Scotia Square

Scotia Square is a large commercial development in Downtown Halifax, in the Halifax Regional Municipality Nova Scotia owned by Halifax Developments Limited. It was built in the late sixties to mid seventies. It is connected to the Downtown Halifax Link and serves as a major Metro Transit bus terminal in Halifax. [http://halifaxdevelopments.com/about.asp] .

History

At its peak in the 1980s, Scotia Square was a shopping destination for many in the city. Among some of the most notable shops and services within the mall was a Woolco department store, a single-screen Famous Players theatre [http://movie-theatre.org/canada/ns/Halifax/halifax.pdf] , the Dick Turpin tavern, a 1950s-style diner complete with an antique car in its entrance, a food court known as the Port of Call, and an area on the second level where the store fronts were all designed to resemble a small-town village. Woolco closed in 1994, shortly before the chain's purchase by Wal-Mart. The Woolco space was vacant for many years until 2000 when Aliant Telecom converted the space into a call centre. Scotia Square used to have many retail shops on its second level but over time these shops closed or relocated to other malls in the area. Today only one store occupies the second level; the rest has converted to office space.

Location and Layout

Scotia Square consists of a mall, a hotel, and a number of office towers connected to each other and to other buildings by pedways and tunnels. The complex is adjacent to the Cogswell Interchange, and it fronts on Duke Street to the south, Barrington Street to the east, and Albemarle Street (formerly Market Street) to the west.

Buildings

*Barrington Tower (20 floors, 84 metres)
*Cogswell Tower (20 floors, 79 metres)
*Duke Tower (16 floors, 71 metres)
*Delta Hotel building (15 floors)
*Scotia Square Mall (2 floors)

Pedways and Tunnels

*Pedway connecting Brunswick Street to a stairwell near Barrington Tower. Passes over Albemarle Street (formerly Market Street).
*Pedway connecting parkade under Cogswell Tower to the Trade Mart building across Cogswell Street.
*Tunnel connecting mall to World Trade and Convention Centre, as well as the Halifax Metro Centre. Passes under Duke Street.
*Three-level pedway going from Barrington & Duke Towers to a stairwell, which leads to parking and the mall.
*Pedway going from mall, over Granville Mall, and into Barrington Place mall. From there one can go on to Purdy's Wharf, Casino Nova Scotia, the CIBC Building, and the TD Tower.

Controversy

The Scotia Square development is regarded by many as a bad choice for Halifax, for a number of reasons. The land on which it was built on was very large (it completely covered Buckingham Street, which doesn't exist at all today), and it created somewhat of a barrier between North End Halifax and the main downtown area.Fact|date=April 2007

The building's brutalist-style architecture is also considered by some to be very unattractive, as the architects used many sheer street-level concrete faces in their design.

ee also

*Halifax Regional Municipality