147 replies to this topic

[Caramia]

oops! Sorry! Fixed it!

[D.L.]

at first I thought 'view from Countney & Douglas' meant it was going to be built on the corner, which would not have been good because the Douglas St. side is much too plain to directly front a street. But since this is going behind the Ballentynes building it's alright. I wonder where the main entrance for the building is, it must be tucked in there beside the retail space.

[Mike K.]

The roof is similar to the original 819 Yates design, isn't it?

I like the green glass.

[Nparker]

An interesting proposal that will never happen. Pigs will sprout wings and fly before something of this height (lol) gets approved for the West side of Douglas, and that close to an "historic" site...even though the project is proposed by the owner of said historic site. Still it makes one dream what could be.

[concorde]

Since when does a church have any money or any experience in development? You have to wonder if Westbank, experienced developers, couldn't make the project work, how could a church do it?

[Baro]

I think they've got faith in this project's potential. I just hope the nimby's don't crucify then over the height, but this project could really be an office-space savior in a town starved for it.

ok I'm done...

[Caramia]

Depends who the church members are.

[Rob Randall]

A community meeting will be held at 1 pm, Sunday June 15 (today).

The meeting will be held in the Kirk Hall, 680 Courtney Street entrance.

The public is invited; come on down.

[Jim]

I thought I would pitch in to clarify a few points.
1. The Presbyterian Church in Canada is perfectly capable of building major buildings. One of our churches in downtown Ottawa did a very similar development about 10 years ago with an office tower on the Sparks Street Mall attached to the church across the street from the bank of Canada.

Churches like ours have a suprising pool of talent available. members include every walk of life and our development committee includes business people, accountants, lawyers, architects, executives, planners etc. Clearly with a building of this scale, you don't try to do-it-yourself even with talented volunteers. The church will engage a respected development team to deliver this project once we get zoning approval from the city.

2. I guess pigs do fly. There are already a number of sites in the Old Town precinct within less than 100 m to our site that have permited heights of 43 m. The City recently gave design approval to a 12 storey building on Broughton between Broad and Government.

3. Although we will not have a dedicated gym, the building design calls for a large, high ceiling multi purpose room with an attached kitchen that will seat 200 for a meal. In total, the building will provide about 16,000 sq ft of space for church and community use, 45,000 sq ft of office space and about 1400 sq ft of retail on the Courney Street side.

[G-Man]

Hi Jim,

Welcome to the board. Let's just say you are preaching to the choir

I really like the project that your group has presented on this.

I think that as with all projects in the city there is a bit of skepticism, see what happened to the Radius, but this is certainly not a comment on your groups ability to produce a great building.

I know I for one think it is great and wish you the best in fighting the clamour that is certain to be heard on this issue.

[Jim]

Keep the faith. God is on our side.

[B.Bridge]

Wow, I didn't know we had "the faith", nor had I realized there were sides, and furthermore that God is on one of them. I thought this was a thread about demolishing a building and putting up another.

[Rob Randall]

^Obviously you have never attended a Advisory Design Panel, Advisory Planning Commission or Committee of the Whole meeting. If you do, you will see architects and developers whispering to themselves using the Lord's name.

[G-Man]

And the decisions are as rational as those of the characters in the old testament.

[aastra]

I wonder what God thinks of Radius?

[G-Man]

Perhaps He/She wanted a big whole at the corner of Blanshard and Caledonia

[Koru]

I think maybe God got sick of the flat empty lot at what Radius used to be and decided he wanted a big empty hole with hording around it...wanted to change the scenery for us local Victorians a little give us a little hope for the that desolate lot

[Holden West]

This is the Lord Thy God, whom speaketh to you through the account of Holden West.

You asketh My opinion regardeth Radius.

Verily, you knoweth: before thou breakest thy bread you must pay respect and express faith to Me.

Likewise: before thou excavateth thy foundation, you must pay due diligence and express faith to thy money lender.

[Nparker]

Amen.

[Caramia]

Damn, he's right.

And now, back to the Presbyterians, it will be interesting to see if they become part of that axis of evil that is threatening to destroy Victoria, along with Eric Charman, Roger's Chocolates, the Sisters of Saint Ann and The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.