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The Twisted Sisters: Disputing Iconic Urban Design

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The Twisted Sisters: Disputing Iconic Urban Design 27 The Twisted Sisters: Disputing Iconic Urban Design Jill L. Grant Chloe Gillis An analysis of a dispute over high-rise buildings proposed for downtown Halifax, Canada, reveals the ascendance of new popular theories affecting planning discourse, processes, and outcomes. The dispute pitted advocates of iconic urban design against groups committed to heritage conservation in an older urban district. Project proponents employed urban design ideas to weaken heritage protection (historic preservation) and used creative class arguments to support high-rise structures in a low-rise zone. The case provided part of the context within which the city ultimately developed urban design policies and plan processes that substitute public participation with professional expertise. Planning activities such as development disputes and conserve views of the harbor from the heights of the reflect dominant theories, values, and processes of the Citadel Hill fortress at the heart of the city (see Figure 1). times in which they occur (Forester 1989; Gottdiener By contrast, the arguments that development proponents 1994). While the particulars of cases inevitably vary so and city planners made in the Twisted Sisters case reveal that direct comparison of how matters are handled is rarely the extent to which planning activities and decisions are possible, detailed examination of disputes can expose the influenced by fashionable theories, and how new theories types of arguments presented by various stakeholders, and affect planning arguments, processes, and outcomes. how they relate to the dominant theories of the time. This The paper begins by setting the context of development paper examines the dispute around a development known in Halifax before proceeding to discuss the Twisted Sisters locally in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as the Twisted Sisters case. The concluding section reflects on new theories case.1 In 2005, a developer applied to build two twisting, appearing in the dispute, and their implications for 27-storey towers on a downtown site, exceeding the as- community engagement in future. of-right height limits by over 200 feet. After City Council approved the project, heritage advocates appealed, but lost their case. Despite gaining all the necessary approvals, the Jill L. Grant is a Professor of Planning at Dalhousie University project never broke ground, and the original development in Halifax, Canada. Her current research projects focus on agreement with the city expired in 2010. trends in suburban areas, health and the built environment, and An examination of land use disputes in Halifax planning for creative cities. indicates that many themes, strategies, and theories employed by heritage advocates remained constant over Chloe Gillis graduated with a major in Urban Design Studies the decades. Heritage advocates continue to argue that new from Dalhousie University in May 2012. Her honors thesis development should be sympathetic to heritage buildings examined the development project reported here. 28 Grant and Gillis Figure 1: View from the Citadel over the site where the towers would rise. Image courtesy of Jill Grant. The Context In 1996, the Province of Nova Scotia amalgamated Halifax Regional Municipality—known as HRM the City of Halifax with two nearby municipalities and the or Halifax (the City)—is a mid-sized port city of larger county to create Halifax Regional Municipality. By approximately 400,000 people on Canada’s Atlantic coast. the early years of the 21st century, theories related to new Settled in 1749, it is one of the oldest cities in the country urbanism and smart growth influenced planning disputes with a rich heritage of historic sites and buildings. Citadel in Halifax and a regional planning exercise was underway Hill, location of the historic fortress that protected the city to coordinate planning across the vast municipality (Grant through the centuries, overlooks the harbor and central 2007). The positions of heritage advocates had not changed business district (CBD). The city’s central grid of narrow from the earlier period but planners’ logics had altered as streets and rectangular blocks is an artifact of early British they paid greater attention to issues of human scale, urban military town planning in the Americas. Although it is vitality, and smart growth (Grant 2007). the capital of Nova Scotia, Halifax experienced relatively After Richard Florida (2002; 2005) visited the city slow growth through the 20th century. In the 1960s through in 2004 (HRM 2004), his ideas about the need for cities the 1970s, Halifax desperately sought development and to attract and retain the creative class (that is, talented and