The Great Canadian Heritage Restoration Thread

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

That's really nice, but I wonder why they changed the exterior materials? The original brickwork wouldn't have looked bad if it had been cleaned up a little.

I can’t prove it, but I suspect that they use grey stones in the restoration because that would have been the actual original material. The brick in the before picture looks cheap.

[someone123]

I wonder what the structure looked like as the brick was being removed and the stone was added. Is it a wood frame? Is there a brick structure behind with a stone facade?

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by someone123

They were both constructed at about the same time. I think there are still some wooden structures up around the Hailfax armoury to protect people from falling masonry.

Some pictures here of the renovated armoury. I think all of most of the scaffolding is gone now; in any case in don’t notice it when I passed by a few days ago. It really looks fantastic now.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

I can’t prove it, but I suspect that they use grey stones in the restoration because that would have been the actual original material. The brick in the before picture looks cheap.

I originally thought the brickwork appeared to be quite old, and had some detail that you don't see much anymore, but perhaps the original stone started to deteriorate and was replaced with brick at some point. It would be nice to see some old photos, or to know the history of that building, but regardless, they did a nice job on it. Thanks for posting.

Edit:
After a little detective work, I found that the building next door, that now houses Eglise Evangelique Hispanique Bethel, was once the site of the Laurier Palace Theatre, which tragically burned down in 1927, killing 78 children.

At the left side of the theatre photo, you can see a small piece of the building being discussed, and its exterior cladding appears to be similar to the restored photos that you've posted.



Mystery solved, I think.

[TorontoDrew]

They made that building look great but you can see when you zoom in to the before they have used all new bricks now.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

Montreal, corner of Dézéry and Ste-Catherine East

Before



After



Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1456...0013982885565/

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

I can’t prove it, but I suspect that they use grey stones in the restoration because that would have been the actual original material. The brick in the before picture looks cheap.

I suspect that as well. The restoration looks far more like your typical Montreal heritage building. Red brick is seldom seen is Montreal.

Originally Posted by someone123

The gap is much smaller than many think and for certain kinds of buildings there is no quality gap or Halifax might have some nicer or simply unique buildings. There are a lot of scenes in old Quebec where the "before" looks like Halifax buildings. Many landmark buildings in Halifax have national architectural significance, like Province House (from the 1810's) or the Bank of NS or armoury and so on. They're not really inferior to any similar buildings from around the same era in Canada. It is true that Quebec City and Montreal both have a lot more medium scale masonry buildings and Montreal is just a much larger city in general. The size and wealth gap between Quebec City and Halifax is much smaller than the heritage building investment gap.

The armouries are interesting. The one in Quebec suffered a major fire, was repaired to a high standard, and has a bunch of nice modern architecture around it while the stuff around the Halifax armoury is very ugly. We can debate if the French Chateau style armoury is nicer or the Romanesque Revival style is nicer but I think the Halifax one might be the larger and more architecturally impressive of the two or they are on par. The difference is really all about how the buildings have been treated. They were both constructed at about the same time. I think there are still some wooden structures up around the Hailfax armoury to protect people from falling masonry.

There have been some wins like the armoury work that's ongoing now or the Keith's renos. Keith Hall is another one that would still look impressive if you transported it to Quebec City or Montreal but looked just terrible until it was renovated. And it still wasn't quite fully renovated (it lost a storey).

I post this stuff not as some kind of competition. I just think Halifax could look a lot better than it does and could take some cues from Montreal and Quebec City. And I think the reasons people come up with for the difference are often wrong (we don't have the buildings here, this town is too small/poor, we just need developers to step in and do it all and they won't). If there were more focus on enhancing that type of character there would be a dramatic shift, probably only at the cost of maybe 1-3% of the municipal budget or so.

