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Building tall in Victoria


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#1 AllseeingEye

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 07:41 PM

Scroll down a few articles; some interesting points and perspectives in terms of why "building higher" in the city fell into disfavour after the late 1960's: https://www.yellowsheet.ca/blog/.

 

 



#2 sebberry

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 07:53 PM

Direct link to the article: https://www.yellowsh...tall-buildings/


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#3 concorde

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 08:25 PM

Promontory is the tallest building on Vancouver Island?   I thought that was the Beacon in Nanaimo

 

Emporis lists Beacon at 275.5 feet

Wikipedia lists Promontory at 217 feet



#4 G-Man

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 08:27 PM

They lost me when they said the Promontory was the tallest on Vancouver Island... Not even close.

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#5 Mike K.

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 08:28 PM

Promontory is NOT the tallest building on Vancouver Island. Big, big oopsie there.

 

And concorde, what the heck are you doing referencing Emporis!? Jeez man, use SkyscraperPage!


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#6 Rob Randall

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 08:34 PM

Interesting to read Segger's view that lack of infrastructure contributed to the end of James Bay highrises. We always assumed it was solely grassroots backlash.



#7 Mixed365

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 09:31 PM

Has anyone here in the industry ever used this service? Is it helpful?


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#8 aastra

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 06:32 AM

I appreciate the effort but that's a weak piece.

 

 

It’s hard to think of any similarly tall buildings that have been built in Victoria’s downtown core in recent memory.

 

Some of us old-timers remember the controversies when the Falls and Astoria were built. But you have to go way, way back.

 

 

Sussex Place, which dominates Victoria’s downtown core...

 

It just dominates, doesn't it? Whenever you're downtown, there it is. You can't get away from it.

 

 

...what we now consider heritage houses in James Bay had traditionally provided low-cost housing for Victoria’s service workers.

 

Demolishing the old houses to create highly profitable apartment high-rises were pushing people out of the neighbourhood. Pollen recalls that one tool to deal with the problem was height restrictions...

 

Interesting. Large rental apartment buildings were pushing people out of the neighbourhood.

 

Also, does anyone want to guess how many old heritage houses were demolished to build Orchard House & Roberts House? Quiz: did the number of rooms demolished exceed the number of new rooms created?

 

 

While the Blanshard Court public housing project is still considered to be a success...

 

Oh, it's unanimous. No one has ever offered a legitimate criticism of that place.

 

 

 “In order to support more densification in James Bay there would have to be major infrastructure upgrades...

 

Game over. I suppose it was a lucky break that the infrastructure was already in place back in 1860 to support the dense city core that would eventually be created. If only they had anticipated the residential highrise boom. If only.



#9 aastra

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 06:42 AM

 

Interesting to read Segger's view that lack of infrastructure contributed to the end of James Bay highrises.

 

Indeed. Meanwhile, that same lack of infrastructure in formally rural Saanich was having no effect at all on a massive suburban housing boom there (the largest suburban housing boom that Victoria had ever seen and probably ever will see). It's almost as if they created the necessary infrastructure to make it happen.

 

(Note that I'm not wishing the ugly highrise boom had never ended. I'm just pointing out that profitable new construction could have/would have paid for the necessary infrastructure work, if the demand for new construction had remained high and if the profitability was as great as supposed.)



#10 lanforod

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 07:17 AM

Playing a little devil's advocate with most of the folks who participate here: Which area of Victoria would you like to see built up a la Vancouver's Yaletown? (not like Coal Harbour, which always seems so dead compared to Yaletown).



#11 Mike K.

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 07:23 AM

Yeah, its a bit of a head scratcher, that piece.

Orchard House caused an uproar when residents realized it blocked the view of the mountains down Douglas, not because James Bay's streets couldn't handle more horses and buggies (that's what people used to get around on back then, right?)

Mayor Pollen then took it upon himself to keep James Bay from going down the same path as downtown Vancouver's west end and height limits were struck.

At least that's the storey that has been passed down from one generation to the next. Never was infrastructure even mentioned.

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#12 Nparker

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 07:24 AM

Which area of Victoria would you like to see built up a la Vancouver's Yaletown?...

The most logical area to me for significantly greater density would be (more-or-less) the Harris Green boundaries, with additions of parts of south and west North Park. All surface parking lots west of Cook Street and south of Hillside are terribly underutilized as is and would benefit from development IMO.


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#13 concorde

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 07:30 AM

They lost me when they said the Promontory was the tallest on Vancouver Island... Not even close.

agreed, if they get the first fact wrong, you have to wonder how many others are wrong too.

 

and Mike I used Emporis because it came up higher on the list on my search for the Beach height



#14 Mike K.

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 07:31 AM

That's the worst mistake they could have made. And it's not the Oak Bay Gazette here, its Yellow Sheet. Yikes.

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#15 Mr Cook Street

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 07:32 AM

Playing a little devil's advocate with most of the folks who participate here: Which area of Victoria would you like to see built up a la Vancouver's Yaletown? (not like Coal Harbour, which always seems so dead compared to Yaletown).

Rock Bay.


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#16 concorde

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 07:35 AM

Mayor Pollen then took it upon himself to keep James Bay from going down the same path as downtown Vancouver's west end and height limits were struck.

Peter didn't want Victoria to become a concrete seascape like when he grew up in Toronto



#17 jonny

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 07:41 AM

The most logical area to me for significantly greater density would be (more-or-less) the Harris Green boundaries, with additions of parts of south and west North Park. All surface parking lots west of Cook Street and south of Hillside are terribly underutilized as is and would benefit from development IMO.

 

I would say James Bay, but lol.

 

IMO Harris Green has tons of room to grow and the city and citizens seem actually OK with allowing density to this area. Combine that with the amount of underutilized space and projects that are in the works and I think we'll see the greatest expansion in density there. It'll never be anything like Yaletown, mind you.


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#18 Mike K.

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 07:41 AM

Toronto was/is still that. But Vancouver's west end was done better. And it lead to one of the most sought after neighbourhoods in the world.

Edmonton's west downtown is pretty similar.

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#19 jonny

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 07:50 AM

I kind of like that boxy old 60/70's architecture when it is mixed in with some older and more modern stuff.

 

Like View Tower, Orchard House would look a lot better if it wasn't standing pretty much alone (you can't even see Roberts House from downtown).


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#20 HB

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 07:53 AM

You can see it from Wharf st and that is downtown

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