Lunenburg Academy Halifax, NS
In 1883, the Lunenburg Academy was designed by H.H. Mott, a well-known New Brunswick architect, as part of Nova Scotia's shift from one room school houses to public Academies. The ornate Second Empire style Academy building was registered as both a Provincial Heritage Property and a National Historic Site in 1983. The building is now the only intact 19th century Academy Building surviving in Nova Scotia.
G.F. Duffus & Co. Ltd. (now part of DSRA) was involved with the Lunenburg Academy on a number of commissions. In 1984, the firm prepared contract documents for the addition of doors and smoke enclosures in the exit star so that the Academy's function as an elementary school could safely continue. Further, a conservation plan was outlined and budgets prepared to preserve the building as a school by rehabilitating the unused top floor into a theatre, meetings rooms, etc., for community use, accessible by an elevator. In 1986, a drawn record was made of the entrances and the existing bell tower including the many trim details; this was done in preparation for future contracts to replace a previously remove roof tower and for the immediate replacement of doors and entrances, by the school board, that had fallen into disrepair.
In 2012, a comprehensive envelope conservation plan prepared. The Academy closed its doors in March of 2012 after 117 years of continuous operation as a school and is being prepared for the next phase of life with a new tenant.