[St. John's] The Official Project Thread

[Ayreonaut]

Do you have a remote as well? I don't, so I just set a 2-second timer so I don't nudge the camera as I pull my hand away. Even the slightest shake will be caught.

[SignalHillHiker]

I discovered this last night thinking, of course, I was the first genius to come up with it. Yep, using the timer too. Mine is on 10 seconds, though. Can't figure out how to turn it to two. lol

[statbass]

I read on twitter that a proposal was brought up at city council tonight to build a 5 storey condo on Lemarchant Rd. It's at the former Tulk's Glass and Key shop. I'm not 100% sure where this is but I believe it's somewhere between the fire station on Harvey and St. Clare's hospital.

[MrChills]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

I agree as well... to an extent. I still want to preserve lots of heritage buildings, as many as we possibly can. I especially want to preserve the fascades of water street. If they want to do MIX Condos-style updates, but keep the fascades... fine. Gotta compromise. But tearing down a block of heritage buildings for another Atlantic Place or parking garage is not acceptable.

I also want to preserve the rowhouses. Pretty much everything from the crest of the first hill to downtown... I'd like to maintain as much of it as we can. And if it's run-down and ratty, then that means we can't and we have to be slightly more open to letting it go... but still, not allowing developers to just put whatever they want there.

We've gotta be smart about it because we can always tear down buildings and build new ones, but we can't replace the heritage once we lose it.

I agree with what you're saying there, more of the area I am thinking about is what people would consider centre city (although really the way the city is growing it should be sort of re-classified as downtown). But a lot of the houses and some buildings between Freshwater and Merrymeeting are run down rental dives located in a prime real-estate location that could be bought up and replaced with classic townhomes or condos similair to the Star of the Sea proposal.

I also always envisioned something great for the little commercial strip at the intersection of Longs Hill and Harvey Road, sort of a Midtown for St. John's, I lived in that area for years and would always try to picture what it was like in it's glory years as you can tell at one time it was a busy little area for business.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by MrChills

I agree with what you're saying there, more of the area I am thinking about is what people would consider centre city (although really the way the city is growing it should be sort of re-classified as downtown). But a lot of the houses and some buildings between Freshwater and Merrymeeting are run down rental dives located in a prime real-estate location that could be bought up and replaced with classic townhomes or condos similair to the Star of the Sea proposal.

I agree with most of what was said above and by SigHillHiker, a lot of the houses up the hill are not the classic type with architectural or heritage value, I think they will go gradually and be replaced by new rowhouses or condos. Some are worth preserving, streets like Parade Street which has some houses that stand out should be mostly preserved, and probably anything anywhere that actually has a heritage "style". Then there was something in the council agenda about the owners wanting to tear down the commercial building at 100 Water Street, well that one is a no brainer, a classic heritage building and should not be just torn down.
100 Water Street: http://goo.gl/maps/f34pb

Originally Posted by statbass

I read on twitter that a proposal was brought up at city council tonight to build a 5 storey condo on Lemarchant Rd. It's at the former Tulk's Glass and Key shop. I'm not 100% sure where this is but I believe it's somewhere between the fire station on Harvey and St. Clare's hospital.

That's between Cookstown Road and Lime Street, click link:
http://goo.gl/maps/GUIGX

I'm happy to see development around Lemarchant Road, that is a perfect area for more development, but it also has some heritage worth preserving.

[SignalHillHiker]

I agree with you all - and I'd add... I really don't mind if we only limit heritage preservation to attractive buildings.

There's a street across from Ches' on Freshwater, for example, that just irritates me everytime I look at it. The houses look like glorified cardboard boxes for the homeless.

And the top of the hill, and just over the crest, is a GREAT place for higher developments.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

I agree with you all - and I'd add... I really don't mind if we only limit heritage preservation to attractive buildings.

There's a street across from Ches' on Freshwater, for example, that just irritates me everytime I look at it. The houses look like glorified cardboard boxes for the homeless.
And the top of the hill, and just over the crest, is a GREAT place for higher developments.

