Old Newfoundland Telephone Building Development

MrChills · #1 Posted **Nov 1, 2007, 11:44 AM**

This building has been a scar on the downtown for as long as I can remeber, it has been officially abandoned for about ten years, but, even before then the building was in rough shape. I actually used to take art lessons there on the top floor from Gerald Squires when I was kid... Anycase, looks like it has been approved for hotel/high end condo development, defiently going to put a major breath of fresh air to that area of Duckworth as well as McBrides Hill and Water St

http://www.downtownstjohns.com/news/...1299.html#more

http://www.cbc.ca/nl/media/video/downtown.ram

kwajo · #2 Posted **Nov 1, 2007, 12:27 PM**

I was just considering posting this myself.

Truly a great project for Downtown St. John's if it gets done. It won't just improve the look of a derelict building, but will also put even more people in the downtown core, which can only benefit the area.

Architype · #3 Posted **Nov 1, 2007, 7:26 PM**

That would be the obvious thing to do with the building, but there is something wrong with the logic here when in order to make a new project downtown, you can't actually build a new structure, you have to renovate an existing structure because of the height guidelines. It is hard to live in a downtown area when there is no appropriate housing allowed.

Canasian · #4 Posted **Nov 8, 2007, 10:07 PM**

Agreed. Threr is a lot of potential. If the can convert the King Edward, (or King George V, I forgot the name) this one is just as good.

MrChills · #5 Posted **Nov 9, 2007, 12:53 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Architype

That would be the obvious thing to do with the building, but there is something wrong with the logic here when in order to make a new project downtown, you can't actually build a new structure, you have to renovate an existing structure because of the height guidelines. It is hard to live in a downtown area when there is no appropriate housing allowed.

I struggle with the city height restrictions, on one hand I agree that the core downtown should be somewhat restricted to keep the historical look and feel of the city, but, council needs to lift it in other areas and allow for more condo and office highrise development