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Originally Posted by ILoveHalifax
I was not around in the 20's but saw some of old Halifax in the 50's and what I remember was slums. Most of what was torn down were slums. I cannot imagine offices in any of them today no matter how much one tried. Certainly no class A. Not likely would we have offices in he city today if that was what was offered for office space. They'd have opened in some other city. BTW Historic Properties is mostly empty, so how is that working.
I remember my father's office on Lower Water Street. It is still there, now it is a bar/restaurant It still is not beautiful. I do remember the old Irving office at the foot of Sackville and cannot imagine that place as offices today.
My uncle had a printing office where Cogswell is now and it sure was creepy when I was there once. It got worse as you went north from there, slums, slums, rats and slums. Halifax had a lot of slums at that time.
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A lot of people saying "I saw the area decades ago and it was terrible" don't seem to get just how thoroughly re-investment can clean up run-down properties and make an area habitable again. Slum clearance is last century's planning dogma.
Admittedly though, it's true that a lot of the structures in that photo are flimsy and not huge losses. What's sad isn't necessarily the buildings, but the fine-grained urbanity--demolishing 10 storefront buildings, with apartments, shops, etc., with the big blank wall of an office tower, rather than incorporate the tower with the street level.
And there was some gold that could've been panned out in there. Specifically that Granville-esque row just south of the Dominion building, and enormous Clayton factory complex, up near the Cogswell interchange, and much of Grafton Street, which used to resemble Barrington in portions.
Re: Class A office space. Cities need Class B and C office space as well--that's where small business, start-ups, entrepreneurs, etc. can afford to set up, and build their businesses. It's a classic Jane Jacobs-ism: New ideas need old buildings. Just because a building cannot provide Class A space doesn't mean it's less valuable for the city's economy. Even Manhattan has lower-rent office space in the old walkups in the Lower East Side, etc. The mixture is important.