One of Canada’s leading architects will design a proposed housing development for the Town of Lunenburg, but many locals aren’t convinced the project should happen at all.

On Tuesday, Lunenburg councillors awarded MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects a $151,000 contract for the Blockhouse Hill project after staff determined they were the best fit and value for money.

“What really set them apart from the very beginning of the review process was this incredible combination of international expertise and … a deep local connection,” senior planner and town heritage officer Hilary Grant said in an interview earlier this week.

Led by acclaimed Nova Scotia architect and partner Brian MacKay-Lyons, the firm has designed major international projects as well as many in Nova Scotia like the Shobac cottages and studio on Hirtles Beach, the Queen’s Marque in Halifax, and B2 Lofts in downtown Lunenburg.

The firm is teaming up with Julian Smith, an expert heritage planner and scholar who’s led conservation projects at Canada’s Vimy Monument in France and contributed to a 2011 UNESCO report on historic urban environments.

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