[Halifax] Forum Redevelopment | ? m | ? fl | Proposed

[Phalanx]

Different scenarios. As mentioned, in the case of the Forum, the bricks themselves are damaged and in many cases unusable, so have to be replaced. Also, the brickwork in the forum is much more basic than the brickwork that the original Roy building had, so I don't think the appearance will suffer from the brickwork being redone, assuming they don't do something stupid like use precast.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Phalanx

Different scenarios. As mentioned, in the case of the Forum, the bricks themselves are damaged and in many cases unusable, so have to be replaced. Also, the brickwork in the forum is much more basic than the brickwork that the original Roy building had, so I don't think the appearance will suffer from the brickwork being redone, assuming they don't do something stupid like use precast.

Yeah, I guess we'll see what happens. Either way it's OK.

The loss for me, personally, is the character of the building - but most people won't care or notice. I'm only one person, and have no delusions that my concerns are more important than the majority...

[Djeffery]

I posted pics over on the Stadium thread, post 6980, a while back of the job they did here in London of re-doing the façade of a century old building that was on the site of the new arena. They originally intended to use the former structure for that corner, but then decided it wouldn't work, so then they decided to rebuild the façade with reclaimed brick. I'm not even sure if they ended up using any of that, or just new brick. But either way, they did a good job. If care and thought is put into a project, they can make it work. Hopefully that happens with you guys.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

I posted pics over on the Stadium thread, post 6980, a while back of the job they did here in London of re-doing the façade of a century old building that was on the site of the new arena. They originally intended to use the former structure for that corner, but then decided it wouldn't work, so then they decided to rebuild the façade with reclaimed brick. I'm not even sure if they ended up using any of that, or just new brick. But either way, they did a good job. If care and thought is put into a project, they can make it work. Hopefully that happens with you guys.

Here's your post from the other thread (for ease of discussion):

Originally Posted by Djeffery

We had this debate in London 20 years ago with a historic streetscape on the site of the new arena. I think they did pretty good with it. Hard to tell the arena façade is actually a reproduction and not actually part of the original building.

It does look like they did a great job on the recreation.

For me, personally, I will regret the loss of character for the entire Forum building, not just what it looks like on the outside (some people probably think I'm for saying that... lol) but at least if they did the recreation as well as the example that you presented, it would look OK on the outside.

I remain skeptical, as local developers largely haven't done a great job at recreating old structures - they tend to end up looking like the "faux heritage" buildings that people like to laugh at (or scorn). No matter what, it's now in the hands of the city to decide which way they are going to go about it, so we'll see what happens. It's out of my hands...

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

No matter what, it's now in the hands of the city to decide which way they are going to go about it, so we'll see what happens. It's out of my hands...

Uhhh... it never WAS in your hands, man.

[Colin May]

Any councillor/mayor who votes to spend circa $80 million on the Forum complex is clearly irresponsible and unfit for public office.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Uhhh... it never WAS in your hands, man.

LOL... it was just an expression, Keith.

Unless... if council was carefully considering my posts on Skyscraper Forum before they committed to a decision... then maybe it was...

We'll never know...

[K-Man]

Hey all! I thought a few screenshots from the proposal might be useful for a quick reference as to the current plans for the different facades. I’m about halfway through reading it so I feel like some of this might be old news but I’ll throw them up any way in case someone finds them useful. I had mentioned this before but I gotta say I kind of like the look of the tinted windows in the renderings.

Page 4


Page 23


Page 44


Page 55


Page 56


All Image Sources:
https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default...1126rc1517.pdf

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Colin May

Any councillor/mayor who votes to spend circa $80 million on the Forum complex is clearly irresponsible and unfit for public office.

That would be most of them.

Just yesterday in the news (preceding these being voted on at Council today) was Mason promoting the spending of $3 million tax dollars to spruce up Gorsebrook park (better known as the toboggan sliding hill) and Austin wanting to spend $3.5 million on a totally unnecessary and traffic-impeding roundabout at the Woodland/Lancaster/118 intersection, when inexpensive modifications to the signals and lane configuration would easily fix whatever problem may exist.

We have a tax-and-spend Council who look upon the municipal treasury as their own piggy bank and like to spend millions on all sorts of completely frivolous things that nobody asked for and which should not in any way be priorities. It is abuse of the taxpayer, pure and simple. This bunch must go.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by K-Man

Hey all! I thought a few screenshots from the proposal might be useful for a quick reference as to the current plans for the different facades. I’m about halfway through reading it so I feel like some of this might be old news but I’ll throw them up any way in case someone finds them useful. I had mentioned this before but I gotta say I kind of like the look of the tinted windows in the renderings.

Page 4


Page 23


Page 44


Page 55


Page 56


All Image Sources:
https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default...1126rc1517.pdf

Thanks for your insight, K-man! I suppose in terms of the condition of the original materials, this might be the best case scenario. I do like that they are intending to bring back its appearance to how it would have looked on "opening day". The bricked-over windows always did bother me somewhat.

For all the 'we can't afford this', my view is that we can't afford not to do this. From what I understand, the Forum has suffered from deferred maintenance by the city, which has increased the amount of work that has to be done to it now - so in the past the 'we can't afford this' mindset has led us to a point where we must 'go big or stay home'. If this is put off further, then the costs will increase - or it will just be torn down and left as an empty lot - a state which Halifax has suffered from for many decades.

