Quote:
Originally Posted by counterfactual
Well, now. Seems to me outside of a few odd exceptions (Maritime Centre) our entire history of development is keeping high rises away from pretty much everything and everywhere.
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Well also, the BMO, TD, CIBC, and RBC buildings, the Centennial Building, Joseph Howe Building, Founder's Square, Purdy's Wharf, Scotia Square, and then 70s residential highrises like Fenwick and Park Vic. None of these are "historic" and none of them relate well to the street. Come to think of it, the Trillium and the Paramount are really the only highrises
in the entire city that actually relate well to the street, and in the Paramount's case it's actually a separate lowrise building fronting on South Park. Quinpool Tower and Maritime Centre would tie for a distant third I guess, and both these buildings have street interfaces that people complain about a lot. The TD do-over and potential renovations of the other bank buildings will make a difference, but these buildings have been sitting there for decades as not-necessarily-attractive, inward-facing boxes.
Of course many of them make sense (to us) in the downtown core, but a lot of other cities have an "Old Town" downtown separate from the contemporary CBD (think Montreal, Vancouver). Many other cities simply don't have as high a proportion of as-old buildings even in the traditional commercial core (think Calgary). I have certainly also had friends from places like Kingston, ON and St. John's visit Halifax and comment that "it's too bad that there are so many skyscrapers downtown". Not necessarily the most common reaction, but I've heard it often enough to take note.
I wouldn't expect people from outside of Halifax commenting on blogs to know about the viewplanes, or that space is limited here, or that the Bank of Commerce isn't the oldest or grandest building in the city, or that the financial industry is important here at all. Many people
here don't even know about the viewplanes. I'd imagine many people living elsewhere would be unaware of such a concept.