The CBC Radio Building was a landmark

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by Aerodynamics, aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In indu ...

-style office building located in Halifax,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

overlooking the

Halifax Citadel Citadel Hill is a National Historic Sites of Canada, National Historic Site in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Four fortifications have been constructed on Citadel Hill since the city was founded by the British in 1749, and were referred to as For ...

and

Halifax Public Gardens The Halifax Public Gardens are Victorian-era public gardens formally established in 1867, the year of Canadian Confederation. The gardens are located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the Halifax Peninsula near the popular shopping district of Spri ...

which served as the home of

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

in Nova Scotia from 1944 to 2014.

Origins

The building was made for Fred C. Manning, a Nova Scotia businessman who built a chain of gas stations and car dealerships during the 1920s and 30s known as the United Service Corporation. Completed in 1933, it originally served as a car dealership, gas station and Manning's head office. Sydney Perry Dumaresq,J. Philip Dumaresq
"The Story of the CBC Radio Building at Sackville and Bell Road, Halifax"
''The Griffin'', Vol. 35, No. 3 September 2010 one of a family of famous Nova Scotian architects, designed the building in the

-style, a 1930s variation of

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

known for its elegant curves and often associated with transportation facilities of the era. In order to maximize the use of the corner property, parking was provided on the roof of the building, with access via a specially built elevator.

CBC Radio

In 1944, the

station CBHA and other CBC services in Nova Scotia moved into the building installing their transmission tower on the roof in the first few years. CBC studios soon grew to occupy more of the building which came to serve as home to English CBC Radio One station

CBHA-FM CBHA-FM is a Canadian radio station. It is the CBC Radio One affiliate in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, broadcasting at 90.5 Hertz, MHz. It is the flagship CBC Radio One station for the The Maritimes, Maritime provinces. CBHA's studi ...

and Radio Two station

CBH-FM CBH-FM (102.7 MHz) is a non-commercial public radio station in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The station was launched on June 1, 1975 and is the CBC Music outlet for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. CBH-FM's studios are at 7067 Cheb ...

as well as radio administration and various arts programs. The Canadian humourist

Max Ferguson Max Ferguson, OC (February 10, 1924 – March 7, 2013) was a Canadian radio personality and satirist, best known for his long-running radio programs ''Rawhide'' and ''The Max Ferguson Show'' on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). B ...

began his CBC career in the building in 1946, creating the character "Rawhide" to host a morning country and western show that soon became a satirical hit. After renting for many years, the CBC purchased the building in 1981. However, in the wake of staff reductions and programming cuts, the CBC sold the building in 2014 as part of plans to consolidate television and radio in a new facility on 7067 Chebucto Road in the Armdale neighbourhood of Halifax's West End.

Arts space

In addition to its role as the Halifax home of CBC Radio, the building also offered free space to a wide range of arts organizations, playing a vital role in the growth of the province's cultural scene. The offices of the classical music organizations Debut Atlantic and the St. Cecilia Concert Series were housed there at the invitation of then-regional radio director Bill Donovan. in 1993, the building also became home to the

Atlantic Film Festival The Atlantic International Film Festival is a major international film festival held annually in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada since 1980. AIFF is the largest Canadian film festival east of Montreal, regularly premiering the region's top films of ...

at the invitation of then-CBC Television director Fred Mattocks, following the festival's loss of office space at the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

's centre on

Barrington Street View southward on Barrington StreetBarrington Street is a major street in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, running from the MacKay Bridge in the North End approximately 7 km south, through Downtown Halifax to Inglis Street in the South End. Its ...

, which was destroyed by fire in 1991. Other arts organizations with space at the building included the Centre for Art Tapes, the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative, the Linda Joy Media Arts Society, the Moving Images Group, Shortworks, and dance groups Mocean Dance and Live Art Dance.

Demolition

CBC broadcast its final shows from the building in November 2014. The building was purchased by Southwest Developments who began demolition on it in March 2016. The former site of the CBC building and the adjacent

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

are now the location of two 13-storey residential buildings.

References

{{CBC facilities Buildings and structures in Halifax, Nova Scotia Streamline Moderne architecture in Canada Canadian Broadcasting Corporation buildings Culture of Halifax, Nova Scotia Buildings and structures demolished in 2016 Office buildings completed in 1933 Federal government buildings in Nova Scotia