Hurricane Earl 2010 - Images by Lawrence Plug HALIFAX - As Hurricane Earl hits the road, community members and civil servants of all stripes are working to remedy its havoc. Taken by Earth Sciences professor and Spacing contributing photographer, Lawrence Plug, here's a look at some of Earl's exploits as Haligonias go about navigating the city over the weekend. As our cities recuperate, look out for more of Spacing Atlantic's Earl assessments to come!

HALIFAX - Downtown Halifax has certainly gone through some changes in the past few years. While some of my favourite shops have come and gone, it's important to remember that in order for downtown to thrive, it's up to us to support the unique businesses, stores, and restaurants that call downtown home. Enter: The Big Day Downtown, a promotion from the Downtown Halifax Business Commission that highlights the great things to do in Halifax's downtown core. 30 bloggers received $100 and were unleashed onto the mean streets of Halifax with one simple instruction: to document what they did with the money. In the midst of moving from Woodside to Halifax, I actually found it hard to find the spare time to go out and spend the $100.  The dozens of unpacked boxes sometimes literally created a wall between me and the downtown shops I wanted to visit — only a 10-minute walk away from my new abode. After a weekend of hard work, I'm ready to head downtown today after work to spend the remaining $50. The first $50? Here's how I used it:

HALIFAX - For over a year now, installations like these have been cropping up all over the city. A pop-up shop of sorts with only one item for sale: pieces of painted wood with 'Cruise Halifax' stamped on the back and timely messages on the front. The labelled messages usually reference a large-scale event in town and oftentimes draw on an emotion of civic pride, with a polite plea to purchase one of the artifacts. Along with the milkcrate, plaque or shopping cart that serve to display the various local crafts, is a donation receptacle. No salesperson or artist in sight. Does anyone have any information about the mastermind behind the artwork? Any theories? Have you ever purchased a piece? Spacing wants to know!

HALIFAX - Last week HRM Council appeared to approve two high-rise developments on Barrington Street – a 17 storey building on the site of the Roy Building and a 20 storey tower to be built on top of the Discovery Centre. Sound familiar? Confusingly, Council seems to have approved the same two towers in April of 2009. Adding to the confusion, both towers are within the Barrington Street Heritage Conservation District, and appear to violate the new downtown plan approved through HRMbyDesign. What exactly is happening with these two proposals? First, neither project has been granted final approval. Although the Roy Centre project was announced in the summer of 2008, and the Discovery Centre proposal submitted in February 2009, Council has to date only decided what rules the projects will be reviewed under. In March 2009 Council voted to review these projects under the existing Municipal Planning Strategy (MPS) instead of the new downtown plan, which was still being developed through HRMbyDesign. Both proposals are taller than the height limits for Barrington Street that were ultimately set by HRMbyDesign. Consequently, Council felt it would be unfair to review (and ultimately reject) these developments based on the HRMbyDesign standards, which had not been finalized when the tower applications were submitted to the Municipality. The Council vote, which happened last week, was needed to amend the Heritage By-law — a step that was missed in 2009.

A series that examines urban and architectural issues in Halifax by way of unbuilt proposals authored by different designers, this week featuring a project by graduate architect Thomas Evans for a new Halifax Central Library. All drawings and images courtesy Thomas Evans. Text by Dustin Valen HALIFAX – Housing a variety of media types and ample public space, Evans’ library reconsiders reading as its sole purpose in favour of creating a platform for social diversity and information exchange. The uniform exterior of the Meta Library is thus a misleading representation of its interior. Evans describes the building as a “framework for linking public gathering, events, and activities”; one that promotes “social interaction through both traditional library elements and contemporary media related functions.” The resulting ‘social-superstructure’ contains a dizzying variety of spaces that cater simultaneously to a vast number of users as well as the peculiarities that set them apart. In addition to traditional library functions like the collective reading hall and exhibition space, new and intriguing functions include a performance platform, cinemascape, studio workshop, park studios, children’s apparatus, and teenage clusters.

Halifax, Nova Scotia photo by Dean Bouchard, member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool

The [Re]Presenting Halifax series revisits historical and contemporary maps, diagrams and other interpretive readings of the Halifax region. See my first post for the full aims of this project and more information about contributing to the series. HALIFAX - Halifax is well represented by the grid — a street pattern that is as symbolic of our British colonial past as the Citadel itself. And in many ways, the grid still serves us well today; the narrow blocks have contributed to Halifax having one of the country’s most walkable downtown cores despite it being situated on the side of steep hill.

[caption id="attachment_5829" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="A small corner of the North End Community Garden in Halifax."][/caption] HALIFAX - Urban gardening is by no means a new concept in Halifax. In fact the first time I remember hearing about urban gardening was in 2005 during my second year at Dahousie. The Gazette — Dal's free weekly — was covering a new urban garden on campus for students to plot, till, plant, weed and pluck. Unfortunately, the article left little information about where the garden was actually located and even less ...