Dorothy Shephard has lived on St. James Street West — with a clear view of Saint John Harbour — for nearly 46 years.
“My first New Year’s Eve here, I remember at midnight, all the ships in the harbour sounded off, and that was really comforting to me,” said Shephard, whose father was a stevedore.
But the harbourfront has changed over the years, and most recently, those changes included the addition of a massive, rectangular building partially obstructing the view for residents of Shephard’s street.
That building is a nearly completed, 190,000-square-foot cold-storage plant that is expected to create 100 jobs by 2029. It’s the result of a partnership between Port Saint John and Americold, which owns or operates 239 cold-storage facilities worldwide.
The neighbourhood was aware the building would be going up, and the first engagement session with the public happened a few years ago, said Shephard, who served in former premier Blaine Higgs’s cabinet.
“It’s been interesting over the last year to see the frame go up and thinking, ‘Oh, that’s, you know, that’s OK, that’s not so bad,’” she said.
“And then you see the siding go up, and you see your view diminish a little bit, and you’re like, there’s a little bit of grieving going on.”
Dorothy Shephard, who served in the cabinet of former premier Blaine Higgs, called Port Saint John with an idea about projecting a live feed onto the back of the new building. (Michael Heenan/CBC)
But Shephard said she is a huge supporter of the port, and seeing the big white building take shape inspired an idea.
“The idea actually came to me after I was sitting in an office where they had a livestream of a construction site, and I watched it, and I thought, ‘You know, I could almost watch this all day.’”
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Port Saint John is exploring the idea of projecting a live feed of the harbour onto the back of a new building, after the idea was raised by a resident whose view is now blocked.
So Shephard called Craig Bell Estabrooks, the president and CEO of Port Saint John and told him what she had in mind.
The idea? Putting cameras on the harbourside of the slab-like building and projecting the feed onto the back of the blank surface, so residents can have their view back.
Estabarooks said the port has been talking internally about the possibility of projections in different Saint John locations for events such as Harbour Lights, a yearly campaign supporting 16 food banks in southwestern New Brunswick.
Craig Bell Estabrooks, the president and CEO of Port Saint John, said projecting a live feed onto the back of the new cold-storage building isn’t out of the realm of possibility. (Michael Heenan/CBC)
“Is there an opportunity to project on things like our potash terminal that’s in the south end?” he said. “We have these two cruise terminals, we’ve got the Harbour Bridge, of course, the New Brunswick Museum going up on Douglas Avenue, all sorts of different ideas were kind of running through our head.
“And then a local resident of the west side came to me and talked about Americold, too, because it is a white structure.”
While the idea of projecting onto the back of the cold-storage facility building is in the very early stages, Estabrooks said, the port’s digital content creation team is looking at what’s possible. Estabrooks has had a meeting with a company that does projection work in Quebec, Ontario and parts of Europe.
On St. James Street West, the waterfront view may be different now, but Shephard says she’s happy to see a thriving port with new jobs being created. (Michael Heenan/CBC)
Different aspects of the idea still need to be explored, Estabrooks said. For example, the cost would likely go up if the projection was a live feed as opposed to a recording.
Still, he said, spending money on things like this is important.
“I really feel people are more connected than ever in Saint John to their waterfront,” Estabrooks said.
“I do think you need to spend a little money on those softer things that bring people closer to the harbour.”
Estabrooks said he wasn’t part of the conversation, but there were talks about a decade ago about what it would look like to project against the brick cruise terminals. At the time, however, the technology just wasn’t there.
But the technology has grown significantly and even more possibilities exist, such as using drone technology for special events, he said.
Shephard said she’s happy to see a thriving port, with more jobs being created, even if it means her view of it isn’t what it used to be.
Shephard has long watched the ships go by in the harbour from the back deck of her upper floor, and she’ll keep watching even though the view isn’t the same. (Michael Heenan/CBC)
“[The building] now becomes a part of our community,” she said.
“And you know, I’m going to keep watching the ships through my third floor, and then even on my deck, I can see most of the harbour still … and I’m going to enjoy it.”