Halifax Waterfront Arts District

[Keith P.]

The Art Gallery of NS is getting a new facility on the waterfront. Despite the foolhardiness of such a location, the newly-minted Develop NS seems flush with taxpayer cash and so they are expanding that idea even further with an "Arts District".

Hey, let's have a design competition!

https://developns.ca/news/arts-distr...tion-launches/

The only saving grace from turning this into another gold-plated Central Library is that unlike HRM, the province tends to be much more frugal in such spending, so we shall see where this ends up.

[OldDartmouthMark]

That's great news. Thanks for posting it, Keith!

[mleblanc]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

That's great news. Thanks for posting it, Keith!

Agreed, this is exciting. People called the library a waste of money - now look how vibrant it is. Hopefully the same could happen to the Art Gallery.

[someone123]

I could see the waterfront hitting a tipping point where a few more developments will make it feel much more coherent, like one vibrant stretch from the seaport to Purdy's or so. Cogswell might also help the Purdy's end feel less like it trails off to nothing.

I hope they come up with a good plan for what to do with the current art gallery buildings. It would be a huge, easily foreseeable and avoidable mistake to let them turn into something like the old library or Dennis Building. There is lots of demand for downtown space. There just has to be follow-through from the province and municipality to either commit to a use for their old buildings or sell them to somebody who will use them.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by mleblanc

Agreed, this is exciting. People called the library a waste of money - now look how vibrant it is. Hopefully the same could happen to the Art Gallery.

Well, it *was* a waste of money in terms of the excess spending that went into it. This could be too if it is regularly underwater.

[Summerville]

I'm pretty excited about this project,...it could have the same success as the library.

But, it will likely be a huge excavation project. From what I've heard, the wharves that previously existed on the site were simply covered in fill. This will all have to be excavated.

You can see the wharves and structures that once existed here...

https://twitter.com/ArchInAcadie/sta...59929093668865

[Jonovision]

Originally Posted by someone123

I could see the waterfront hitting a tipping point where a few more developments will make it feel much more coherent, like one vibrant stretch from the seaport to Purdy's or so. Cogswell might also help the Purdy's end feel less like it trails off to nothing.

I hope they come up with a good plan for what to do with the current art gallery buildings. It would be a huge, easily foreseeable and avoidable mistake to let them turn into something like the old library or Dennis Building. There is lots of demand for downtown space. There just has to be follow-through from the province and municipality to either commit to a use for their old buildings or sell them to somebody who will use them.

I thought I heard that Develop NS is working on a new masterplan for the northern section of the waterfront (Ferry to Casino) to help tie it in with the Cogswell Redevelopment and deal with the flooding issues.

[teddifax]

I would love to see that entire area redeveloped.... It is completely a bottleneck at the Ferry Terminal/Law Courts area. I think the area has great potential and drastically needs improvement. This combined with the Cogswell redevelopment will be fantastic.