General Updates and News

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Colin May

I agree.
The Wyse road facade is an abomination, a blank wall of grey. The building turns its back on the busiest road at the entrance to the city. At the north end the old wooden fence and storage of marine containers looks like a junkyard. The containers have been there for too many years.
And then there is the vanity sign on Thistle telling everyone they are at the 'Zatzman Sportsplex'; courtesy of a donation of $150,000 a year for the next 5 years and ignoring the millions taxpayers spent.

The Sportsplex has always been a paragon of ugly '70s low-bid govt architecture and I had hopes that the renovations would address that. While it did get rid of the peeling finish on the metal roof and the sheets of chipboard that were patching holes in the walls for the last several years, the overall result is actually worse, with lots of corrugated metal siding and a patchwork of additions to the structure. I have yet to visit inside but suspect it is still the same low-ceilinged, largely windowless mess it has always been. I understand that parking for visitors now is at a premium as well because much of it has been taken away or given over to other uses.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

Seems to me it's always the easy way to suggest cutting out things we personally don't like, want, or need, regardless of how others in society might benefit. I suspect the tune would change for some posters if the suggestion was to cut road maintenance in lieu of increased healthcare...

Surely you must realize that has been done since the Savage years in the early '90s. Why do you think NS highways are the atrocious mess they have been for decades?

IMHO 40% is already too much of the budget towards healthcare - it's time to reconfigure and reboot the system so that money can be spent more efficiently while improving healthcare service.

That will not happen unless there is something tantamount to a revolution. Between the provisions of the federal Canada Health Act preventing much in the way of structural change and the entrenched special interests of the health care public sector unions and doctor's associations, we are stuck with this.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Surely you must realize that has been done since the Savage years in the early '90s. Why do you think NS highways are the atrocious mess they have been for decades?

In general it seems the overall condition of the "100 series" highways are not quite as good as they were 20 years ago, the secondary roads are about the same or better than they were. I recall having to cross over into the oncoming lane (with no traffic coming, of course) on some secondary roads back then, because the road surface was in such bad condition in the lane I was in.

That said, I think 'atrocious mess' is a bit of a stretch. Having driven between NS and Ottawa last summer I'm not inclined to believe that NS roads are any worse than they are in NB, QC, or ON.

Even driving from Calgary to Vancouver a few years ago did not give the impression that our highways are suffering in comparison.

To keep it in context, we did just have a particularly hard winter on roads, with more ice buildup than I've seen in awhile, and there are a lot of damage areas that are still untouched. I expect most of that to be repaired within the next month or so, as the crews are able to get at it.

That will not happen unless there is something tantamount to a revolution. Between the provisions of the federal Canada Health Act preventing much in the way of structural change and the entrenched special interests of the health care public sector unions and doctor's associations, we are stuck with this.

I can't see a direct correlation, do you have examples you can share?

[Dartguard]

[QUOTE=OldDartmouthMark;8563753]In general it seems the overall condition of the "100 series" highways are not quite as good as they were 20 years ago, the secondary roads are about the same or better than they were. I recall having to cross over into the oncoming lane (with no traffic coming, of course) on some secondary roads back then, because the road surface was in such bad condition in the lane I was in.

That said, I think 'atrocious mess' is a bit of a stretch. Having driven between NS and Ottawa last summer I'm not inclined to believe that NS roads are any worse than they are in NB, QC, or ON.

Even driving from Calgary to Vancouver a few years ago did not give the impression that our highways are suffering in comparison.

To keep it in context, we did just have a particularly hard winter on roads, with more ice buildup than I've seen in awhile, and there are a lot of damage areas that are still untouched. I expect most of that to be repaired within the next month or so, as the crews are able to get at it.

Well guys, as someone who travels 45,000 km's per year for my job I have to say the roads of N.S. are NOT that bad. New Brunswick is A dream compared to before the T.C. was finished and the wide shoulders of P.E.I. actually allow you to pass gigantic Farm gear.


A really fun drive now, believe it or not, is the St Peter's road from the reservation into Sydney. Barely any police and amazing pavement that has survived the last number of Winters. My MAZDA 6 loves that road. Speed limits are just a suggestion. Just sayin.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Dartguard

Well guys, as someone who travels 45,000 km's per year for my job I have to say the roads of N.S. are NOT that bad. New Brunswick is A dream compared to before the T.C. was finished and the wide shoulders of P.E.I. actually allow you to pass gigantic Farm gear.


A really fun drive now, believe it or not, is the St Peter's road from the reservation into Sydney. Barely any police and amazing pavement that has survived the last number of Winters. My MAZDA 6 loves that road. Speed limits are just a suggestion. Just sayin.

Thanks for confirming my comments. I can't comment on Cape Breton as I haven't been there in a number of years.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Dartguard

Well guys, as someone who travels 45,000 km's per year for my job I have to say the roads of N.S. are NOT that bad.

That report is contrary to every one I have seen and heard. The 118 is like a bombing range in both directions and the 102 to the airport is disgraceful.

[IanWatson]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

I have yet to visit inside but suspect it is still the same low-ceilinged, largely windowless mess it has always been.

The inside is quite nice. The architects did a really good job brightening the place up and opening up the spaces. The only thing is that I found it really disorienting, because you can still feel the vestiges of the old layout, but of course many things have changed a little bit. I'm sure by the next two or three times through I'll have adjusted.

[teddifax]

Walked downtown a bit on Monday and walked down Queen and saw a post in the window next to The Port (NSLC) that a boutique hotel and spa - Worthington Place is "coming soon".

[IanWatson]

Originally Posted by teddifax

Walked downtown a bit on Monday and walked down Queen and saw a post in the window next to The Port (NSLC) that a boutique hotel and spa - Worthington Place is "coming soon".

