Dundrun Press - http://www.dundurn.c...nbuilt_victoria
From Amazon:
http://www.amazon.ca...l/dp/1459701747Product Description
For most people, resident and visitor alike, Victoria, British Columbia, is a time capsule of Victorian and Edwardian buildings. For its first 50 years the settlement flourished as the capital of the province. A smallpox epidemic in the 1890s closed Victoria's port, causing the city to go into decline and shelving plans for the Canada Western Hotel, for a replica of the Parthenon in Beacon Hill Park, and for the grandiose Italianate facade that was to complete City Hall.
Victoria tried to reinvent itself as a tourist destination, but it wasn't until the modernizing boom after the Second World War that attempts were made to drag the city's built environment into the mainstream. Unbuilt Victoria examines some of the architectural plans that were proposed but rejected. That some of them were ever dreamed of will probably amaze; that others never made it might well be a matter of regret.
About the Author
Dorothy Mindenhall is an architectural historian with a particular interest in the Victorian era. She was a contributor to Building the West, a publication about the architects and architectural environment of early British Columbia, and is involved in various projects for heritage conservation. Dorothy lives in Victoria.
[old proposal for the Wharf St. parking lot]