Public invited to give input on Nova Centre design
Posted Jul 13, 2012 05:36:31 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Now that the political paperwork is in order, the Nova Centre project needs a design and a series of public meetings will be held to garner community input.
The earlier sketches for the $500 million building have been scrapped and developer Joe Ramia of Rank Inc. is starting over.
“(What is) the general look and feel of the building? What’s the theme? What’s the symbolism?” are some of the questions Tim Merry will be asking attendees when the public meetings start happening later this month.
Merry was also responsible for organizing the public consultations for the new downtown library.
“I am promising that whatever we’ve done before, we’ve learned and integrated feedback,” said Merry. “We’ve been given a lot of room to do exciting work here, in terms of civic engagement.”
The one-million-square-foot building is to encompass a convention centre, a hotel, an office tower, retail shops and residential space. The building cannot be any higher than 18 storeys, but other than that, many components of the design are still up for discussion.
Construction on the site at Argyle and Grafton Streets is slated to start in the fall and Merry will be asking the public what it wants to see on that corner.
But the public consultations are going beyond just Halifax.
They will be happening across the province including in Lunenburg, New Glasgow and Sydney, over the next six months. Initial concept sketches are expected in October.
Merry has some more significant questions to ask the greater populace.
“What are the social and economic benefit a building like this can have, that’s happening downtown in the city? How can that begin to have an effect in rural communities,” said Tim Merry, who will be leading the public meetings.
“What does that look like in terms of tourism? What does that look like in terms of music, or entertainment coming in from rural communities? We’ve got to start bridging the rural-urban divide in this province.”
Link: Nova Centre public consultation web site http://buildyourcentre.ca/
