Proposed: 893 Sackville Drive

[Patrick Matthews]

Mixed residential and commercial ground floor space.
47 units, 5 floors, underground parking right next to Holy Trinity Parish (green roofed St John Vianney) on what has to be one of the busiest intersections around.

The former Bens bakery outlet building would be coming down.

https://www.halifax.ca/business/plan...ddle-sackville






If you can get by the horrible scale of rederings I dont hate it.

[Arrdeeharharharbour]

I don't like it much. It looks like a livestock building eating a 1970's office building. The roof is too visually heavy. A flat roof would improve it significantly.

[LikesBikes]

I think it's an alright looking building but the layout with the surface parking and giant setback from the sidewalk isn't going to do any favours for this area becoming more walkable.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by LikesBikes

I think it's an alright looking building but the layout with the surface parking and giant setback from the sidewalk isn't going to do any favours for this area becoming more walkable.

I don’t get your rationale as there is a walkway going directly from the main entrance to the sidewalk, with zero requirement to enter the parking lot, unless you parked there. How is that not walkable?

[Patrick Matthews]

Originally Posted by Arrdeeharharharbour

I don't like it much. It looks like a livestock building eating a 1970's office building. The roof is too visually heavy. A flat roof would improve it significantly.

I was thinking they were trying to match the lines of the church beside it, but it will dwarf it.

[LikesBikes]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

I don’t get your rationale as there is a walkway going directly from the main entrance to the sidewalk, with zero requirement to enter the parking lot, unless you parked there. How is that not walkable?

Just because there will be a sidewalk provided doesn't mean it'll necessarily be a pleasant place to walk. Surface parking seriously detracts from the public realm/sense-of-place by creating gaps between buildings. I am also not a fan of large setbacks if the space is unusable for people walking (e.g. a plaza). Usually in these types of suburban developments the setbacks end up being filled with grass which IMO is not visually attractive and is just a waste of space and potential. Having the building abutting the street makes for a more interesting walking experience as you have the ability to window shop more and feel an increased sense of safety due to 'eyes on the street'.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by LikesBikes

Just because there will be a sidewalk provided doesn't mean it'll necessarily be a pleasant place to walk. Surface parking seriously detracts from the public realm/sense-of-place by creating gaps between buildings. I am also not a fan of large setbacks if the space is unusable for people walking (e.g. a plaza). Usually in these types of suburban developments the setbacks end up being filled with grass which IMO is not visually attractive and is just a waste of space and potential. Having the building abutting the street makes for a more interesting walking experience as you have the ability to window shop more and feel an increased sense of safety due to 'eyes on the street'.

Ah, the junior planners dogma surfaces again. Take look at the area and the addresses adjacent to it on Streetview. The entire stretch is the same. That part of Sackville Drive is not a walking shopping experience.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by LikesBikes

Just because there will be a sidewalk provided doesn't mean it'll necessarily be a pleasant place to walk. Surface parking seriously detracts from the public realm/sense-of-place by creating gaps between buildings. I am also not a fan of large setbacks if the space is unusable for people walking (e.g. a plaza). Usually in these types of suburban developments the setbacks end up being filled with grass which IMO is not visually attractive and is just a waste of space and potential. Having the building abutting the street makes for a more interesting walking experience as you have the ability to window shop more and feel an increased sense of safety due to 'eyes on the street'.

I would agree with you if we were talking about SGR, but I don’t have the same expectations for a suburban development, surrounded by similar developments.

I’m pretty sure that the people who will live here will have no problem walking about in the area. I also noticed the building will have bicycle parking, a definite plus, and would suggest that the area is bikeable as well.

I do wish that future suburban areas will be designed with improved walkability in mind, such that they work like mini urban neighbourhoods, in that needed facilities are all nearby. I’m sure it’s being done elsewhere, but it always seems that Halifax lags behind, as we have with transit, which could knit these mini suburban/urban nodes together without the need to drive everywhere…

[IanWatson]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

I would agree with you if we were talking about SGR, but I don’t have the same expectations for a suburban development, surrounded by similar developments.

I dunno, you could have said the same thing about Joe Howe Drive 10 years ago. Saint Lawrence Place kinda changed the tone of the whole neighbourhood, but it also took a similar suburban approach to the interface with the street. Now that the area is solidly transitioning to an urban corridor Saint Lawrence Place stands out more and more as a design from another era (and not in a good way).

I suspect Sackville Drive will see a similar transition to a more urban approach to development over the next 10-15 years.

I wouldn't say it's a hill to die on for this particular project, but it does feel like a bit of a missed opportunity to be a little more forward-looking.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by IanWatson

I dunno, you could have said the same thing about Joe Howe Drive 10 years ago. Saint Lawrence Place kinda changed the tone of the whole neighbourhood, but it also took a similar suburban approach to the interface with the street. Now that the area is solidly transitioning to an urban corridor Saint Lawrence Place stands out more and more as a design from another era (and not in a good way).

I suspect Sackville Drive will see a similar transition to a more urban approach to development over the next 10-15 years.

I wouldn't say it's a hill to die on for this particular project, but it does feel like a bit of a missed opportunity to be a little more forward-looking.

I’m still not seeing Sackville Drive (or Joe Howe for that matter) as being considered a walkable urban location where people like to mill about and window shop in the next half century. It would take Halifax committing to an ambitious transit plan starting today to reach that target, and I’m not seeing any evidence of this yet.