Halifax Crane Talk

[TheGreenBastard]

Originally Posted by hoser111

Impressive! I was reading an article today stating that the average number of cranes in Boston has dropped from 12 a few years ago to 9 in the first quarter of ‘22. Punching above our weight class in this respect.

Sorry, you can’t compare the quality and scale of Boston’s builds to Halifax’s

Sure, we have 32 cranes up, how many of them are constructing buildings greater than 7–10 floors? We are punching below where we should.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by TheGreenBastard

Sorry, you can’t compare the quality and scale of Boston’s builds to Halifax’s

Sure, we have 32 cranes up, how many of them are constructing buildings greater than 7–10 floors? We are punching below where we should.

It is interesting and somewhat complicated though.

Some people say Halifax is a mini-Boston and that would imply similar buildings but fewer and smaller. But that's not really what we see. The building style is substantially different, with a lot more medium-sized multi-unit buildings in Halifax that use cranes for construction (or not). I think these days Halifax has diverged a lot from New England cities and seems to be drifting farther away, not closer.

Boston is much larger but the quality of some Halifax projects is good too. I would say that Halifax has nothing comparable to the major office towers (like Prudential tower) but it has projects comparable to the tier below that. Richmond Yards is the kind of thing that could be built in a major city. It will have 600 units.

[DZH22]

Originally Posted by someone123

Boston is much larger but the quality of some Halifax projects is good too. I would say that Halifax has nothing comparable to the major office towers (like Prudential tower) but it has projects comparable to the tier below that. Richmond Yards is the kind of thing that could be built in a major city. It will have 600 units.

Just for scale/relativity, if the 339' I see listed for Richmond Yards is correct it would be just outside Boston's top 60. If it fully doubled its height it would just miss Boston's top 5.

As an outsider I think Halifax punches well above its weight class and I hope to visit one day.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by DZH22

Just for scale/relativity, if the 339' I see listed for Richmond Yards is correct it would be just outside Boston's top 60. If it fully doubled its height it would just miss Boston's top 5.

That should be correct. However there are a lot of buildings in the 30 storey range planned. It will likely be a fairly "standard" height for new construction in Halifax in the coming years (assuming no economic collapse; nobody can predict the future).

Halifax tends to have a lot of buildings of similar height due to height restrictions, with the tallest being residential, rather than a few signature larger office towers as in most American cities. Hence the large crane count.