[Halifax] The Keep | 27 m | 8 fl | Completed

[Duff]

Here is an updated rendering found on the new website. The building will be called "The Keep" http://www.thekeephalifax.ca/

[alps]

Beautiful! I love the continuous shop frontage, the big windows and the awnings. Scale of building and the facade lighting looks great too. This intersection has a lot of future potential. How they redevelop the St. Pat's site will be very important.

[fenwick16]

Very nice design, in my opinion.

The architect(s) didn't get carried away and add needless contemporary elements that will look dated in 10 - 20 years. It is a very nice design that will likely still look good in another 50 years.

[counterfactual]

Originally Posted by alps

Beautiful! I love the continuous shop frontage, the big windows and the awnings. Scale of building and the facade lighting looks great too. This intersection has a lot of future potential. How they redevelop the St. Pat's site will be very important.

100% agree. A very classic design and classy look.

And little things like the awnings (to create a covered space for pedestrians or tables/seating outside) and the lighting on the sides of the building, really make a difference.

[curnhalio]

This does it more justice than the previous rendering. It looks like a cross between The James and Waterside. I like it a lot.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by curnhalio

This does it more justice than the previous rendering. It looks like a cross between The James and Waterside. I like it a lot.

I wasn't much impressed with it from the first rendering, but this persepective, showing the lighting, etc., looks much better to me.

[alps]

The floorplans for this one are now online:

http://thekeephalifax.ca/

[sk8tr]

Will utilities be undergrounded, as shown in rendering?

[Keith P.]

Those look like very handsome units. Shame there is no pricing posted.

[gohaligo]

Domino's Pizza is now closed and fence with demolition signage went up today.

[portapetey]

Originally Posted by alps

Beautiful! I love the continuous shop frontage, the big windows and the awnings. Scale of building and the facade lighting looks great too. This intersection has a lot of future potential. How they redevelop the St. Pat's site will be very important.

Ditto on all points. And I love that it's not set behind a parking lot.

This is a very nicely scaled building for that neighbourhood.

Something considerably taller on the other side of the street would be nice.

[Keith P.]

Public meeting tonight regarding the St. Pat's site. You can bet Watts will be doing everything she can to ensure that the planning strategy or bylaw will permit nothing more than 4 or 5 storeys.

[beyeas]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Public meeting tonight regarding the St. Pat's site. You can bet Watts will be doing everything she can to ensure that the planning strategy or bylaw will permit nothing more than 4 or 5 storeys.

With the school basically down now, you can really get a sense of just how really quite huge that lot is. It surprised me!

[teddifax]

Can anyone post what happened at the St. Pats meeting?

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by teddifax

Can anyone post what happened at the St. Pats meeting?

The project thread for the St. Pat's site has been updated since the meeting.

[essaysmith]

It does seem attractive, but strikes me as being somewhat monolithic and right up to the sidewalk. Makes it seem out of scale with the other buildings that will be alongside it. Maybe all of Quinpool will eventually follow suit and it will all go together, but this seems out of place.

[Drybrain]

It's out of place in the sense that it's larger than anything on the street now, but it's probably the kind of scale we should be moving towards as properties (at least those without historic value) are redeveloped on main streets.

I think it'll be good for Quinpool. It's a very low-slung main street, and that small-town feel is exacerbated by its width. It needs a little more scale right up against the sidewalks to counter that.

I'm counting four storefronts fronting the street, so that will help soften the monolithic quality of it.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

It's out of place in the sense that it's larger than anything on the street now, but it's probably the kind of scale we should be moving towards as properties (at least those without historic value) are redeveloped on main streets.

I think it'll be good for Quinpool. It's a very low-slung main street, and that small-town feel is exacerbated by its width.

Well, it isn't larger than the Quinpool Center apartments across the street, and depending on what gets built on the St. Pat's site, maybe not larger than that either.

You are correct in your comments about Quinpool Rd generally. It is the land that time forgot for much of it, not changing since the 1940s. Still lots of old, unremarkable 2-storey wood-frame buildings used as storefronts. Others have had 1960s facades slapped on the front with similar-era changes inside, but are still pretty dated and small in scale. I always found it odd no developer wanted to buy up several adjacent properties and do something new. I supposed the 2-storey residential units backing on the adjacent parallel streets resulted in that lack of interest.

[beyeas]

Originally Posted by gohaligo

Domino's Pizza is now closed and fence with demolition signage went up today.

BTW, the old building is about 1/3 demolished at this point. Nice to see this proceeding along!

[Dmajackson]

The building was demolished this week. I'll keep an eye out for signs of excavation.