3990 replies to this topic

[Kapten Kapsell]

Major developer Intracorp will be entering the Victoria market soon with 134 homes at 517-533 Chatham and 530-538 Herald St.

[Kapten Kapsell]

This is going to be a major project, by the sounds of it.

This is going to be a major project, by the sounds of it.

This will be a rental project in two buildings: a 21-storey building to the west and a 5-storey building to the east. 150 total units with 20% at below-market rates.

Edited by Kapten Kapsell, 04 June 2025 - 07:35 PM.

[aastra]

Chatham Street beside Ironworks? I don't want to give it too hard a time, but seriously, what is the deal with these aggressively nondescript recent proposals for the Old Town? It's as if somebody has suddenly decided that the Old Town's defining traits are the near complete absence of any defining traits.

 

I'm not saying it's awful (I have a feeling the renderings are not showing it to its best), but to my eye it seems like another one for the "Why would anyone bother to take a picture of this building?" file. 

 

FYI: it even has pillars along the sidewalk. I don't know... I thought we were long past incorporating pillars for the sake of pillars in modern developments? Hey, maybe pillars could (finally, for the first time) actually work along Chatham, instead of just seeming like an awkward intrusion (see the now-filled-in pillars on the former TD building at the corner of Douglas and Johnson, or the pillars on the Salvation Army building at Yates and Wharf, or the pillars guarding the conference centre's commercial units, or the various other examples around town) But why are we even trying to revive pillars as a concept? If they never really worked before then they probably won't work now. Like I say, maybe they will work on Chatham, but I'm just asking why we're still beating this dead horse.

 

It always bugs me when the documentation for a Victoria project makes reference to a seemingly much better project somewhere else. In this case, they refer to the Wessel quarter in Norway. Now that's a building I wish a project in downtown Victoria would take some hints from. Why? Because it's an interesting melding of a modern esthetic with a traditional one, because it has a distinctive "character" ground floor instead of a more generic modern one, and because it would elaborate a bit on the personality of the district and make its own fresh contribution rather than merely trying to inconspicuously "fit in" (translation: be invisible).

Edited by aastra, 04 June 2025 - 07:14 PM.

[LJ]

That just looks bland and ugly to me.

[aastra]

I wouldn't say it's ugly. But it's just soooooo conventional looking. 

 

If I had to choose between liking it or receiving a kick in the nards* then I'd choose to like it, because I don't think it's terrible. But I also don't think it's anything special, which is what bugs me. It just seems like we're not setting the bar very high re: the redevelopment of those blocks around there.

*suggested further reading: the "Getting Employees to Buy-in" chapter in Mike K.'s managerial handbook

[aastra]

I mentioned this already in another thread but aren't we putting a heckuva lot of new commercial units on Chatham? Chard's large project on the corner of Douglas was supposed to have a supermarket in it (and it probably could have worked), but with No Frills going into the Hudson methinks they must be revisiting that premise, right? And then you have the Chatham St side of the Spencer Block, and now this project.

[Mike K.]

This must mean Le Fevre’s Albion Residences concept is kaput: https://victoria.cit...ion-residences/

[aastra]

I'd like to hear Mr. Sidewalker's thoughts on this one.

[aastra]

This late 1980s 1990 condo building by Stadacona Park seems to be having a re-cladding done as we speak. Is it just me or didn't they already do some major exterior work at least one time before? I could have sworn this building was covered in scaffolding not that long ago. (Although, aastra's recollections of "not that long ago" have been known to be off by 10-15 years.)

Edited by aastra, 09 June 2025 - 06:42 PM.

[G-Man]

^ Yes this is the second time they have done a full recladding. It was one of the very first buildings in Vic to get the leaky condo fix back in the early 2000s I want to say. 

 

Okay so you want my opinion on the Chatham and Herald project. Well it is one of those so close to being a good project that it hurts me. If you haven't dug through the dev tracker you should. https://tender.victo...Number=CLC00474

 

Many will remember me yelling at the hills about the city purchase of land on Blanshard for a park and I said that it was a dumb place for it. It is. But this project includes a pocket park and I would say that if there is a part of downtown that could maybe have a successful little pocket park, it is this area. It looks pretty good too. Even comes with butterflies. The plan for it looks good too. They then even taunt me with a mid-block cut through here which is good because they would be closing one off with the construction. And if you look at the plans they seem to indicate that they actually went around and looked at some of the other nearby mid-block walkways which should be good because they have the two best examples near by, Fan Tan Alley and Dragon Alley. But they must have somehow fixated on the worst example, Theatre Alley as their example because it seems like it will suck. If they had a tall mid-block pass through with even 3 or 4 CRUs abutting it, I would forgive the rest of the project and be writing in to the city to get it done now. Instead it is a lacklustre tunnel. The building itself seems to take its design cues from the Chung Wah Mansion Building a block to the east. Oddly I don't hate the pillars in the renderings but I imagine that they will not look as nice in real life. 

 

 

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[aastra]

 

The building itself seems to take its design cues from the Chung Wah Mansion Building a block to the east.

 

Indeed it does. Crikey, of all the things in the vicinity that they could have taken inspiration from...