One of my dystopian nightmares (I know that term is redundant but I want to emphasize just how scared and disgusted it makes me) goes like this: At some point in the not-so-distant future, everything that makes Halifax livable, lovable and distinct (common lands, public spaces, historic buildings, heritage neighbourhoods) has been razed and replaced by a dead zone of tall buildings.
But that’s not the part that wakes me up screaming. The mocking coup de grace is that each of the structures bears the name of something cherished but lost, evoking a “sense” of history after destroying its verisimilitude. So we will have one glass and steel monstrosity called The Schmidtville, another named The Halifax Common, another labelled The Public Gardens, another perhaps christened The Fort Needham or The Point Pleasant.
That nightmare is not so far from the truth. In the name of “density,” we already see, either built or in the works, utilitarian piles of building materials with evocative monikers like The Cunard (evoking Samuel Cunard, 17-storeys at Lower Water and Morris Streets), The Vic (which replaced the gorgeous old Victoria Hotel at Morris and Hollis, victim of demolition-by-neglect), The Roy (22 storeys, at Barrington near Sackville, evoking the classic building that it replaces, and mocking us with its “outdoor museums” quote) and this right smack in the middle of the Barrington Street Heritage Conservation District, no less.
Wait, there’s more: The Alexander (evoking brewer Alexander Keith, 19 storeys at Bishop and Hollis.) The Mary Ann and The Margaretta—twin nine-storey buildings bearing the names of the daughters of the founders of Schmidtville—shamelessly sit on a part of Schmidtville that has been levelled.
The one that takes the cake for irony is the as-yet-unnamed Armoyan building (20-plus storeys, possibly as tall as Fenwick Tower, at Robie and Quinpool) which promises to have a willow-leaf motif etched onto its windows, to evoke the willow tree that lent its name to the corner. How lovely.
Presumably, the Elmwood Hotel, the elegant and still-livable Victorian apartment house, slated for demolition at Barrington and South Streets, will lend its name to the mundane box of bricks that will replace it. And, this too, makes a fool of the Old South Suburb so-called Heritage Conservation District, of which it is a prized member.
Occasionally, in an act of vulgar façadism, a wall or two of an old building is incorporated into the new, as with the Waterside Centre at Lower Water and Duke Streets. And there are many, many more slaps in our collective face.
But surely the most egregious example of glorious evocative bullshit is the 10-storey Queen’s Marque project, now rising on the waterfront at the foot of George Street. To read its website, you would think that it is not a modernist intrusion but god’s gift from the developer; a veritable heritage museum, the embodiment of everything Nova Scotians have striven for over hundreds of years. It’s hype as “Honest, authentic and Atlantic to Our Core” suggests it has assembled Peggys Cove, The Hector, Helen Creighton, the Cape Breton Highlands, a group of fiddlers and an orchestra of bagpipers in a single location. Read it—your jaw will drop.
The truth is, Halifax, or the emotional home in our hearts called Halifax, is surely and inexorably being destroyed by rampant developers and an obliging council before our eyes. And it is happening so fast that we can hardly catch our breath. But wait, there will be some historic names thrown around.
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This article appears in Aug 17-23, 2017.
Totally agree one has to wonder how much has been slipped into the back pockets of the clueless council, by the developers, I was disgusted on a recent visit to Halifax everything that is Halifax is being destroyed we are Halifax , not little Toronto
The Cunard, the Alexander, the Mary-Ann, the Margaretta, and Queen’s Marque were/are being built on vacant lots or parking lots. No public space was/will be lost. No historic buildings were/will be lost. They are taking dead space and turning them into used space, filled with people who will shop at shops, use the library, and bring further liveliness to downtown. These are a net positive for Halifax, even if they are not the best they can be (I’m looking at you and you 6,000 different materials, Mary-Ann).
In my opinion, the Vic was a net-positive. I’ll hold out judgement on the Roy. The Elmwood replacement proposal is pretty terrible (both in the building lost, and the building proposed to replace it). The Armoyan proposal is no loss in terms of the existing building, nor do I have a problem with the proposed design. If there’s an issue with it, it’s how much the developer is giving the middle finger to planners, Council, and residents in terms of process (“tell me to make it shorter, I’ll come back with an EVEN TALLER proposal”).
A ‘fear’ of tall, glass buildings is irrational. There’s a very strong argument to be made for protecting common, public, and historical spaces and buildings, and I will absolutely defend those places… But being offended by a new development simply because it’s tall or made out of modern materials is simply idiotic – it makes no sense whatsoever.
