[Halifax] The Jade & Green Lantern (1595 Barrington) | Completed

[teddifax]

Originally Posted by Jonovision

Waye Mason posted this earlier on his FB. Apparently they have found remnants of the original retail framing behind the wood that is there now so that it can be fully restored.

Nice!

[someone123]

That is great news. I am hoping the stories for the Pacific Building and 1678 Barrington are similar.

[alps]

Fantastic restoration. Love all the glass at ground level.

[coolmillion]

^ Agreed! Hopefully this will get underway quickly.

Notice both Alps and I are located in Hong Kong - we now have an outpost of SSP Halifax in HK

[OldDartmouthMark]

Excellent news! I think this will be a great asset to the street - perhaps one of the landmark buildings on Barrington when done, and hopefully some incentive to restore more streetfronts there.

[Keith P.]

I am dubious it ever looked like this. This picture from the NS Archives dates to 1941:




The rendering looks nice, but I question how much of a "restoration" it is.

[Phalanx]

Except even from that picture you can tell the storefront is built over an earlier storefront (notice how the left corner projects past the stonework, rather than abuts it as would be typical for a storefront as originally built). Not to mention that the style (1930s deco streamline) is not at all consistent with the era that the building was built in (late 19th century). The proposal would be in keeping with the style of the era, so it's entirely believable that it's consistent with what they found.

[Waye Mason]

They have a picture from the turn of the last century and you can see the pillars, and they have jigged out holes and looked in with lights/felt around and know that at least some of it is there.

The Ghosn family are really excited by this project. The big unveil to me at A49s office was touching, the father Nassim, the mother, the daughter, the two sons were all there, and so excited to show off the project. Nassim was very sceptical of saving the building at first but now is really enthusiastic about the value they will get from the facade and interior they can save.

They are doing the same as the Dillon and using the existing wooden floors as the bottom of the formwork, so that exposed old wood (think Lion and Bright, etc) will all be saved, some interior is being saved (but not much, it had been largely gutted after Juan). But really the exposed brick on four sides, the windows in the back that have been covered for 80+ years being highlighted in different colour brick or even with glass cubes for fire rating, all that stuff is planned. It is very exciting.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

I am dubious it ever looked like this. This picture from the NS Archives dates to 1941:




The rendering looks nice, but I question how much of a "restoration" it is.

Since buildings often do not retain their original form throughout their life, there's often a debate attached to which era they should be restored for. Often the choices would be for its original "as new" condition, or perhaps in its most famous iteration at some point in its history.

One recent case was the debate over the Morse's Teas sign on the old Jerusalem Warehouse building. Is it best to restore it to the original Jerusalem Warehouse configuration or the best known Morse's version? In that case, since the building had a couple of floors added on in its lifetime and was best known for Morse's Teas, I think this was the decision made (though I don't recall hearing much about that since the spring).

I think this is another one of those cases. When you look at the Green Lantern from another angle (1945 pic below), the restaurant frontage was clearly an "add on" from some point in its history. I read somewhere that the building was built around 1896, and the Green Lantern restaurant opened sometime around 1917. I haven't seen any photographic evidence to back it up, but I would hazard to guess that when the building was originally built, it had an appearance similar to the rendering above.

In this case, I would suggest that given that the Green Lantern no longer exists and that its original configuration is arguably more attractive and more fitting to its new purpose, that this would be the best way to go. If there was still a Green Lantern restaurant in that location, my preference would be more to that version, as it is what the building is most known for in general.





Source of photo

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Waye Mason

They have a picture from the turn of the last century and you can see the pillars, and they have jigged out holes and looked in with lights/felt around and know that at least some of it is there.

The Ghosn family are really excited by this project. The big unveil to me at A49s office was touching, the father Nassim, the mother, the daughter, the two sons were all there, and so excited to show off the project. Nassim was very sceptical of saving the building at first but now is really enthusiastic about the value they will get from the facade and interior they can save.

