[Halifax] 1649-1673 Bedford Row | ? m | ? FL | Proposed

[mleblanc]

Originally Posted by DigitalNinja

Does anyone know what's in the 1-2 story building surrounding The Great Wall/This development? Looks like the blank wall was designed to facilitate another building to replace this other building.

https://www.avisonyoung.ca/properties?propertyId=martimes-ns-halifax-bedfordrow-1657-lease

Looks like the 1st floor in Halifax Distilling Company, and the 2nd floor office is for rent currently. I could easily see it being redeveloped at some point.

[atbw]

Originally Posted by DigitalNinja

Does anyone know what's in the 1-2 story building surrounding The Great Wall/This development? Looks like the blank wall was designed to facilitate another building to replace this other building.

Definitely. Easier to fill out the envelope and have a blank wall for a few years then end up with unrentable units that have majestic views of a wall when the adjacent property gets built.

[IanWatson]

Originally Posted by atbw

Definitely. Easier to fill out the envelope and have a blank wall for a few years then end up with unrentable units that have majestic views of a wall when the adjacent property gets built.

Also, fire code. The area of wall penetrations you can have decreases the closer you get to a property line.

[Empire]

Originally Posted by IanWatson

Also, fire code. The area of wall penetrations you can have decreases the closer you get to a property line.

It's too bad the upper floors couldn't be set back to meet the fire code and allow for windows on the harbour side. (maybe allow another couple of floors to increase the sq. footage). Halifax has a number of buildings with blank walls and two that really stand out are the Homburg building and the Dillon. There has to be an innovative way to address the proliferation of blank walls.

[Jringe01]

Went to the site, saw the renders...am perplexed. It started off nice on the lower floor shot but when you look at the entire height it looks like someone is trying to recreate 2001 Brunswick on the upper floors. The blank walls are horrid, especially on the upper floors. They should have balconies or at least windows facing the harbour. Who on earth wants to sit on their balcony with Founders Square in their face? They are turning their backs on the harbour and in my opinion that's a fail

[Empire]

Originally Posted by Jringe01

Went to the site, saw the renders...am perplexed. It started off nice on the lower floor shot but when you look at the entire height it looks like someone is trying to recreate 2001 Brunswick on the upper floors. The blank walls are horrid, especially on the upper floors. They should have balconies or at least windows facing the harbour. Who on earth wants to sit on their balcony with Founders Square in their face? They are turning their backs on the harbour and in my opinion that's a fail

Can't emphasize enough that blank walls are a blight on the city. The premise that someone will build to block the blank wall doesn't hold water. Rework the design to allow for windows. Should a setback be mandatory to allow for windows?

[IanWatson]

Originally Posted by Jringe01

Went to the site, saw the renders...am perplexed. It started off nice on the lower floor shot but when you look at the entire height it looks like someone is trying to recreate 2001 Brunswick on the upper floors. The blank walls are horrid, especially on the upper floors. They should have balconies or at least windows facing the harbour. Who on earth wants to sit on their balcony with Founders Square in their face? They are turning their backs on the harbour and in my opinion that's a fail

Fire code doesn't allow that. The amount of glazing you can have drops off the closer you get to a property line. On small sites like this it's pretty much impossible to develop functional floor plans and have enough of a setback from the property line to allow windows.

[Dmajackson]

Something big is planned for what was this development originally. Demolition permits were just submitted for the following PIDs between 1649-1673 Bedford Row.

00003095 , 00003103 , 00003129 , 40041097


HalifaxDevelopments.ca (Map from "Explore HRM", edited by David Jackson)

[Keith P.]

Bye-bye to The Great Wall.

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Bye-bye to The Great Wall.

Damn! Suddenly I'm craving their ginger fried beef.

[mleblanc]

I'll wait for a proposal to make final judgement, but I'd be sad to see one of the last varied blocks downtown get turned into one monolithic development. I've always loved Bedford Row - feels like a quaint little oasis amongst all the chaos, and there's several charming brick buildings in this demolition.

Sappiness aside, hopefully we see a nice proposal for this. Great spot for some density - more people living downtown will always be a good thing.

[DartmouthSteve]

This smacks of "the building facades will remain intact" project.

Hopefully.

[Drybrain]

1675 Bedford Row deserves facade retention at least. The other affected properties are pretty architecturally disposable, IMO. (The McKelvie's building is a heritage property and not affected by this, so that's good.)

[MastClimberPro]

Agree with Dry Brain. Couldn't hurt to have the facades of 1673/73 refurbished and included in the final development a la the Press Block.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

1675 Bedford Row deserves facade retention at least. The other affected properties are pretty architecturally disposable, IMO. (The McKelvie's building is a heritage property and not affected by this, so that's good.)