Queens Marque cost us no heritage buildings (any significant buildings have been gone for many decades. The previous occupant of the site was a lab built in the 60s, and the building before that was an unremarkable, 2 story wood frame industrial that was in very poor condition by the time it was torn down). Much of the building’s exterior will be made up sandstone quarried in Nova Scotia… much like its older neighbours. The aesthetics will be modern, yes, but why is that a negative thing? Should our tastes be permanently anchored to the Victorian aesthetic?
Cities have to grow and adapt and change with time. Heritage should be protected and preserved where there’s merit for the public or cultural good… but trying to halt progress, trying to make everyone else abide by YOUR aesthetic is arrogant, and regressive.
Building styles and materials have always evolved, even within the context of our existing heritage building stock… They ALL reflect the materials, technology and aesthetics of their respective eras. Pick any extant buildings constructed between the 18th and early 20th century, and you’ll find a wide variety of materials, aesthetics and HEIGHTS because they reflect their time. In 100 years time, when the citizens of Halifax look back at what was built here and now, should it be some pale imitation of what came before, or should it speak for what we are now?
I could cry…or scream. Instead, since there’s nothing to be done, I’ll just learn to live with this sick feeling in my stomach.
I guess Professors Emeritus get access to the really good drugs. Only that could explain the heartfelt cry to protect parking lots.
Why are empty spaces considered “dead zones”? Why do people feel when there is not a building on an empty lot it is dead? Humans do not embody or evoke life more than any other creature. Empty lots are full of life, plant life and many other organisms. The communities and cities need more empty spaces. The almighty dollar and greed should not drive our communities.
A smart, scientific and common sense approach should be utilized to fashion a city into a peaceful, beautiful place where serenity is nurtured, mental health embraced, and symbiotically living entwined with a natural habitat that makes us imaginative and live a fulfilling existence instead of factory droids with the sole purpose of existing for the creation of wealth for quiet, thoughtless, selfish controllers. The rich owners of industry are overcome with greed and do not see the harm they do.
No city retains its character while pushing to meet the economic needs of the greedy. The councils and politicians are pushing for growth. Not healthy growth, but the exact opposite. Overpopulating and over-developing until the cash registers ring and the bottomless pit of free market capitalism is satiated, which is never until all is destroyed and our cities are empty. The devastating manifestation that will result will not resemble anything that existed 100 years ago.
Great news for old rich guys scared of change. Nova Scotia is chalk full of towns that there is almost zero chance of change. Call a realtor and a moving company. But for the present Larry, you live in a city, the capitol of Nova Scotia and the predominate city in the Maritimes and if you expect the rest of the taxpayers to continue to support your retirement and future medical needs this city and province desperately needs to grow and increase both population and economy.
bring on development, better then stagnating and dying like so many cities south.
Here’s a novel idea (sarcasm intended),
OH a parking lot we have to build on it now or we are dying as a municipality!!!…UM NO, why not build some more green spaces with specific use intended. Not every parking lot has to be turned into a towering monstrosity!
We already have been burned as taxpayers on the new world trade center (we paid 150 plus million to build that section) then we DO NOT even own it we have to lease it for the next 25 years not to mention how much has to be spent on the interior. As taxpayer we got ripped off big time, while the developer makes off like a bandit funding part of the other 350 million development with the money from leasing what we already paid to build!
Finally some one is expressing what i have been thinking.
… I am constantly in a state of shock and dismay about what this city is becoming. WHO are the people who give these developers the go – ahead?
Where is public consultation? Do we (the people) have any legal say in this ?
I can’t believe it when people whine like this. Having investment in the city is something to celebrate.
Try to go back 100 years when the current heritage buildings were being built by ‘oh so bad’ developers and you will find the same pack of whiny people back then.
It’s not a loss of identity or anything like that. Cities and the people in them change; currently Halifax is going through a change for the better.
This is a great piece of hyperbole but it’s also a bit of bellyaching. In hundreds of years, there’ll be someone like this author whining about *these* buildings going up now and talking about protecting Halifax’s “Heritage”. Were you happier with a giant rat pit in the heart of downtown? It’s not the architecture of a long lost time that defines a city but its public in the here and now. Right now Halifax’s downtown has no public — there is no place to put them and no reason or incentive to improve its infrastructure. People are living in the surrounding areas because that’s where the communities are being built and they’re staying there because our transit sucks. These giant residential glass buildings are like syringes injecting stimulants into a downtown area (provided you keep the costs affordable). You need only look at what happened to downtown Vancouver to see how increasing population density has an immeasurable positive effect on a city. There are areas there that went from being dead warehouse districts to enclaves of shops, cafes and restaurants. Change is not destruction. That quote on Barrington St. nails it. We need to make Halifax what we want it to be, not arrest its development in some vision of the past.