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The Maritime Centre, in
Downtown Halifax Downtown Halifax is the primary central business district of the Halifax, Nova Scotia, Municipality of Halifax. Located on the central-eastern portion of the Halifax Peninsula, on Halifax Harbour. Along with Downtown Dartmouth, and other de facto ...
,
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...
, Canada, is an office building, home to the regional telecommunications company
Bell Aliant Bell Aliant is a brand name used by Bell Canada for telecommunications services in Atlantic Canada. Prior to 2015, Bell Aliant Inc. (formerly Aliant Inc.) was a separate company providing telecom services in the Atlantic provinces and a few othe ...
(formerly the
Maritime Telegraph and Telephone Company The Maritime Telegraph and Telephone Company (MT&T, later MTT) was founded around 1910 in Halifax, Nova Scotia and provided telecommunications to Nova Scotia until 1998 when it merged with the Island Telephone Company, NBTel, and NewTel Communica ...
, after which it is named). The main entrance to the building sits on the prominent corner of
Barrington Street View southward on Barrington StreetBarrington Street is a major street in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, running from the MacKay Bridge in the North End approximately 7 km south, through Downtown Halifax to Inglis Street in the South End. Its ...
and
Spring Garden Road The Spring Garden Road area, along with Barrington Street (which it adjoins) is a major commercial and cultural district in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It acquired its name from the fresh water spring that flows directly beneath it. It comprise ...
.


History

The development was announced in May 1974 by joint proponents MT&T, which owned the land and would be the main tenant, and developer Trizec Equities. Construction was delayed by the discovery of a rock fault beneath the site, which compelled the developers to undertake costly remedial action to protect the adjacent St. Matthew's Church. The building is on the site of the former Capitol Theatre which was demolished in 1974 to make way for the construction of the present tower. In 1995, Trizec sold the complex, as well as the nearby Centennial Building, to Fortis Properties of St. John's, which paid C$42 million for the two buildings. On October 13, 2015,
Fortis Inc. Fortis Inc. is a St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador-based international diversified electric utility holding company. It operates in Canada, the United States, Central America, and the Caribbean. In 2015, it earned . Fortis was formed in 198 ...
announced that it had sold its commercial real estate portfolio, including Maritime Centre, to
Slate Office REIT Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
.


Design

The complex was designed by architects Webb Zerafa Menkes Housden of Toronto and Dumaresq and Byrne of Halifax. Completed in 1977, the original structure had 14 storeys; another seven floors were added in 1988. The building stands at 78 metres and has 21 floors, including the two retail levels. It is notable for the strong wind tunnel effect it creates at street level.Jamie Lee
"Wind issues an afterthought – architects"
, ''NovaNewsNet'' (Kings Journalism ), November 15, 2007 Maritime Centre was designed to avoid blocking the view from Citadel Hill to various parts of
Halifax Harbour Halifax Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, located in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Halifax largely owes its existence to the harbour, being one of the largest and deepest ice-free natural harbo ...
, hence the building's peculiar angle to the street. The lower levels of the building were renovated from late 2019 to 2022. The plazas and steps in front of the building entrances, along Barrington Street, were replaced with expanded lobby, vestibule, and retail areas. The design of the expansion project was intended to improve pedestrian comfort on Barrington Street by breaking up high winds above street level.


Further reading

*


References


External links

* {{official website, http://maritimecentre.ca/ Bell Aliant Buildings and structures in Halifax, Nova Scotia WZMH Architects buildings Terminating vistas in Canada Office buildings completed in 1988