City hall is getting a makeover. Halifax council Tuesday approved a plan to begin the restoration of the historic structure, which was erected over a two-year period in 1887-89. The temporary scaffolding that was placed on the Argyle Street side of the building to protect pedestrians from falling stone will come down next week, with new construction scaffolding going up the same day.
Council approved the first stage of a three-part restoration. The first stage deals with the west front of the building, and will consist of scraping the sandstone blocks of an improperly applied sealant that was applied in the 1970s, repointing the granite foundation, fixing cracks, restoring decorative features, refitting right-sized downspouts and a bit of roof repair. Coastal Restoration & Masonry, a local firm, has been awarded the $1,031,992 contract for the work, the financing coming from the economic stimulus funds awarded earlier this year.
“We’re lucky to have Coastal,” explains project manager Scott Smith. “They are the foremost firm in stone restoration work in Canada, and probably in North America.”
Smith, an architect, was himself hired by HRM primarily to oversee the City Hall work, although he has other assignments as well. “I applied for this job and moved here specifically for two buildings—city hall and AGNS,” he says. Restoration of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia building is being overseen by the province.
“I’m excited by this project,” says Smith. “It’s a quality project, and we’re doing it right. It’s something we should be proud of.”
Stage One should be completed by fall. The lessons learned will be applied to Stage Two, which consists of south side, facing Grand Parade. “It’s in bad shape,” says Smith. “We’re told that city hall wasn’t damaged by the Explosion, but as we get into this we’re finding that may not be the case, especially with the tower.”
Neither Stage Two nor Stage Three, which deals with the rest of the building, have been approved or funded.
This article appears in Mar 25-31, 2010.
I love the idea of restoring our historic buildings and protecting our heritage as much as possible….but is it economically responsible? Is it costing us more to fix up these places then it would to build better quality new buildings? I know it’s not all about money, and I love the old architecture in our city of Halifax, but is restoring the best option? That’s what I want to know?
FPD, the cost of restoration is a little over a million dollars. Do you think that city hall could be replaced for this same sum? I would like to see restoration of more of our heritage properties, preferably done in a timely manner (ie: before they are in the process of collapsing). These buildings give Halifax its identity and help our economy by drawing tourists. Honestly, who comes to town to see Purdy’s Wharf , Scotia Place or the HSBC tower?
Speaking from relevant budgeting experience in the historical stone restoration field as well as governement accomodations, a $1M/facade restoration of city hall is a bargain. The 1700’s-1930’s stone buildings in our city should be preserved and restored as these are the buildings that truely deserve the heritage status, and should not be lost. These stone buildings, properly maintained, will last forever.
Slap some beige vinyl siding on the thing and save us a million bucks.
Add one more new office tower and the tax revenue would pay for those restoration costs within a year. We are hurting our own financial position by restricting development.
Gee, 2010-1917=93 years. We’re just now realizing the tower might have been damaged by the explosion! And we’re still not exactly sure?!
Scott – good luck with that budget fella! It is just the beginning of a long, long road of repair bills. Worth every bit of $4 mil by the time it’s done; nobody’s building them like that anymore.
The restoration of Nova Scotia heritage buildings was to be under taken by the apprentices of Canstone.The apprentiship was sponcered by the federal government of Canada/& the provincial government of Nova Scotia.
Help setting up companies was suppost to have been there,but was not,& is not!
Relocation money to areas in need of heritage restoration was denied,siting no shortage of bricklayers,yet the 28th trade distinction was applied to restoration stone masons?distinct and seperate from bricklayers!I applied for the restoration of city hall-never heard back?
This was one of the buildings we were told would one day need restoring & if we took the 4 year apprenticeship, work would be there for us.Ready & willing to work!approx. 4 yrs. more as a stone mason. Then spent12 years working 2 full time jobs(15 3/4-24 hours per day)vc_stonemason@hotmail.com
vc_stonemson@hotmail.com elements of architecture,restoration or new,cut/carve:limestone,sandstone,granite,concrete.
I took the 4year apprenticeship restoring PROVINCE HOUSE &THE ART GALLERY OF NOVA SCOTIA
willing to train others!!!&/or I want to work on this project,as originally promised!
I remember stone being removed from Marys point,New Brunswick for future restoration projects!
Other companies that i would sugest letting know of the restoration,would be:
(1)Old World Stone,(ont.)(2)Betz Cut Stone(ont.)(3)Vlad Volosenko(4)Old World Masonry Ltd.(N.B.)(5)Izart Cut Stone (ont.)(6)Clifford Restoration(7)Defilippes Cut Stone(8)Empire restoration(9)Owen Sound Cut Stone(10)The Fire Place Shoppe,on the hwy.401 in Toronto (11)vc_stonemason@hotmail.com and i can tell you more,all of which are qualified.
$i,031,992. for the restoration of just the west side sounds very high!Was not the stone already extracted from the piping plovers nesting sanctuary at Marys Point in New Brunswick.
vc_stonemason@hotmail.com
The original price of the stone in English pounds was 50126 i believe.
Today,the exchange rate works out to around $81,057.932626399
The cost of the west side restoration of Halifax City Hall is $1,031992.
I was on the Federal Government of Canada/Provincial Government of Nova Scotia
apprenticeship restoring the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia & Province House.
It was their intention to train craftsmen to restore Heritage buildings(Halifax City Hall was used as an example)
If cut dimensional stone was provided ,i would replicate every stone in the building for the price of just the west side-which is not even the facade in need of the most repairs.