Fenwick Place
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Fenwick Place is a Dalhousie University student residence in the south end of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Completed in 1971, it is the tallest building in Halifax at 98 metres and 33 stories. Fenwick Place occupies a property between Fenwick Street and South Street; it takes its name from Fenwick Street which honours former Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, Sir William Fenwick Williams.
At the time the building was being built the developer meant it to be much taller and even touted it to become 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 and was never "fully" completed on its interior. The top 2 floors of the building were designed to contain a swimming pool, however the pool was never completed; 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.
This is one of the more popular myths about Fenwick Place. 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 common myths about Fenwick Place include:
- not all the bedrooms have windows
- the building sways so dramatically in the wind that water in the toilets sloshes
- the developer committed suicide
Fenwick Place houses approximately 500 students, mostly senior undergraduates, graduate students and families.
On the night of September 27th, 2003, Hurricane Juan hit Halifax, forcing all Fenwick residents to the building's basement overnight. Windows in several apartments were broken and walls in some apartments collapsed. Residents were evacuated from approximately one week up to four months, depending on the damage and repair time to their individual apartments.
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