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  #1  
Old Posted Nov 21, 2009, 5:46 AM
fenwick16 fenwick16 is offline
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Rate Halifax Buildings

I am interested in knowing how others on this forum would rate these Halifax buildings. This isn’t a comprehensive list and maybe there are ones that others would like to add. I am not an expert in architectural; this is purely personal taste. There are some buildings in Halifax that I hear negative statements about in the media which I actually like (example the Maritime Centre). I am simply interested in knowing if my taste in Halifax architecture is that much different than others.

I have listed a number of buildings with a rating of 10 (highest rating) to 1 (most disliked):

Building Rating (10 - Best, 1 - worst) Comment (if any)

Fenwick Tower 5 Tallest in Halifax but too much concrete
New Fenwick Proposal 8 Hoping it will be a 10
Purdy’s Wharf Tower II 10 I like this entire complex
1801 Hollis Street 10 My favorite Halifax building
Barrington Tower 6 Not too bad
Cogswell Tower 2 Uninteresting
Maritime Centre 8 Would be a 10 except for the colour mismatch
TD Tower 3 Proportions seem to be off
CIBC 1 Dislike it completely (too much red brick)
Bank of Montreal Tower 7 Interesting
St Mary”s Basilica 10 Historic and impressive
City Hall 10 Historic and interesting
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  #2  
Old Posted Nov 21, 2009, 4:03 PM
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Fenwick Tower 3 A place in our architectural history
New Fenwick Proposal 8 A look to the future
Purdy’s Wharf Tower II 7 A good bit of local architecture using local ideas and inspirations
1801 Hollis Street 8 Classic
Barrington Tower 1 Crap
Cogswell Tower 2 Slightly less than crap
Maritime Centre 7 Big, monolithic, but I love it.
TD Tower 6 Could have been better had it been built to its original specs
CIBC 5 Kinda boring, but not too bad
Bank of Montreal Tower 6 Good vertical elements
St Mary”s Basilica 9 Not Notre Dame, but a great cathedral
City Hall 10 A Classic city hall and a great building. Good proportions and great materials
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  #3  
Old Posted Nov 21, 2009, 6:16 PM
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Building Rating (10 - Best, 1 - worst) Comment (if any)

Fenwick Tower 5 Love the height, hate the concrete
New Fenwick Proposal 8 Great look, unsure of roof top
Purdy’s Wharf Tower II 10 I used work there, love it!
1801 Hollis Street 10 Awsome views from the top.
Barrington Tower 1 Outdated when it was built.
Cogswell Tower 5 Better than Barrington Tower
Maritime Centre 7 Dark exterior, Awsome elevators for views
TD Tower 7 I love glass, Whats with the different shades
CIBC 6 Nice building, serves that part of town nicely
Bank of Montreal Tower 4 4 because of the bank itself
St Mary”s Basilica 10 Tourist Hotspot
City Hall 9 Can the brick be cleaned?

What were the original specs of the TD Tower?
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  #4  
Old Posted Nov 22, 2009, 3:54 AM
fenwick16 fenwick16 is offline
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Looking at pictures of the TD bank, it almost looks like they only built half the intended width. This is based on the east wall being blank with no windows. If this is the case has there been any talk of completing the building? It would certainly look better if it was wider and had windows all around.
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  #5  
Old Posted Nov 23, 2009, 1:37 PM
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Originally Posted by fenwick16 View Post
Looking at pictures of the TD bank, it almost looks like they only built half the intended width. This is based on the east wall being blank with no windows. If this is the case has there been any talk of completing the building? It would certainly look better if it was wider and had windows all around.
Exactly. I have never seen drawings or renderings of what the original tower would have looked like. But I believe it was the city that pulled the plug somehow on the other part of the tower at the very last minute. Thus leaving us with a huge blank wall facing the harbour.
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  #6  
Old Posted Nov 23, 2009, 4:39 PM
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Originally Posted by Jonovision View Post
Exactly. I have never seen drawings or renderings of what the original tower would have looked like. But I believe it was the city that pulled the plug somehow on the other part of the tower at the very last minute. Thus leaving us with a huge blank wall facing the harbour.
Not sure if it was the city or not, but there were two registered Heritage buildings in the area where the extended porition would be (only one remains now). I am sure that had something to do with it, and possibly will going forward as HRM by Design's heritage controls are different.
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  #7  
Old Posted Nov 23, 2009, 8:49 PM
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Originally Posted by sdm View Post
Not sure if it was the city or not, but there were two registered Heritage buildings in the area where the extended porition would be (only one remains now). I am sure that had something to do with it, and possibly will going forward as HRM by Design's heritage controls are different.
I actually watched the Council session back in 2004 when they debated whether or not to approve the demolition of the one that's gone (an undergrad poli-sci assignment was to attend council). It was the Kelly Building and had been vacant since 1982. A development agreement was done in 1983 to allow a 8 storey building on site that would have saved the facade, but it expired in 1987. Standard Life applied to have it torn down in 1994, but after lobbying by the Heritage Trust, the city refused. A demolition permit was eventually secured, but it wasn't acted upon and it expired. TDB Halifax Holdings bought the property in 2002 and sought a demolition permit. It all came to council in March 2004 and again in 2005. It was a very contentious with virtual deadlock on both sides, but demolition was eventually granted. From the looks of the old staff reports, it sounds like the back of the TD Building was left blank for a Phase III, but given the limited protection for heritage buildings, I doubt the city is the reason the back was never built. More likely market conditions did that since they could have built in the 80s and they could have demolished in the late 90s, but let the demolition permit lapse. If you've forgotten what the Kelly Building looked like, check out the photos in the old staff report.