tended to approve many projects despite protests (Grant creative workers) were adopted into economic and other 1994a). Consequently, many heritage structures remain policies (Gertler and Vinodrai 2004; HRM 2005; Grant interspersed with high-rise buildings that appeared in the and Kronstal 2010). The middle part of the decade also city center starting in the 1960s (Collier 1974; Pacey 1979). witnessed growing interest in urban design. The city Like other cities, Halifax has experienced many hired a staff expert and launched a process to develop an disputes over proposed projects in the CBD. During the urban design strategy. Recent disputes reveal the growing 1970s, heritage groups began to organize to preserve and influence of creative cities and urban design theories in protect valuable heritage assets they saw being lost (Pacey planning discourse. 1979). They convinced City Council to adopt heritage policies in plans and to designate protected view-planes The Case from the Citadel. The view-planes safeguarded views of On 16 December 2005 the City’s administrative particular features from particular locations (rather than officers forwarded case 00709, a development agreement panoramic views of the harbor). Tactics of opposing for the former Texpark site, to the Heritage Advisory projects gradually changed from marches with picket signs Committee (HAC) and to the District 12 Planning Advisory to sophisticated publicity strategies and legal challenges. Committee for consideration with the recommendation it be While ideas from planning critics like Jane Jacobs and approved (English and Anstey 2005). Located in the CBD Prince Charles made their way into the arguments of amidst a mix of low-, medium-, and high-rise buildings and those opposing new high-rise projects in Halifax during vacant lots, the site was near several registered heritage the 1980s and 1990s (Grant 1994b), planners generally properties and two blocks from Halifax harbor (see Figure articulated rational planning paradigm arguments (Grant 2). The site previously housed a gasoline station and car 1994a). park that were demolished in 2004 after the city built a Carolina Planning Volume 37 The Twisted Sisters: Disputing Iconic Urban Design 29 new public parking structure nearby. After arranging to policies in the plan sought to preserve and restore heritage purchase the land from the city, United Gulf Developments resources in city center. Protecting views and limiting proposed to build a mixed-use development with a common heights around Citadel Hill were of special concern during four-level podium and two towers of 27 storeys each. As- discussions at the HAC meeting. Questions arose about of-right zoning for the site permitted a height of 40 feet, the meaning of “vicinity”, “adjacent”, and “immediate but the plan allowed Council to alter that limit through the environs” in heritage policies such as 6.3 and 6.4. negotiated development agreement process, provided that other plan policies were respected. The proposed towers 6.3 The City shall maintain or recreate a sensitive and would soar 285 feet above Hollis Street (see Figure 3). complimentary setting for Citadel Hill by controlling The developer presented a design by Hariri Pontarini the height of new development in its vicinity to reflect of Toronto, an internationally respected architectural firm the historic and traditional scale of development. (Hariri Pontarini 2011). Drawings showed towers of glass, stone, and metal twisting upward, seemingly defying 6.3.1 The intent of such height controls shall be to gravity. The slender tower would feature a high-end hotel establish a generally low to medium rise character while the chunkier tower would include condominiums. of development in the area of approximately four The podium would house restaurants, retail, and office traditional storeys in height immediately adjacent to space. The twisted towers design—soon dubbed the Citadel Hill and increasing with distance therefrom… “Twisted Sisters”—received rave reviews from many architects and architectural critics (Bentley Mays 2006; Canadian Consulting Engineer 2006). Local designers welcomed the proposal for tall buildings and complimented the architects for “not just making this your basic shard in the sky” but creating something “elegant” with a “post-modern sensibility” (Van Berkel 2006). Relevant policies for deciding the case dealt with ensuring appropriate scale, design, massing, and compatibility with the block pattern and heritage buildings; creating a lively and vibrant pedestrian environment downtown; protecting views from the Citadel; minimizing impacts related to wind, shadows, and traffic; and optimizing economic and social benefits from the project. Staff advised committees and decision makers that the “Council has a high degree of latitude” in determining desirable characteristics
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