[Halifax] TD Tower Expansion | 83 m | 23 fl | Completed

[beyeas]

"Between 2001 and 2003, the Thiels bought several iconic commercial buildings, including the Royal Bank Tower, the BMO Tower and the TD Tower."
- (taken from the halifaxdowntown.ca site"

Interesting... I didn't know that. Makes it more likely in my mind that something may happen in terms of expansion down the road of their other buldings.

[terrynorthend]

I'm not super stoked about this one. I won't say that it doesn't exceed my expectations..but then again they weren't too high to begin with.

I don't like the new cladding; very disappointed with the loss of the mirror effect. As it is now it picks up Grand Parade beautifully. I expect this new glass will look a lot like 1801 Hollis, blue, very opaque, and only reflecting dark shadows of its surroundings. And does anybody have an idea what the 4-5 story "black-glass hole" midway up on the south-east corner is all about?

It doesn't add visual density to downtown. I'd prefer to see another tower downtown than this "fattening" of an existing tower. It gobbles up office space demand without adding much to the look of the CBD. Its not much more exciting than a developer announcing they are putting 200,000 square feet of office space underneath the Metro center.

The green roof is interesting, but not visible except to those in the building, on floors above it.

The Granville Street facade restoration looks contrived, an after thought at best. It doesn't fit well with the glass wall above it, and if these renderings are accurate, its non-practical. That is, just for show rather than for real use. There looks like there is a floorplate running right through the middle of those Granville Street doorways, kind of like an elevator that got stuck between floors.

The new hipped roof line is dated. Looks like a design from about 15 years ago, similar to the previous incarnation of International Place. IP has updated their proposal nicely, while TD is taking a step backwards. Are these the same architects that designed the new trade centre proposal?

[Empire]

I like the Granville St. feature. Mirrorored glass would work better for this building. The current TD building can reflect everything from St. Paul's to Citadel and blue glass "if it really is blue" will blank that out. The overall building will appear shorter and more like the bland CIBC building. The biggest problem with this is the shear blank wall from the roof line down about 3 fl. This will look very odd north looking south. There has to be some attempt to step that roof back or make it a half parymid so that it can be clad in glass. The CIBC building will never get taller so this hidious blank odd shape will be in plain view forever..."it has to go" You will notice there is no view from the north looking south. From Pudry's and the the new downtown at Cogswell St. interchance this will look really really bad. The issue is that the mechanical equipment (chillers/elevator machine room are at the north end of the roof) Even so, there is a way to step or angle that roof and add glass even if it is fake. Glass over concrete is done now on the existing building at every floor slab as with every glass building.

[Takeo]

That hip roof is so ugly.

[someone123]

The renderings probably don't accurately convey what the glass cladding will be like. Some of them also look a little crooked to me.

I agree that the roof is ugly, along with that little fake building front down at the corner of Granville. The Barrington street level design is also about as bad as the current building.

The building could look really good with new cladding, but the design needs to be streamlined more. It should be something more along the lines of United Gulf (without the curving). These current renderings look like Clayton Park level design.

[City_of_Lakes]

True. This development doesn't look to be of the quality that one would want for the downtown core. But these are just renderings.

Also, if that blank wall must stay for building code, can they not just cover it in glass as well? (is that what Empire was getting at?)

[-Harlington-]

what type of building has a code that just leaves a blank wall, and at least do something with it if they have to leave it.

[sdm]

Originally Posted by City_of_Lakes

True. This development doesn't look to be of the quality that one would want for the downtown core. But these are just renderings.

Also, if that blank wall must stay for building code, can they not just cover it in glass as well? (is that what Empire was getting at?)

They can cover it with glass as long as the glass meets the fire rated times required.

[Empire]

Originally Posted by City_of_Lakes

True. This development doesn't look to be of the quality that one would want for the downtown core. But these are just renderings.

Also, if that blank wall must stay for building code, can they not just cover it in glass as well? (is that what Empire was getting at?)

I think they can do three things.

1. Leave the building at the property line and have fire rated windows.
2. Have the wall at the property line solid concrete but affix standard glass to give the appearance of real windows. (mirrored would work best)
3. Step the building back 5ft. from the property line and used standard glass for the window openings. You can see in the image that CIBC has windows facing south. This is because the building is set back 5ft. from the property line.

This is the cheap way and they want to see if it will fly under the radar so I hope people are all over it.

[sdm]

Originally Posted by Empire

I think they can do three things.

1. Leave the building at the property line and have fire rated windows.
2. Have the wall at the property line solid concrete but affix standard glass to give the appearance of real windows. (mirrored would work best)
3. Step the building back 5ft. from the property line and used standard glass for the window openings. You can see in the image that CIBC has windows facing south. This is because the building is set back 5ft. from the property line.

This is the cheap way and they want to see if it will fly under the radar so I hope people are all over it.

All the above is correct, except that the distance maybe greater then 5 feet in todays codes.

Yes this is the cheap way of getting around it, but as stated i believe if the HRM by design rules are followed this will not be allowed.

[Empire]

The roof of Founders Square is what is required for this building.....glass sloping on all sides.

[sdm]

Originally Posted by Empire

The roof of Founders Square is what is required for this building.....glass sloping on all sides.

have to admit Founders Square has one of the best roof designs in the city, albeit a late 1980's building.

I thought HRM by design pushed designs to have more angles and less of a bulking mass design. At least thats what i get from looking from the manual.

[beyeas]

Originally Posted by sdm

have to admit Founders Square has one of the best roof designs in the city, albeit a late 1980's building.

I thought HRM by design pushed designs to have more angles and less of a bulking mass design. At least thats what i get from looking from the manual.

This will certainly be an interesting test for HbD... the upside for developers was obviously the more clear route to getting an agreement,, but the upside for the public was supposed to be improved building quality/designs.

Here's hoping that this one meets both criteria... the developer gets an agreement in a reasonable time AND they are forced to improve the quality of the project.

[Empire]

Originally Posted by sdm

have to admit Founders Square has one of the best roof designs in the city, albeit a late 1980's building.

I thought HRM by design pushed designs to have more angles and less of a bulking mass design. At least thats what i get from looking from the manual.

Another style roof that might work is like Purdy's. Stepped in from all directions.

[-Harlington-]

i wouldnt mind a slanted roof really it might look cool from dartmouth, or the roof it alredy has but i dont know how that would fair with the expantion.
a purdys type roof i think would look awkward on this building although i might change my mind when the buildings completed.

[sdm]

Originally Posted by -Harlington-

i wouldnt mind a slanted roof really it might look cool from dartmouth, or the roof it alredy has but i dont know how that would fair with the expantion.
a purdys type roof i think would look awkward on this building although i might change my mind when the buildings completed.

The western side of the building already has similar design elements to purdys, so that should give one a sense of what it could look like.

[worldlyhaligonian]

Well, the ultimate positive is the groundfloor and the fix for the empty lot.

I think the roof will end up looking fine... we are looking at mostly arial type renderings and most of us will never see that angle.

[miesh111]

Article on All Nova Scotia this morning with renderings of the new tower. Looks great! I'll try and get the image up...

[miesh111]

[Dmajackson]

They've added the link to the website to the HRM website so its now officially proposed.