I hadn't really heard of this much before I started to read this forum, but since then I have become dismayed to see this happening quite a bit in various places.
Some examples of buildings in Halifax that come to mind are:
- The Dennis Building, a classic case of the provincial government failing to maintain a historical landmark (IMHO) in Halifax, and then threatening to tear it down because it will be "too expensive to repair it" (this is a common theme).
- The Green Lantern building, which apparently had little to no maintenance and no repairs after Hurricane Juan did some damage to it. The owner was talking about tearing it down until it changed hands and now will have a new lease on life:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=218265
- The Roy Building, now gone with the hope of perhaps a façade recreation on the new building.
- Historic Saint Patrick's Church, which the Catholic church (one of the wealthiest institutions in the world) has apparently not wanted to spend the money on maintenance and repair.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...wick-1.3487848
- The Khyber building, which the city had deferred maintenance on for years, now needing a number of repairs (basically a complete renovation). For a while it looked like it would probably be sold and possibly demolished, but for now its fate appears to have turned a corner.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...ncil-1.3505723
It's not just Halifax, either, as St. Stephen NB has voted to tear down its historic Town Hall.
Quote:
The building was designed by Thomas Fuller, the architect behind Parliament in Ottawa and the Halifax Armoury, and has stood since 1885. It served as the town's post office and town hall.
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http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-br...lish-1.3419848
I don't want to sound like some heretic; I do realize that it is expensive to maintain and repair these historic buildings, but I am dismayed that so many of them are being allowed to fall into disrepair and then be torn down. I realize that sometimes it is a matter that the money just isn't there, but I also realize that sometimes it is a strategy that owners and developers use circumvent weak heritage rules to allow the building to be torn down for various reasons.
Regardless of the reasons, a lot of our built heritage has disappeared and will continue to do so because of this practice.
The purpose of this post is just to have a discussion on the practice and perhaps how to prevent it from happening.
There are some good projects out there that allow development while retaining the character of the original building. The Green Lantern project mentioned above and The Dillon
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=207604 are two that come to mind. They leave me to wonder why this isn't done more often.
Any thoughts?