1297 replies to this topic

[G-Man]

And I am doubting the veracity of it. I think they may have "demolished most of it and left a skeleton of the last two floors which were then "constructed". Unless of course it was meant to look just like it. I have been wrong before...

[Mike K.]

Surveyors were on-site today.

[Kapten Kapsell]

Did anyone make it to the public meeting that was held tonight...?

[D.L.]

It's a boxy glass office building, 11 floors. The facade of the building currently housing the English Sweet Shop is retained but the rest of the building goes. Parking entrance is at the west end of the site. The widened thru-block walkway on the west side of the site has several retail spaces. Seemed alright to me.

[Mike K.]

Two gentlemen with blueprints were walking around the site this afternoon.

[G-Man]

Land use application sign up for the site is up.

[Nparker]

Is rezoning required for the new proposal?

[G-Man]

Yup as the application includes the buildings between the current site and Odeon Alley.

Also they want to build Office/commercial and the old application was for office/commercial/residential.

[Nparker]

Ahhh, mais oui! Merci, l'homme de "G".

[amor de cosmos]

i like the stuff about millie's lane:

12-storey office building proposed for Yates Street
By Bill Cleverley, Times Colonist
June 17, 2009 7:56 AM

Concert Properties hopes to fill a hole in the 700-block of Yates Street with a 12-storey office building.

The company, which has had success with such projects as the Marriott Hotel and the Astoria and the Belvedere condominiums in the Humboldt Valley, as well as the Chelsea in Fairfield, owns the vacant lot at 726-728 Yates. It also has conditionally acquired the adjoining properties to the east, including the English Sweet Shop up to Millie's Lane.

Concert is looking to rezone the properties to build the office tower with ground-floor retail stores and two levels of underground parking.

[...]

http://www.timescolo...3918/story.html

[G-Man]

Coun. Pam Madoff, who sits on the city's new planning and land use standing committee, is looking forward to examining the proposal in some depth tomorrow.

In general, she said, she's not a fan of proposals that call for saving only a facade of a historic building, but said Concert seems to be working hard to make this work.

In general I'm not a fan of the complete destruction of heritage landmarks but I guess we all have our bugaboos.

This project sounds good so far though I will hold judgement till I see a mock up. The idea to improve Millie's Lane is a winner though.

[aastra]

Here's hoping the commercial spaces on this one are better than the commercial spaces in the Y-lot. Methinks it would be quite easy to muff it.

[Nparker]

Here's hoping the commercial spaces on this one are better than the commercial spaces in the Y-lot.

Those spaces, and to a lesser extent the ones across the street in front of the Aria, suffer from ridiculously large setbacks. I have no idea whose idea it was to create vast plazas in front of these buildings, but it certainly is no boon to the people trying to run businesses in these locations. What is Victoria's obsession with setbacks anyway? REAL cites promote interaction between the street and the ground level of buildings, while many of our newer buildings seem to shun this (see The Wave for a ground level needlessly setback). I can see no historical precedence for this, as most of our heritage buildings were built flush with the sidewalk, thus encouraging pedestrian interraction.

[gumgum]

I'm starting to think that half of retail spaces along the new Humbolt strip from Douglas to Blanshard should have been townhouses or something. There obviously isn't a population to support that much more retail. Nor will there be for a long, long time.

[aastra]

Methinks the population in that area isn't going to increase by much from here on out. Maybe one or two more medium-sized buildings here or there and that'll be it.

[G-Man]

While we are off-topic I might add that these retail areas are new and the population not yet topped out (Aria just finished, Falls almost finished and Parkside almost finished. On top of that retail areas need many years to develop. Look at Lower Johnson, that took almost 100 years to be a vibran shopping street. With the right mix of tenants, a good project sometime in the future on the Apex site and this will be as good as any area downtown.

That said the crazy setback plaza was a mistake.

[DesignStyles]

... What is Victoria's obsession with setbacks anyway? REAL cites promote interaction between the street and the ground level of buildings, while many of our newer buildings seem to shun this (see The Wave for a ground level needlessly setback).

It's for all the street people to sleep at night.

[Nparker]

It's for all the street people to sleep at night.

Perhaps one of the implemented suggestions from the (former) Mayor's Task Force on Homelessness.

[Nparker]

I had to laugh at the following comment regarding this proposal from the T-C online:

That's cool. But PLEASE for the love of god make it more interesting than the CIBC building, the building at 747 Fort, or some of the other ugly things going up lately. And no, please NO more Bay Centre-esque fake facades . . . just keep it simple. Glass and concrete.

Let's see, the writer believes that both the CIBC and 747 Fort Street (The Rohani Building) have "gone up lately " - both have been part of the downtown scene for at least 30 years. He complains that they are not interesting enough, which I take to mean too glassy-concretey and modern. But then he wants the new building to not have any fake facades, but to have simple glass and concrete. Does this not COMPLETELY contradict what he said about the former buildings? Just what WOULD he like to see?

PS: Mods: this proposal is now for a 12-storey building. Should the title of this thread be updated?

[Caramia]

No I think I get what he is saying... More interesting in shape or interaction with the street would not be hard based on his two examples. The next sentence clarifies that by interesting he doesn't mean faux heritage.

So.. keep the simple materials of the Rohani Building but make the design more interesting.

And he listed two older buildings, then referenced some of the newer buildings with an "or"