Minding the Modern
Why Halifax’s newer buildings deserve respect too
BY Sean Flinn
Photography by David Grandy
Old and new clash constantly in Halifax, as the current debate over a proposed 27-storey pair of twisting glass and steel towers proves yet again.
Heritage defenders criticize the hotel-condo project’s threat to harbour views and historic (read: Victorian) buildings nearby, while tower supporters say the project marks Halifax’s first real architectural step into contemporary urban life and is a sign of its bright future.
Stuck in the middle, but not silent, is Steven Mannell: architect, faculty at Dalhousie University’s School of Architecture and editor of Atlantic Modern—The Architecture of the Atlantic Provinces, 1950–2000. He’s out to remind both sides how buildings of diverse types, styles and eras enrich people’s experience of a city.
“Diversity in our recognition of heritage will help us avoid becoming a caricature of ourselves,” Mannell says, adding bluntly, “Atlantic Canadians are too ready to conform to the stereotypes offered to the world by the tourist industry. Our modern built heritage, like our 20th century industrial heritage, helps give the lie to the image of us as fiddle-playing, happy fishermen. There is a strong heritage of progress and innovation in the region, but we seem ready to erase evidence of this heritage so that the Disney-eye view of our region is not confused for the tourists.”
Consequently, Mannell says people come to defend anything “old-looking” as worthy of protection and ignore how 20th century buildings make a contribution to “the historic record and the quality of the city.”
Such buildings include the Canada Permanent Building, built in 1961–62 on the downtown thoroughfare, Barrington Street.
“The Barrington Street upgrading efforts are largely blind to the value of the modern buildings on the street,” Mannell says of plans to make it a municipal heritage district. “20th century heritage is not on the radar for Halifax’s planners.”
Meanwhile, cracks show in the dark concrete facade of the 1969–71-era Dalhousie Arts Centre, right over the main entrance. “The [Arts Centre’s] main problem is shared with all the other buildings on the Dal campus: a 25-year lack of maintenance. A high priority for me is to get heritage status for the Arts Centre, both for the exterior and the major interior spaces.”
Changing opinions on once-maligned modern buildings is possible: The Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, a building of similar Brutalist design and vintage as the Dal Arts Centre, has received federal heritage status.
City life is not homogenous, nor should its architecture be, whether defined only by twisting modern towers or, as Mannell puts it, “old looking” heritage buildings. Cities are living entities, and every thread in their fabric should be given due consideration.