Yeah, that's been up for a little while. My understanding is that it's basically an AirBnB with a front desk. In other words, they're renting apartment units from the building and leasing them out as hotel suites, rather than building a hotel within the building.

[Jonovision]

Things are coming together for the remodel of the Stubborn Goat Beer Garden

20190512_202257 by Jonovision23, on Flickr

[ILoveHalifax]

Originally Posted by Jonovision

Things are coming together for the remodel of the Stubborn Goat Beer Garden

20190512_202257 by Jonovision23, on Flickr

Goat cages?

[pblaauw]

Originally Posted by ILoveHalifax

Goat cages?

Petting zoo.

[IanWatson]

Dunno if this one has been posted yet:

www.planoxfordhfx.ca

Second public workshop is tonight

[IanWatson]

So something I noticed the other day is that the Salter Block is VERY large. Like, way larger than I can imagine any $130 million art gallery being. So I wonder what that means:

a) Lots of surface parking?
b) Splitting the lot and leaving the rest for other uses?
c) Tons of public open space?
d) Co-locating with another facility (maybe NSCAD is still in the works)?

[someone123]

I've been wondering about that too. Hopefully the land will be used economically, and they won't just approach this from the perspective that they are using that lot and that it's free because it's publicly owned so buildings should be scattered haphazardly in a campus style in the middle of a bunch of public space with no specific purpose (see: Commons, Gorsebrook, etc.).

The idea of building a new NSCAD campus seems odd. What would happen with the old buildings? Why can't they be renovated? How come they want to move so soon after having taken on new buildings? Is this a case where maintenance comes from the NSCAD budget but the capital cost of new buildings is paid by the province, so there is always an incentive to build new?

One good approach might be to subdivide the Salter lot by continuing the boardwalk south directly over to Bishop's Landing and maybe extending Salter Street. The art gallery would go on the waterfront side. The other portion could be used for mixed use development, maybe with shared underground parking accessed from Salter.

[Dartguard]

So here is a bit of a thought exercise. What if the Ralston building gets bought out and demolished but the new owners add 600 parking spaces to their new mixed use proposal. The new Art Gallery gets significant support from a certain grocery Family that happens to own the largest collection of the group of seven in the World at the same time that the Liebowitz situation gets worked out. Does that open up an opprtunity to add a large performing arts space of between 1050- 2500 seats to share parts of or the other side of the Salter block? Hmmm.

[terrynorthend]

Originally Posted by Dartguard

So here is a bit of a thought exercise. What if the Ralston building gets bought out and demolished but the new owners add 600 parking spaces to their new mixed use proposal. The new Art Gallery gets significant support from a certain grocery Family that happens to own the largest collection of the group of seven in the World at the same time that the Liebowitz situation gets worked out. Does that open up an opprtunity to add a large performing arts space of between 1050- 2500 seats to share parts of or the other side of the Salter block? Hmmm.

If only. This really needs to be like Confederation Centre in Charlottetown.

[teddifax]

To be in tomorrow's paper..... TexPark site , new proposal
It’s Navid Saberi’s third attempt at building on the site of the former Tex-Park parking garage in downtown Halifax but this time he’s fairly confident it will meet with the city’s approval.

“We’ve been talking to the city for about a year now,” Saberi told me in an interview.

Saberi is the CEO of United Gulf Developments Ltd., which has owned the coveted piece of downtown real estate for much of the current century.

In 2005, United Gulf initially planned to build what would became known as the Twisted Sisters project on that lot bounded by Granville, Hollis and Sackville streets. The 27-storey twisted towers were eventually approved by council, and later by the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board after heritage groups appealed the development, but United Gulf allowed the permit to expire in 2010.

In 2012 the company came back with what was described at the time as a “much grander proposal” called Skye Halifax. The original design for Skye Halifax was twin 44-storey towers curved to look like a pair of billowing sails catching the wind.

That design would have been 106 metres higher than allowed by HRM by Design, which prompted the city’s design and review committee to twice reject the proposal.

Now Saberi is again proposing to build two structures on the property, but this time both are 22-storeys high and costing about $180 million to construct. The in-and-out nature of the design, Saberi says, helps to reduce the wind effect around the buildings.

“First I’m putting in four levels

of parking on the site, which is significant because the site is over 40,000 square feet so that is going to give us quite a few ... parking spaces,” says Saberi, later calculating that it works out to be about 480 spaces underground.

The buildings are two rectangles, one situated north to south on the site and the other east to west. Saberi says he’s not sure whether they’ll both be condos or one will be condos and the other apartments.

Based on the hot apartment market currently in Halifax, he jokes, he might decide to make it all apartments.

At the ground level, he says, it will be designated for retail and restaurants. From Granville down to Hollis, Saberi says he left an opening to allow the public to walk through the property.

“The city wanted a continuous podium but leaving this opening, I felt leaving this open will be a neat way of doing it,” he says.

Part of the United Gulf plan calls for a 105-unit boutique hotel on the second, third and fourth floors, stretching across the site and linking both buildings with the entrance on Hollis Street.

Above the hotel will be residential and the two entrances for the residential space will be on Granville Street. The units are flexible, which will allow the residents to configure the space to fit their needs — one, two or three-bedrooms or more.

Saberi says the plan calls for a pool and a running track on the roof of the building.

If he gets all the approvals required to go ahead with construction, he says United Gulf will finish the Boss project on Dutch Village Road on the former site of Halifax West High School, and then proceed to begin construction of Skye Halifax by the end of 2020.

[someone123]

Here is a link to the article: https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/bu...-limit-311594/

It has a rendering of the path between the buildings that is to connect Hollis and Granville. Looking forward to seeing more.

[Dmajackson]

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