IMHO, it's time for the city to correct its past mistakes and head into the future - and maintaining key structures that are an important part of the city's culture is part of it.

Yeah, I may complain that some of the original aspects that are important to me, personally, may be disappearing, but at the end of the day I'm a realist and know that this is probably the best option. Doing *nothing* is not a good option... ever.

[someone123]

I'd say HRM is like the rich old business tycoon who lives off of cat food and hoards gold but it's worse than that because the money that doesn't go to worthwhile larger scale projects the city "can't afford" just gets frittered away on smaller things, or never materializes in the first place because it would have come from cost-sharing between multiple levels of government.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by someone123

I'd say HRM is like the rich old business tycoon who lives off of cat food and hoards gold but it's worse than that because the money that doesn't go to worthwhile larger scale projects the city "can't afford" just gets frittered away on smaller things, or never materializes in the first place because it would have come from cost-sharing between multiple levels of government.

HRM has made an art form out of frittering.

[K-Man]

Won't be too much more of this at that end of the Forum...
The granite belt courses around the top sure have weathered and worn grey since then, eh?


Source: Facebook - OLD Black and White Pictures of Halifax, Nova Scotia
User: Ross MacInnis

[OldDartmouthMark]

I recall the fair setup at the Forum. I may have even been there that day!

Thanks for that, brings back a lot of memories.

And yes, there won't be any room to set up a fair, with all the picnickers spreading out blankets where the parking lot will no longer exist...

You've got me wondering... is that actually granite, or could it be sandstone? Granite doesn't seem to gray out like that over time, but sandstone (with its porosity) certainly does. Either way, I presume it will be cleaned up during the 'renovation'...

[K-Man]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

You've got me wondering... is that actually granite, or could it be sandstone? Granite doesn't seem to gray out like that over time, but sandstone (with its porosity) certainly does. Either way, I presume it will be cleaned up during the 'renovation'...

So this led to an interesting little discovery (at least for me anyway). The "Cliff Notes" version: they're actually concrete. The "bored at work/on the can with your phone" version:

If you have a look below in the August 2018 'Feasibility Report' it shows that when Capitol Management Engineering Ltd. (CMEL) did their building assessment they discovered that the string courses were actually concrete and not granite.


Source: HRM 2018 Feasibility Report - https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default...0814rc1412.pdf

I had always read that they were granite and even the November 2019 'Building Analysis Report' contradicts itself a little bit. Below on page 4 there is no mention of granite string courses and the information is corrected to now show that they are made of concrete. Later in the same report though the screenshot shows a page from the analysis using information from historicplaces.ca. You can see that they say on their site that the string courses are made of white granite. In any event CMEL has confirmed that they're concrete and in regards to weathering & graying, that actually makes sense now as concrete would age far more rapidly than granite. The last screenshot from the 2019 'Analysis Report' shows that they have written intentions of using the original string courses for the south facade but whether or not that actually manifests itself is an answer that only our future selves currently know while we exist simultaneously here in the present still not knowing. Want a waaay off topic rabbit hole if you actually are bored at work?
BigThink.com - https://bigthink.com/surprising-scie...-the-same-time


Source: HRM 2019 Analysius Report - https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default...1126rc1517.pdf


Source: HRM 2019 Analysius Report - https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default...1126rc1517.pdf


Source: HRM 2019 Analysius Report - https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default...1126rc1517.pdf

[OldDartmouthMark]

Ahh, interesting. Concrete makes more sense, given when it was built and the building's purpose.

Thanks for sorting that out! I love how much minutiae I learn here!

[Takeo]

Given that the only time both parking lots are full is Christmas At The Forum or maybe a big concert once a year... and the only time the South lot is full is on weekends, I actually think there may still be too much surface parking. With all the new high rise developments in the area, there is and will be lots of parking available nearby for special events. You’ll just have to pay for it. Like you would in any densely populated city neighbourhood. Monaghan Square already has an entire level of indoor paid public parking with probably 150 or so spots. And I imagine the Windsor park development will have public parking as well. Once the area is far more built up in the next decade or so, I think prioritizing green space and buildings over surface parking will be seen as forward looking.

[OldDartmouthMark]

I did not know that Monaghan Square had paid public parking. Thanks for the tip!

[OldDartmouthMark]

Just for fun, a few pics from NS Archives:

From 1950:


https://novascotia.ca/archives/NSIS/archives.asp?ID=409

A hockey match from around when it was nearly new:


https://novascotia.ca/archives/Conno...ves.asp?ID=133

A curling bonspiel in 1959:


https://novascotia.ca/archives/NSIS/...es.asp?ID=1240



https://novascotia.ca/archives/NSIS/...es.asp?ID=1241

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

I don't believe there is a thread for this and it seems it is about time given this:

https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default...1126rc1517.pdf


The CBC story:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...port-1.5369969


Makes the anti-stadium arguments from Council members seem rather shaky.

Comparing the image from the CBC article:


To the one from Fenwick16's 2014 post:


Hi have to say I like the detail on the earlier (2014) one better. Not sure which one would be more authentic to the original building, though...