http://www.halifax.ca/council/agenda...0323ca1032.pdf
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  #8  
Old Posted Nov 23, 2009, 11:24 PM
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The Kelly Building is, I think, one of the most classic examples showing how dysfunctional heritage policy in Halifax has been. It was an interesting building that would have been worth preserving but no real effort was put into saving it other than repeatedly fighting against the people who might actually have repaired and maintained it. In the end, everybody ended up losing; the building is gone and that site was left derelict for decades.
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  #9  
Old Posted Nov 24, 2009, 12:59 AM
fenwick16 fenwick16 is offline
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The Kelly Building is, I think, one of the most classic examples showing how dysfunctional heritage policy in Halifax has been. It was an interesting building that would have been worth preserving but no real effort was put into saving it other than repeatedly fighting against the people who might actually have repaired and maintained it. In the end, everybody ended up losing; the building is gone and that site was left derelict for decades.
This would have been a chance to preserve it by keeping it entirely in a refurbished condition and build over it. Similar to a tall skyscraper in New York city (I believe Citibank) which built over a church. It would have been an interesting piece of architecture, in my opinion.
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  #10  
Old Posted Nov 24, 2009, 8:16 PM
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I remember going in the Kelly building in the late 70's-early 80's, and then wathching it decline through neglect. Terrible shame to see. and the argument that is oftem made is that a building is in bad shape, when often it just needs some TLC. Greenvale is a good example of keeping the bones and maintaing the features that can be salvaged. JET

Last edited by JET; Nov 25, 2009 at 12:55 PM.
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  #11  
Old Posted Nov 24, 2009, 10:32 PM
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and the argument that is oftem made is that a building is in bad shape, when often it just needs some.
Well the other fact here is that it takes decades for these buildings to fall apart (probably a lot longer than it would take for the same thing to happen to some of the cheaper newer buildings). The owners let them go because it is more profitable to demolish and build a new office tower than it is to maintain the old buildings. In response to this the HT tries to make it hard to build highrise buildings, but that does not solve the underlying problem and just depresses downtown land values and encourages suburban development.

Another big problem in the HRM is that politically it has been okay for the past 30-40 years to subsidize suburban office parks but not okay to spend money on the downtown area, even though downtown businesses pay the highest tax rates in the region. Billions of public dollars have gone into encouraging people to move to the suburbs in the Halifax region, but council can't bring itself to spend $3M or whatever it is on Barrington Street.
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  #12  
Old Posted Nov 25, 2009, 1:08 AM
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Another big problem in the HRM is that politically it has been okay for the past 30-40 years to subsidize suburban office parks but not okay to spend money on the downtown area, even though downtown businesses pay the highest tax rates in the region. Billions of public dollars have gone into encouraging people to move to the suburbs in the Halifax region, but council can't bring itself to spend $3M or whatever it is on Barrington Street.
Naturally throughout north america the trend has been to relocate to the suburbs as an option to offset the higher costs of being in a downtown location. Halifax did nothing different here.

However one comment you have is actually not totally correct.

On a per square foot basis the taxes on some of the suburb buildings are actually more then some downtown buildings.
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  #13  
Old Posted Nov 25, 2009, 1:53 AM
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However one comment you have is actually not totally correct.

