1461 replies to this topic

[amor de cosmos]

For a billion dollars and a decade closed, this museum better be the Taj Mahal of museums. Sadly, I’m sure it will be a limp biscuit filled entirely with First Nations programming… which will eventually be deemed racist for some reason or another since the woke left continually eats itself.

the museum has a repatriation policy so there's some chance a lot of the FN stuff that's there now won't stay. ironically other than visiting rcbm & thunderbird park i didn't have much exposure to first nations artworks, etc growing up. it was definitely the first place i remember seeing them anyway.
https://www.saanichn...seum-treasures/
 

Edit- I also predict it will have a new unprounanceable name.

someone has found 10 different ways to pronounce the english suffix "ough". who knows which is the right one for a given word?: https://languagelog....du/nll/?p=53710

someone else counted 30 different ways in this list: https://en.wikipedia...Jnestorius/ough

[spanky123]

From my understanding, there is a know seismic risk to the building and the government is legally obligated to preserve and protect the collection in perpetuity for all British Columbians. If they do not act, they would be negligent if an earthquake should happen. Considering the buildings contain the sum of BC history, it seems prudent to protect it. Many will see other uses for the money, however the Treasury board (not the elected politicians) decided this was needed. It is needed to protect our heritage for the next 100 years.
 

 

Even if the building collapsed and every artifact was lost what would that represent of the 6 million piece collection, 2% maybe? That is why we are building a $200M building in Colwood.

 

Lets face it however, the buildings will not cost anywhere near $1B. The building will be $100M with $900M being the amount that will be spent purchasing new "artifacts" from buddies. 

Edited by spanky123, 14 May 2022 - 07:10 AM.

[max.bravo]

You don’t know how government building contracts work then. Every aspect of the project will be awarded to a firm who stretches the contract for more dollars than allocated. These firms are expert at this. There will be no accountability from government project managers, of which there will be at least 20 over the span of the project. It’ll be run by different silos in different ministries with no real accounting of actual costs. This will be a cash cow for the consultants in this town.

[mbjj]

If they want to showcase First Nations' culture and history, build a separate museum. I'm really not all that interested in it, to be quite honest. But if that's where folks want to visit, give them their own separate building, administered by First Nations. 

 

I think the current building is really a beautiful thing. It sure will be a sad loss. 

Edited by mbjj, 14 May 2022 - 07:24 AM.

[dasmo]

Even if the building collapsed and every artifact was lost what would that represent of the 6 million piece collection, 2% maybe? That is why we are building a $200M building in Colwood.

Lets face it however, the buildings will not cost anywhere near $1B. The building will be $100M with $900M being the amount that will be spent purchasing new "artifacts" from buddies.

I had not realized they were demolishing this and rebuilding a monsterpiece. Where is all this money coming from? Especially after all the money that’s been spent over the last two years…. While us Proles are preparing for hyper inflation and battening down the hatches the Party is pumping up our debt and manifesting inflation regardless.

[Mike K.]

Gas taxes and billions in higher taxation revenues from taxes on items costing more due to out of control inflation.

[Matt R.]

Barely even half a years PTT. Is a billion even a lot anymore?

[Mike K.]

If it’s not, why are we so terrible at upgrading infrastructure around here?

[Matt R.]

Because we burn money on stuff like this?

[Nparker]

...why are we so terrible at upgrading infrastructure around here?

Or paying doctors enough to make them want to work in BC?

[North Shore]

How about building a hospital instead. I am tired of the idiot politicians catering to

groups at everyone else expense.

What point is there to building a hospital if there's noone available to staff it, or money to run it?

If we're going to spend money on the medical system, let's bump up medical and nursing school enrollment numbers, and then bump up healthcare salaries so that those new graduates want/can afford to stay here and work.  Further, we should do it now while the age wave is just cresting/breaking, and we still have a decent tax base..we are already running catchup; leaving things another few years, and we'll have to run (spend) even harder...

[Mike K.]

