Fenwick Tower
Excerpts from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fenwick Tower is a former Dalhousie University student residence in the south end of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, currently undergoing redevelopment into a residential and commercial complex. It is the tallest building in Halifax at 98 metres and 33 stories, the tallest building in the Maritimes, and the tallest residential structure in Canada east of Quebec City.
Construction
The building was completed in 1971 and was officially named Fenwick Place, though most Halifax-area residents referred to it as Fenwick Tower. It occupies a property between Fenwick Street and South Street; it takes its name from Fenwick Street which in turn honours Sir William Fenwick Williams, former Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia.
At the time the building was being built, the developer boldly touted it as the largest residential project east of Toronto. Once financial problems set in, the goal seemed unreachable and Fenwick Place was sold off to Dalhousie University for $5.25 million CAD as a student residence. During construction, Hurricane Beth filled the elevator shafts with seventeen feet of water. When the first residents began to move in in 1971, complaints were made of apartments missing heat, windows, and other furnishings or amenities.
Mythology
Local lore suggests that the top two floors of the building were designed to contain a swimming pool; however, the pool was never completed. Again, local lore suggests that engineers and architects never took into account the weight of water in the pool, so it was unable to be filled. The top-floor swimming pool is one of the more popular myths about Fenwick Tower. In fact, after taking over the project, Dalhousie decided that the cost of installing repeater pumps throughout the building to pump the water to the top would be prohibitively expensive, and scrapped the idea of the pool before construction reached that phase.
Other myths about Fenwick Tower include:
- that not all the bedrooms have windows
- that the top two floors suffered extensive damage in a 1994 fire
- that the developer committed suicide
- that the building sways so dramatically in the wind that water in the toilets sloshes (in fact, the building sways 5 inches in 80 mph wind, 3 inches less the building code regulations in Halifax)