HALIFAX — As the debate rages regarding new urban developments such as Skye Halifax and the new Halifax YMCA, questions have arisen over the relevancy of  HRM by Design, Halifax's own community-consulted planning document for the downtown region. Dalhousie’s School of Planning is presenting a (timely) student-run conference, SHIFT 2012. A place to engage with urban planning practitioners, urban design enthusiasts and people just generally interested in shifting the cultural debate around peninsular Halifax.

HALIFAX - So what's Switch? Inspired by Bogotá, Columbia’s Ciclovia, Switch is a regular event that encourages people to enjoy their city by walking, biking, skating, dancing, and moving around their city safely and comfortably. Just like the skating oval on the Common was instantly embraced by the HRM community, Switch will offer the opportunity for everyone - pedestrians, joggers, bicyclists, skaters, etc. - to get to many destinations on the Halifax peninsula in new, healthy and fun ways. What: Switch Halifax When: Wednesday, March 7, 2012 6:30 - 8:00 PM Where: FRED salon & ...

HALIFAX - Do you notice that central Halifax contains a lot of iron fences and railings?  To the west of Citadel Hill full blocks of former Commons are surrounded by high iron railings: Camp Hill Cemetery, the Public Gardens and the Wanderers Grounds.  This group of fences started to be installed early in the 1900s and their plain iron uprights combine strength and transparency – keep us out but allow us to see in.  One of the things that make the Gardens special is the fact that our entry is controlled (and we love to complain about it).

HALIFAX - With the news that after 12 years in office Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly won’t seek re-election this October, HRM has a chance to inject some fresh thinking and revisit some old ideas to improve the quality of public space in Halifax.  Although I've lived away from Halifax for two years, here is my list of priorities I’d look for in a new mayor: Walking With the Metro Transit strike dragging on, transportation is definitely on the radars of most HRM residents. For starters though, Halifax has long been due for some pedestrian infrastructure, like pedestrian scrambles at major intersections downtown, road islands and sidewalk bulb outs to make crossing wide streets safer, benches, street trees and the pedestrianization of streets like Argyle, University or others, either on a permanent, seasonal, weekly or trial period like Pedestrian Sundays in Kensington Market in Toronto. Cycling For cyclists and cycling advocates, the laundry list of needs is long.

HALIFAX - You've probably never seen the most important mid-19th century building in town. In the 1850s, it must have seemed like today’s “Ship Start Here” contract. A huge government building project that at one stage employed 300 men: so large it required the contractor to build a modern brickyard in Eastern Passage and a steam powered woodworking factory on the waterfront. And where is it? Behind the walls of Canadian Forces Base Halifax - Stadacona, is the block long Wellington Barracks. What survives is the officer’s residence and it ...

HALIFAX - Lately I have been looking at “snapshots” I took of downtown Halifax about 1967. It made me realize that for most of my life there have been big holes as lots were cleared and remained empty for years and sometimes decades. These not very clear pictures show the corner of Prince and Market Streets looking south east. I did not take them as a real panorama but they almost fit and together they give a more comprehensive sense of the site. The desirable little brick building remained ...

HALIFAX - The process by which Rank Inc.’s new business super-complex, Nova Centre, was approved by HRM Council has lacked significant public input since the early stages of development in 2005. The investment of over $50 million dollars per government has, over the last year, prompted community interest groups, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, journalists, and Halifax MP Megan Leslie to direct attention to the lack of due public consultation, especially since the majority of those polled are against it.  The unanimous municipal, provincial and federal funding raises questions about government responsibility to public interest. HRM Open Projects gave artist Scott Saunders the space and means to address this conflict. His installation of Town Square, 100 mannequin figures wearing business suits strewn across the rubble foundation of the former Chronicle Herald building, is an artwork that is not a solution to the outcome of private wheeling and dealing, but is one response to it.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was previously published in Spacing Magazine's fall issue. HALIFAX -- Both Moncton and Halifax have their unique challenges in implementing a sustainable development path for their respective regions. This diversity of tactics was on full display during debates this past summer in both cities about road alteration projects. In Halifax, a decision on the proposed expansion of two-lane Bayers Road has been delayed. The project called for a four-to-six-lane widening along significant portions of the street, essentially turning it into a highway corridor for suburban communities leading into peninsular Halifax.