Scotia Square

Scotia Square is an enclosed shopping mall in Downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is part of Duke Tower, which is a 16 floor office complex. Barrington Tower, Cogswell Tower, Brunswick Place, and other buildings are connected to the mall via Downtown Halifax's pedway system which is called "Halifax Link". It's the largest pedway system in Atlantic Canada. 
== History ==
In the 1960s, Halifax decided to follow a popular trend of the time. This trend was called "Urban Renewal". This was when urban cores or downtowns would see lots of changes, like many buildings being demolished to build towers, and roads being changed. As part of Halifax's Urban Renewal plan, Cogswell Street and all of its buildings were demolished to build a new highway called highway 111, also known as "The Circ". To make this highway, many buildings were torn down. Including the community of Africville and other places. Eventually, people began to oppose the development, and the part that would demolish the Halifax Waterfront and build a third bridge was cancelled. Since part of Downtown was already demolished, the Cogswell Exchange was built instead. Next to the exchange, Duke Tower was built, which was part of the original plan. The bottom part of Duke Tower was built as a shopping mall, Scotia Square. 
The mall had an opening date of October 15th, 1969.https://archive.org/details/Hali0019_1969/page/n1/mode/2up It had 29 stores on opening day, later on, 30 more stores opened. The original anchor of the mall was Woolco, which was on the second floor. A Famous Players Theatre was also a tenant. In the centre court of the mall, there was a large fountain which shot water up very high. This remained for many years until it was replaced with another fountain, which was removed around 2012. 
In 1974, a hotel opened at the mall. It was originally called Chateau Halifax, later on, it was converted to Delta Hotels. It's currently called Hotel Halifax. 
In 1976, The malls name was changed from Scotia Mall to Scotia Square. The year after, a seven stall food court opened on the lower level of the mall. 
Throughout the 1970s, other towers related to the development opened, these towers were connected via pedways. 
In 1980, Barrington Place opened. This tower is located directly across the street from Scotia Square, it originally had over 50 tenants on opening day. Its counted as a part of Scotia Square. In more recent years, Barrington Place lost almost all of its stores and is now mostly offices. 
In the 1990s, the mall had some renovations done such as a new mall fountain that replaced the other one and other modernizations such as new floor tile. 
In 1994, Woolco was acquired by Walmart, almost all stores were rebranded as such, this excludes downtown locations. Because of this, The Woolco closed at Scotia Square and was turned into offices, most retail left the second level and was turned into offices. Retailers at Scotia Square are now only located on the first floor. 
In 2006, a new Scotia Square logo was introduced, the logo wasn't used on the building until the 2010s. 
In 2016 and 2017, the mall had major renovations done, the main mall entrance was expanded and completely changed, the food court and the retail section saw many changes as well.
As of today, Scotia Square doesn't have any major anchors, but there is 2 junior anchors which are Dollarama and Lawtons Drugs. Throughout the last decade or so, Scotia Square has lost most of its national tenants such as Reitman's, The Source, The Head Shoppe, TELUS Mobility, and others. These days, mostly local tenants fill the halls of Scotia Square. The most popular part of the mall is the food court, which is called "The Mix". It features 11 different stalls, which include McDonald's, Subway, A&W, Tim Hortons, and others. 
In 2024, The part of Barrington Street in front of the main entrance was demolished to facilitate the further construction of the Cogswell District, which is a major development that demolished the Cogswell Exchange to return the area back to a grid system, many new towers and buildings will be built in this development as well. 
== Gallery ==
Here are pictures of Scotia Square & Barrington Place from August 2024
=== Scotia Square ===
File:Scotia Square (1).jpg|Entrance, by Lawtons Drugs
File:Scotia Square (2).jpg|One of the mall corridors, notice how all of the stores are closed
File:Scotia Square (3).jpg|The end of said corridor, near Dollarama entrance
File:Scotia Square.jpg|Another look at Dollarama plus H&R Block
File:Scotia Square (4).jpg|A corridor, Dollarama is in the opposite direction
File:Scotia Square (6).jpg|Main corridor, looking towards the main court and food court
File:Scotia Square (7).jpg|Main Court
File:Scotia Square (8).jpg|"The Mix" Food Court
File:Scotia Square (9).jpg|Another shot of "The Mix" Food Court
File:Scotia Square (10).jpg|Upper Floor, looking towards the main court and ped-way to Barrington Place
File:Scotia Square (11).jpg|Main corridor on the upper floor, no longer used for retail
File:Scotia Square (12).jpg|Lower level, looking towards NSLC and an entrance which is closed off because of major construction
File:Scotia Square (13).jpg|Lower level escalators which go to the centre court on the main level
=== Barrington Place ===
File:Scotia Square (14).jpg|Looking towards a corner store, one of the last retail tenants left in Barrington Place
File:Scotia Square (15).jpg|Main corridor of Barrington Place, no longer used for retail
== Public Transit ==
In front of the mall is Scotia Square Terminal, Halifax Transit operates many different bus routes that go to this stop. In the 2016/17 Scotia Square renovations, an indoor waiting room was added to the terminal. 
Because of the current Cogswell District construction, the terminal has temporarily closed and has moved down the road for the time being. When the Cogswell District is complete, Scotia Square Terminal will be completely redone with better waiting areas, dedicated bus lanes, electronic signs that show the estimated time for the bus arriving, and other things to make Halifax Transit a better and more reliable service in Downtown Halifax. 
Below are all of the current Halifax Transit bus routes that serve Scotia Square 
Scotia Square Terminal
Route No.	Route Name 	Route Type		Route No.	Route Name 	Route Type
1 	Spring Garden	Corridor 		93 	Bedford Highway	Local
2 	Fairview 	Corridor 		123 	Timberlea 	Express
5 	Portland 	Corridor 		127 	Cowie Hill 	Express
7 A/B 	Peninsula 	Corridor 		135 	Flamingo 	Express
8 	Sackville 	Corridor 		136 	Farnham Gate 	Express
9 A/B 	Graystone/
Herringcove	Corridor 		137 	Clayton Park 	Express
10 	Dalhousie 	Corridor 		138 	Parkland 	Express
29 	Barrington 	Local 		158 	Woodlawn 	Express
84 	Glendale 	Local 		159 	Colby 	Express
161 	North Preston	Express 		165 	Caldwell 	Express
168 A/B 	Auburn /
Cherry Brook	Express 		182 	First Lake 	Express
183 	Sackville 	Express 		185 	Sackville 	Express
186 	Sackville 	Express 		194 	West Bedford 	Express
196 	Basinview 	Express 		 	 	
Category:North America
Category:Canada
Category:Shopping Malls
Category:Malls in Nova Scotia
Category:Dollarama Locations
Category:McDonald's Locations
Category:A&W Locations
Category:Woolco-anchored Malls
Category:Subway Locations
Category:Malls in Canada
Category:Lawtons Drugs Locations
Category:Crombie REIT-owned Malls