I'd like to see 1673 kept as well. If facadism is the best we can hope for, so be it, I guess. I'm tired of hoping for better solutions, so whatever happens is okay.

Hopefully Halifax Distilling can find a good home, since theirs is about to go.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by mleblanc

I'll wait for a proposal to make final judgement, but I'd be sad to see one of the last varied blocks downtown get turned into one monolithic development. I've always loved Bedford Row - feels like a quaint little oasis amongst all the chaos, and there's several charming brick buildings in this demolition.

Sappiness aside, hopefully we see a nice proposal for this. Great spot for some density - more people living downtown will always be a good thing.

I agree, except for the sappiness comment. I don't think it's sappy to hope for some retention of granular heritage properties, vs yet another monolith. IMHO it actually shows good judgement and hope that the downtown can still hold on to some of its character.

In many ways, you'd never know that Halifax is as old of a city as it is. Looking downtown it appears that it was perhaps just a small town until the 1960s, and that then it suddenly grew into a city. It is what it is, however. I've been musing if it would really matter if all heritage properties were replaced with 2020s-style architecture. There would still be functional buildings where many people could live and lots of street level retail. Does it really matter whether future generations can have some idea of what it used to be like here? Not sure if people still think it's relevant, and for those who do there are lots of archives photos to look at. For those of us who remember it, we'll all be gone someday, so if nobody else cares, what does it matter?

[someone123]

I dunno. I don't think I'd say the area around Province House or Historic Properties or along Barrington look like they are characteristic of a small town. It's true that a lot of mid-range or "filler" buildings have been dwindling away for decades and it seems unnecessary and unfortunate in many cases. Another complaint I had, which is less true now, is that the new buildings were often worse than the old (think of tearing down a plain 2 storey brick building for a nice office tower vs. 4 storey masonry building for 4 storey vinyl clad pressboard, which is what appears to have happened where the Maritime Command was).

Some of the new developments have enhanced the nearby historic buildings, like Press Block. The Elmwood development might be like this too. And maybe this Bedford Row development. If it's a decently-scaled masonry building that reinforces the feel of that area it could be good. It could go either way.

I think a few historically-minded projects could make a world of difference too, like rebuilding some waterfront buildings or putting in a row of colourful facades by Maxwell's Plum (which could have modern apartments above).

[Drybrain]

I also think it's useful to compare with somewhere like with Moncton, which WAS basically a small town until the 1960s (or maybe later), and the difference becomes very noticeable. Downtown Halifax still has a lot more significant buildings from the 19th century (and 18th) as well as significant public spaces like the Grand Parade, the Public Gardens, Peace and Friendship Square, etc. These also span an area a little too large to have been a truly small town.

I think that despite the attrition of historic buildings, there's more than enough remaining that if a whole bunch suddenly vanished, the feel of the city would change very dramatically.

[someone123]

I do think specific blocks or streets look less historic than they used to, and you often wouldn't know it without looking at archival photos. Streets like Gottingen and Quinpool had a decent collection of old commercial buildings and now have been reduced mostly to a mix of modern or stripped down boxes. Most of the old Victorian era institutional buildings are gone as well. Gottingen once had a mix of grand institutional buildings and ornate wooden Victorian houses and shops.

It's too bad. A bit of a push on Gottingen in particular could bring back some of the older feel. You do see it on some buildings (mostly Hal Forbes restorations? RIP), such as the corner of Nora Bernard, but the stripped-down look seems more common these days.

[Keith P.]

I grew up in the North End and when I was 7-10 years old my mom would take me with her when she went shopping. She grew up in the area around Gottingen so on Fridays after school we would sometimes get on the #3 trolley and she would shop on Gottingen. My specific memory is that even then, Gottingen was fairly run-down and shabby, especially as compared to Barrington. I'm unsure what "grand institutional buildings" Someone is referring to. During that era there weren't very many new buildings there. Once past Uniacke Square the only two I can recall (which both stood out like sore thumbs) were the post office and the North branch library. The rest were all quite old, creaky, worn and sometimes smelly wooden structures. I remember going into Coombs' drug store to buy my comic books and it was quite ramshackle. She would buy clothes at Kline's and I recall being bored to tears as I sat on the interior steps going to the second floor as I passed the time. There were a couple of buildings that got cosmetic updates like New York Dress and a few others but they were still the old buildings inside. It was very much in decline in the 1960s. Barrington was a far better shopping street at least up to the time Eaton's departed.

I knew Forbes very slightly, who was an odd character though not a bad guy. I got the distinct impression his "restorations" never looked like what he produced, with his finished products being far more ornate and decorated than the originals.