Quote:
Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark
One thing I do like about it is that from the Barrington Street side it looks like they are trying to roughly mimic the landmark buildings that were torn down from that site years ago, specifically the Cragg building on the corner and the Birks building further in.
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I think you are right, Mark. I've been examining the renderings and drawings for a few days now and find I like the Drexel proposal a lot. They truly have approximated the massing of the buildings that formerly occupied that site. At the Barrington/George corner the structure appears to closely match the height of the old Cragg building. For many years that building was a landmark storefront, housing the CNR's downtown ticket office. The adjacent streetwall, like the former Birks Building, is consistent in height to the 1912 Crowe Building.
I was surprised at first, like others, to see Drexel proposing a mostly residential development. But it probably makes perfect sense on a couple of levels. Certainly Halifax's residential rental vacancy rate (
at 1 per cent) is much more attractive than the commercial rate at
over 15%. But it also makes sense, I expect, from a structural perspective. While I could not find exact floor-to-floor heights for the Dennis building, I'd estimate them at 10-11 feet, more consistent with a residential property and well short of the 12-13 feet that is typical today for a commercial building. Certainly the
2006 CBCL report noted that floor-to-floor heights would be in issue in any attempt to restore the Dennis building to office use.
My biggest reservation with the project as proposed is the parking entrance off George Street. It seems to me that has the potential for a real bottleneck. But the only alternative is probably the area between the Recorder and Dennis buildings. And while that is now a parking lot, I don't think having a parkade entry opposite our legislative building is desirable.
As much as I'd like to see the historic buildings rehabilitated it seems to me Drexel has done an excellent job of preserving the facade of both structures within complementary new construction that will not overwhelm them.