Gottingen Street Planter Benches

The street planters along Halifax’s vibrant Gottingen Street are undergoing a renaissance thanks to a placemaking and community partnership initiative. The North End Business Association collaborated with four design firms to breathe new life into the planters, creating opportunities for public seating, interaction, and community growth.

FBM and RadStorm, an art collective located on Gottingen Street, partnered to design simple, elegant slat seating that supports formal and informal activities around the collective’s headquarters. Investigations of the daily rhythms of the sidewalk informed an approach to the planters’ updated design. Accessible seats and tables facilitate engagement between artists and the public year-round. The wood’s special notched details elevate the design and screen print designs, by InkStorm Screen Printing Collective (part of RadStorm), bringing the community’s stories to the built environment.

The collaboration is funded by the North End Business Association, the Nova Scotia Busines and Labour Economic Coalition and Develop Nova Scotia.