.

[someone123]

Here's a photo from Dexel showing the Robie Street row of highrises:


Source

[Haliburger]

Dec 13

[Corker]

This one is now just rubble. The above ground structure is gone.

Walking by it this morning I was surprised at the compact size of the site. It's not really that big, especially compared to the former school site across the street.

[kph06]

I think this is a new rendering:


Source: Shannex

[mleblanc]

Originally Posted by kph06

I think this is a new rendering:


Source: Shannex

That's not what I was expecting.... Wow! Looks much more impressive than I was imagining for a Shannex building.

[Good Baklava]

I was expecting something more institutional-looking.

[someone123]

The rendering seems to show an illuminated strip running up the building and around the roofline. I wonder if that will be built. This one will actually be pretty prominent, including in some skyline shots because of elevation. It is better than I expected too.

I imagined in some far-off future Robie would feel like the edge of or part of downtown but I think that is more like 5-10 years off, although the feel will be a bit different since it will be a mix of higher density new development and then wooden houses not far away.

[Saul Goode]

Shannex is advertising Spring 2024 occupancy so presumably things will have to start happening on the site soon.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the proposed Westwood development next door. If built, it would actually be 7m/23’ taller than the Shannex building, though with fewer (23) storeys. In February the Halifax Peninsula Planning Advisory Committee recommended that the Halifax and West Community Council approve the application, despite having received roughly five times as much negative feedback as positive (79%-16%) from the public by phone and email between 7 December and 9 February. Not that that’s necessarily reflective of the “true” sentiment of the community, of course - the naysayers are fairly aggressive at getting their vote out, so to speak.

I imagine we can expect the “Friends of” gang to be very shrill when the community council gets the case.

[Nouvellecosse]

I sort of liked that old concrete building although i didn't care for the big parking garage attached to it. It fit the era though I suppose.

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I sort of liked that old concrete building although i didn't care for the big parking garage attached to it. It fit the era though I suppose.

It was pretty snazzy for its time, particularly with the "corkboard" color and big BA (later Gulf) logo at the top.