^And they probably go for over $100,000 ?

The worst slums were between where the Delta Hotel and City Hall are. They actually called them slums in those days, and they were torn down between the 50's and 80's.
http://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/slum.html

[codyLawrenceDylan14]

Wow those house's are gross,disgusting eyesore's
It definitely did not beautify the city. They look like a bunch of poorly constructed shed's or shacks.

[Architype]

^ Well, those are gone now, mostly replaced with public housing.

When you see houses like this (link below) with the gabled roofs; those are among the oldest ones. They were (usually) built before the fire of 1892 and are part of what remain from the "slums" - some of them should be preserved. edit - This street, Carters Hill, was the western boundary of the fire, so I'm not sure about these houses in particular.

http://goo.gl/maps/7RreN

[SignalHillHiker]

Wow, fascinating information, Architype. Thank you for sharing!

[Marty_Mcfly]

You'd be hard up to find what most of North America would call a "slum" in St. John's. Run down homes are often surrounded by nicer, up-kept homes. Public housing projects such as Buckmaster circle are surprisingly nice when compared to what I saw of the same type of developments while walking through neighbourhoods in the Bronx and Queens (Flushings to be exact).

[SignalHillHiker]

St. John's agrees to contribute to new harbour fence

[Marty_Mcfly]

The fence looks nice. I wish there wasn't any fence at all, though I know it's necessary for security reasons.

[SignalHillHiker]

From the liver Twitter coverage of tonight's council meeting:

Mark Quinn ‏@JohnMarkQuinn
Coun. Heritage committee approves new design for condo building at site of old Star of the Sea building #cbcnl

[Townie709]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

From the liver Twitter coverage of tonight's council meeting:

Mark Quinn ‏@JohnMarkQuinn
Coun. Heritage committee approves new design for condo building at site of old Star of the Sea building #cbcnl

Good news! Although, there was never really any doubt that this would be approved

The fence also looks to be much more attractive than what is currently there.

Thanks for the info!

[Architype]

Originally Posted by Marty_Mcfly

The fence looks nice. I wish there wasn't any fence at all, though I know it's necessary for security reasons.

The fence will be an improvement - and one of its functions might be to stop people from accidentally driving into the harbour. Maybe a few trees along the street wouldn't hurt either, eh ?

[statbass]

Originally Posted by Architype

The fence will be an improvement - and one of its functions might be to stop people from accidentally driving into the harbour. Maybe a few trees along the street wouldn't hurt either, eh ?

What??? And block people's view of the magnificent harbour. Just kidding, I think a few tress would really spruce up the spot (sorry, no pun intended).

[Copes]

Originally Posted by MrChills

I agree with what you're saying there, more of the area I am thinking about is what people would consider centre city (although really the way the city is growing it should be sort of re-classified as downtown). But a lot of the houses and some buildings between Freshwater and Merrymeeting are run down rental dives located in a prime real-estate location that could be bought up and replaced with classic townhomes or condos similair to the Star of the Sea proposal.

I also always envisioned something great for the little commercial strip at the intersection of Longs Hill and Harvey Road, sort of a Midtown for St. John's, I lived in that area for years and would always try to picture what it was like in it's glory years as you can tell at one time it was a busy little area for business.

This is what I'm referring to really, as well as some areas on the west end of downtown around our brand new office buildings. These are the areas that are becoming more and more incorporated into downtown, but are not as attractive as, say, Gower Street. One option would be to restore them, but personally, since we have our historic row-house district, I'm in favor of modernizing them a la Star of the Sea.

As for facades, I completely agree with you Signal. If there is one important piece of architecture any city should be preserving, its historic stone facades.

[AllBlack]

Anyone grab pics of the colossal cruise ship in town today? Some shots from SHH's favorite vantage points would look cool.

[Arrakis]

Here is a Google Street view of where Tulks Glass is on Lemarchant Road. It's right next door to the old McKinley Motors which was turned into condos several years ago too.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...51193435_o.jpg