On a per square foot basis the taxes on some of the suburb buildings are actually more then some downtown buildings.
Taxes are paid based on assessments, not square footage.
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  #14  
Old Posted Nov 25, 2009, 2:59 AM
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Taxes are paid based on assessments, not square footage.
correct, but for commercial these are pass through charges to the tenants, who pay on the square footage.
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  #15  
Old Posted Dec 11, 2009, 10:31 PM
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Fenwick Tower 6 its pretty ugly but it is the tallest
New Fenwick Proposal 9 i love the look of it should have add just 2 meters lol
Purdy’s Wharf Tower 10 how can you see a picture of halifax without this?
1801 Hollis Street 10 i love this building it looks taller than it is when near it
Barrington Tower 5 to bulky and concrete-ish
Cogswell Tower 7 i dont know why but i like this one
Maritime Centre 7 its very large but it looks nice from dartmouth
TD Tower 8 i like it should be taller, always looks nice in the grand parade
CIBC 7 its not bad, i just like the colour it adds to the skyline
Bank of Montreal Tower 7 Interesting, goes good with 1801 hollis next to it
St Mary”s Basilica 9 great looking tall church
City Hall 10 love the look of it
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  #16  
Old Posted Dec 12, 2009, 3:01 PM
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I don't think any building in Halifax rates a 10. I'm hard pressed to think of any really great buildings in Halifax. Sure... City Hall and the Basilica... but that's a different class of building. Modern buildings? They don't exist here. Nothing had been built in what... 20 years?

Actually... I did just think of one really great building here... although it's in Dartmouth. The NSCC Waterfront Campus. Also, the Dalhousie Computer Science building is wonderful... from the inside at least. That's about it.

If I HAD to pick a favourite "tall" building... well... I love the dark brick on the CIBC. Reminds me of Alvar Aalto's work in a way... which I love. Very 1970's. Warm. Human. And Purdy's looks really stumpy to me... bad proportions... the shorter tower is almost a cube... but it's the only "tall" building with a decent lobby... 2 stories... and lots of glass. So it's got that going for it. 1801 has a nice lobby too as I recall? But really... all of the "tall" buildings in Halifax are pretty unremarkable.
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  #17  
Old Posted Dec 12, 2009, 3:42 PM
fenwick16 fenwick16 is offline
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I don't think that ultra-modern building are necessarily better than the older ones. How about the Empire State building and Chrysler buildings in New York city? These were built 80 years ago and many consider them to be classics.

There are many large cities that have buildings that are larger but less appealing than lower buildings in Halifax. Just my personal opinion. However, Halifax does have some buildings that it could do without.
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  #18  
Old Posted Jan 30, 2010, 4:38 PM
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Fenwick- 6, tallest building in Halifax
new Fenwick- 9, good materials and size
Purdy's Wharf- 9, most recognizeable building in the skyline, good complex
1801 Hollis- 10, Awesome shape, nice lobby
Barrington Tower- 4, nothing special
Cogswell Tower- 1, boring and dated
Maritime Centre- 8, love the design, hate the two tone concrete
TD Building- 8, like the mirrored glass, looks great from Grand Parade
CIBC Building- 7, suits the location, brick is okay.
BMO Building- 9, for some reason I love this building
St. Mary's Basilica- 10, lovely cathedral, huge granite spire
City Hall- 10, a Halifax classic
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  #19  
Old Posted Sep 24, 2011, 8:06 PM
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Building Rating (10 - Best, 1 - worst) Comment (if any)

Fenwick Tower 8 Love the height, love the symmetry and don't mind the concrete....guess I'm the only one who likes it....
New Fenwick Proposal 9 Good modern appearance but may not look as high when complete
Purdy’s Wharf Tower II 10 Blends perfectly on the waterfront and great materials.........
1801 Hollis Street 10 Excellent looking financial tower, has a plaza
Barrington Tower 4 very bland but a classic 60's look
Cogswell Tower 4 Seriously needs a makover and more floors stepped in if it can support it.
Maritime Centre 8 Like the design and height. Should have an electronic billboard on the Barrington side looking south. Should also have an observation deck or restaurant at the top.
TD Tower 7 I like the narrow appearance and the glass. HRMxD is making a mistake by discouraging glass.
CIBC 6 Too fat.........has a bulky should have been higher look
Bank of Montreal Tower 9 classic bank tower with great plaza
St Mary”s Basilica 10 Quality design and materials
City Hall 9 Quality design and materials
I would add Dominion Public Building 10 My favourite. Great, design, materials, entrance etc. classic art deco appearance
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Last edited by Empire; Sep 25, 2011 at 2:37 PM.
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  #20  
Old Posted Sep 25, 2011, 2:25 PM
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TD Tower 7 I like the narrow appearance and the glass. HRMxD is making a mistake by discouraging glass.
As I understand it, HRMxD discourages mirrored glass, but clear or light glass is ok...
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