An entire generation of young people are not going to have access to this museum during their formative years. I have little faith of this project opening before 2032.

Which begs the question, would it not have made more sense to build the museum in Rock Bay, and redevelop the existing museum lands into something else, while keeping the museum operational until the new one opened, or transitioning exhibits on a piecemeal basis to keep the majority of it operational?

That museum had almost annual world renowned exhibits occupying its flex spaces. Now we won’t have any of that, for an entire decade.

I dunno, I guess I feel like this is a real gut kick to Victoria. Surely there is a better way of handling something of this magnitude. Like, would Vancouver even entertain the closure of the art gallery for five years, to have the existing one rebuilt? What cities have shut down a landmark like a major museum for a decade?

[North Shore]

And why does/will it take 8 ish years to build a new museum?  Are they building it out of exotically sourced, hand-made artisanal bricks made by one family in the middle of nowhere?

[spanky123]

This will be a cash cow for the consultants in this town.

 

Which they will then use to hire the Government project managers!

[spanky123]

If they want to showcase First Nations' culture and history, build a separate museum. I'm really not all that interested in it, to be quite honest. But if that's where folks want to visit, give them their own separate building, administered by First Nations. 

 

The obvious solution would have been to acquire Crystal Gardens from the City (the City loses $750K a year on that site) and utilize that as an FN annex to the museum. 

 

Problem however is that it would not have dealt with the real issue which is the destruction of anything perceived as too white or too colonialist. 

[spanky123]

the museum has a repatriation policy so there's some chance a lot of the FN stuff that's there now won't stay. ironically other than visiting rcbm & thunderbird park i didn't have much exposure to first nations artworks, etc growing up. it was definitely the first place i remember seeing them anyway.

 

So what are the FN going to do with all of these items they want repatriated? Display them somewhere?

 

I think what they want is to have items repatriated so that they can be sold.

[amor de cosmos]

You don’t know how government building contracts work then. Every aspect of the project will be awarded to a firm who stretches the contract for more dollars than allocated. These firms are expert at this. There will be no accountability from government project managers, of which there will be at least 20 over the span of the project. It’ll be run by different silos in different ministries with no real accounting of actual costs. This will be a cash cow for the consultants in this town.

you forgot potential changes of government. the liberals might want something else altogether. let's hope it doesn't turn out like the british library, but then that was the biggest public building constructed in the UK in the 20th century:
 

Where to start with designing a building set to hold an almost unimaginably large number of books? Not to mention a myriad of stamps, maps, manuscripts, newspapers and sound recordings which also make up our collection.

This was the challenge facing architect Sir Colin St. John Wilson (1922–2007), together with partner MJ Long (1939–2018) and their teams, when tasked with designing the British Library.

The building’s construction – dubbed the ‘30-year war’ – was far from plain sailing.

With a site near the British Museum first approved in 1964, and the existing St Pancras design given the go-ahead in the mid-70s, architects Wilson and Long had to battle against spiralling costs, government changes and funding cuts for over three decades until the building was complete.

Nonetheless the British Library eventually opened in 1998, with Wilson being given a knighthood the same year, and building was awarded its Grade 1 listing in 2015.

https://www.bl.uk/ab...british-library

https://historicengl...cial-list-entry

 

i vaguely recall reading that the bc archives reading room is below sea level. if that's the case it probably isn't a good place to store primary-source documents so i hope they move it somewhere else.

[Victoria Watcher]

Why don’t we digitally archive it all? Then it’s safe forever. And easier to search from anywhere in the world.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 May 2022 - 02:34 PM.

[amor de cosmos]

because then it would be a library & not an archive?

[Spy Black]

I'll go on record with a prediction of 15 years for construction, and final costs well above $1.5 billion.

 

I'd take bets on it, but I'm 65 now, and because I can't get a doctor in B.C. I'll likely be long dead by the time the doors actually open ... so I couldn't collect if I win, and I couldn't pay if I lose!