"We make our buildings and afterwards they make us.
They regulate the course of our lives."                                              -Winston Churchill

A Distinct and Unique City

The Regional Centre has an exceptional existing urban context that is distinct and unique in its own right. The defining natural assets include the topography, the harbour, and the lakes. This informs the unique morphological characteristics of the Regional Centre and is evident in the historic road, block and building patterns.

This underlay is a cultural urban tapestry that is accentuated by the Citadel, both Commons, Point Pleasant Park, the commercial and military port and one of Canada's most outstanding assemblages of heritage buildings and structures. It is further enriched by the sometimes less evident but significant history of the countless people and events that have shaped this place, including the Halifax Explosion and Africville.

An urban design strategy for the Regional Centre should not only pay homage to these distinctions, it must enhance and build on them, evolving the city to become a contemporary urban centre and capital district with a continued unique sense of place – the success of both are intrinsically linked.

In doing so, seemingly incompatible values can coexist harmoniously with good urban design. Heritage will be protected because of its inherent value to new development. New buildings will be designed with intentions of becoming future heritage. The functioning port will become a source for thriving districts and provide the opportunity for universities and institutions to revitalize neighbourhoods and retail streets.