They are doing the same as the Dillon and using the existing wooden floors as the bottom of the formwork, so that exposed old wood (think Lion and Bright, etc) will all be saved, some interior is being saved (but not much, it had been largely gutted after Juan). But really the exposed brick on four sides, the windows in the back that have been covered for 80+ years being highlighted in different colour brick or even with glass cubes for fire rating, all that stuff is planned. It is very exciting.

That all sounds really positive! I'm quite anxious to see this proceed.

Would love to see the turn of the century (20th century... lol) pic if you have a copy.

Thanks for all of your updates on this project. I think it has the chance to be one of, or perhaps the nicest in the Barrington historical district once done.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by Waye Mason

They have a picture from the turn of the last century and you can see the pillars, and they have jigged out holes and looked in with lights/felt around and know that at least some of it is there.

The Ghosn family are really excited by this project. The big unveil to me at A49s office was touching, the father Nassim, the mother, the daughter, the two sons were all there, and so excited to show off the project. Nassim was very sceptical of saving the building at first but now is really enthusiastic about the value they will get from the facade and interior they can save.

They are doing the same as the Dillon and using the existing wooden floors as the bottom of the formwork, so that exposed old wood (think Lion and Bright, etc) will all be saved, some interior is being saved (but not much, it had been largely gutted after Juan). But really the exposed brick on four sides, the windows in the back that have been covered for 80+ years being highlighted in different colour brick or even with glass cubes for fire rating, all that stuff is planned. It is very exciting.

This really is fantastic. Lots of woeful heritage news these days, so it's awesome that we DO have some developers who really get it.

[someone123]

It's too bad because I get the impression that a lot of heritage buildings that are torn down actually could have been reused and added some cachet to the newer developments.

Halifax has similar problems at a neighbourhood level too. The bones and character that exists in parts of the city could form the basis for some amazing heritage districts, but council has traditionally had a laissez-faire attitude. There isn't much of a sense that parts of the city are special. A lot of the councillors seem to think of the South End like it's essentially the same as Sackville or whatever. They don't care about the city so they don't see the potential it has.

[someone123]

This may be obvious but in OldDartmouthMark's photo above you can see the old storefront configuration in the middle window just to the left of the building's main entrance.

The Orpheus/Paramount building also looks much nicer than the reduced version that is there today. And of course you can see the Capitol Theatre a bit farther down.

I often thought it was too bad that nobody knocked down the row of 2-storey buildings to build something more like the other buildings on the street. There was talk at one point that Starfish might add more floors onto the former Carsand Mosher building.

[portapetey]

I can't get over how many people are in the street in these photos. Sure looks different from the last few years.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by someone123

This may be obvious but in OldDartmouthMark's photo above you can see the old storefront configuration in the middle window just to the left of the building's main entrance.

But no sign nor any sign of retail activity. Perhaps the precursor of Barrington's decline?

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by portapetey

I can't get over how many people are in the street in these photos. Sure looks different from the last few years.

War years. Halifax's population exploded, which explains the hustle and bustle. Keep in mind back then "Halifax" was basically just the peninsula, so all those people were concentrated into a much smaller area.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

But no sign nor any sign of retail activity. Perhaps the precursor of Barrington's decline?

Looks like items on display in the windows?

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

War years. Halifax's population exploded, which explains the hustle and bustle. Keep in mind back then "Halifax" was basically just the peninsula, so all those people were concentrated into a much smaller area.

Actually, if you have a few hours to kill sometime, read through this feature at the archives. The text combined with the photos tells a pretty good story of what was going on at the time.

http://novascotia.ca/archives/EastCoastPort/default.asp

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

Looks like items on display in the windows?

That looks like a picture tribute to someone, perhaps someone who died?

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

That looks like a picture tribute to someone, perhaps someone who died?

Could be, I'm wondering if it was some kind of military tribute or something along those lines.