For reference, the 1888 Quebec City Armoury, certainly a gem of Canadian Heritage:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_City_Armoury

And the 1899 Halifax Armoury, not as elegant as the Quebec City building, but it looks far more imposing, like a military fort :


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Armoury

Throwing in the 1879 Ottawa Armoury (Cartier Drill Hall), an underappreciated building next to City Hall, near the Rideau Canal. Not quite as impressive as Quebec's or Halifax's, but still quite nice :


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartier_Square_Drill_Hall

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I suspect that as well. The restoration looks far more like your typical Montreal heritage building. Red brick is seldom seen is Montreal.

If you read my post above, showing the pic of the burned out theatre next door, I think it is pretty much proven that the materials used in restoration are pretty close to its original appearance in that photo (the small slice of wall visible in the left side of the photo, showing stone-looking finishes).

I'm also curious about whether the finishing materials were actually cut stone, or concrete moulded to look like stone. In Halifax (see link to blog post below) in the early 1900s, cast concrete blocks, imitating more expensive and labour-intensive cut stone), were used on some buildings, such as the one in the pic below, on Barrington Street, built in 1907 (for example):



Link below for more info:
https://halifaxbloggers.ca/noticedin...ncrete-blocks/

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Some pictures here of the renovated armoury. I think all of most of the scaffolding is gone now; in any case in don’t notice it when I passed by a few days ago. It really looks fantastic now.

I don't want to be too negative because the restoration work is nice. I wonder if that west facade is finished or not. The door looks a bit strange. One element that probably is finished and is not so great is the metal flashing like material running along the roof.

I would say a lot of pictures undersell the Halifax armoury a bit. The nicer/longer facade is along Cunard Street.

Look at Cornwallis Street:




After - reno circa 2021

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

For reference, the 1888 Quebec City Armoury, certainly a gem of Canadian Heritage:



And the 1899 Halifax Armoury, not as elegant as the Quebec City building, but it looks far more imposing, like a military fort :



Throwing in the 1879 Ottawa Armoury (Cartier Drill Hall), an underappreciated building next to City Hall, near the Rideau Canal. Not quite as impressive as Quebec's or Halifax's, but still quite nice :

Those are very nice armouries, for sure. IIRC, Halifax's is still a functioning DND facility. Are the others still functioning as well?

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by someone123

The door looks a bit strange.

A closeup photo included in drybrain's link makes it appear that this is the intended finished state of the door. I'm not sure why it was done like this, but likely there is a historical reference for it.



https://halifaxbloggers.ca/noticedin...streets-again/

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

Those are very nice armouries, for sure. IIRC, Halifax's is still a functioning DND facility. Are the others still functioning as well?

Seems to be the case. Looks like the Canadian Forces still own the Quebec and Ottawa Armouries.

There's in Hull as well, across the river from Ottawa, the Salaberry Armoury. I remember my brother had an event there when he was in the Air Cadets in the late 90s.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaberry_Armoury

Wikipedia has a list of Canadian Armouries:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ries_in_Canada

[Echoes]

Tees & Persse Limited (1911), Saskatoon - renovation and addition

[KnoxfordGuy]

Saint John High School in Saint John, NB. Built in 1932. Installing more period accurate windows:

[someone123]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

And the 1899 Halifax Armoury, not as elegant as the Quebec City building, but it looks far more imposing, like a military fort :


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Armoury

This photo reminded me of the armoury discussion. This one gives a good impression of the scale of the building and the context:


Source

It used to have a church next door where the parking lot and little strip mall are now:

Source

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Echoes

Tees & Persse Limited (1911), Saskatoon - renovation and addition

I love this. Wish there were more restorations / additions like this instead of the usual facadectomies.

[Martin Mtl]

After months of work, the restoration are finally over for the lovely TD branch (circa 1908) at the corner of Sainte-Catherine and Guy in Montreal ( pics by me).

[J.OT13]

Looks awesome! Really cool that TD is still occupies the building.

[Innsertnamehere]

That looks great. Much better than the colour they had the windows painted before.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Beautiful building!

One negative side effect of the dark paint is that it tends to hide the details around the windows.



Source

Regardless of that, it still looks great!

[kwoldtimer]

Architecture that says "your money is safe with us".