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Greater Victoria Public Library and south Island libraries


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#381 AllseeingEye

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Posted 27 September 2018 - 06:17 PM

Nice looking building; almost makes me wish that grumpy arrogant old Ed Seedhouse was still lurking around VV to pontificate and bestow upon the rest of us barbarians the benefit of his thoughts on recent VIRL developments. "Almost".......


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#382 Mike K.

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Posted 27 September 2018 - 07:50 PM

Oh yeah, Ed!

I liked his posts. He was old school and quick to give you a smack with his cane, but a very well spoken and informative participant.
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#383 grantpalin

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Posted 27 September 2018 - 08:16 PM

Was on Saltspring a while back for the market, and took the time to walk up and down some streets in Ganges. Found out that the island has a fairly new and modern library - didn't even know that had happened. It looked pretty good from the outside.



#384 Matt R.

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Posted 27 September 2018 - 10:14 PM

It was being built when we moved here, about six years ago. It’s a nice building, from what I’ve seen. I think it was somewhat controversial early on, the expenditure I mean...

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#385 Citified.ca

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 08:47 AM

Plans for downtown library replacement could be in place by 2022, Helps says

https://victoria.cit...022-helps-says/

 

A formal plan to replace the downtown Victoria branch of the Greater Victoria Public Library (GVPL) could be in place by 2022, according to Mayor Lisa Helps.

 
Responding to a constituent's social media message regarding Calgary’s newly-built $245 million central library in the city’s East Village, Mayor Helps stated in an early November Twitter post that “If all goes well and my council agrees, by the end of the term [the City will] have a plan in place for a new central library.”
 
The mayor’s message gives hope to a decades-long pursuit of replacing Broughton Street’s “round peg in an ugly square hole” of a library, as Kim Westad of the Times Colonist described the two-storey facility in 2009. [Full article]

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#386 Nparker

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 08:50 AM

As much as I'd love to see a new library, how can the CoV taxpayer possibly afford this, a new pool, pay its share of the sewage treatment all with the cost of the JSB still so fresh?  :confused:


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#387 RFS

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 09:01 AM

Totally unnecessary. The library is fine

#388 Nparker

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 09:09 AM

Totally unnecessary. The library is fine

If it was 1955, maybe.



#389 Jackerbie

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 09:13 AM

Regarding the issue of land acquisition, you know what would make a beautiful location for a central library? Ship point. I would much rather see a civic building on those parking lots than more unnecessary green space, and it could add beautifully to the other buildings framing the inner harbour. Pipe dream, though!


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#390 RFS

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 09:14 AM

If it was 1955, maybe.

For the purposes it serves, it is more than adequate 



#391 RFS

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 09:14 AM

Regarding the issue of land acquisition, you know what would make a beautiful location for a central library? Ship point. I would much rather see a civic building on those parking lots than more unnecessary green space, and it could add beautifully to the other buildings framing the inner harbour. Pipe dream, though!

Just like more green space, that would be a total waste of amazing real estate 



#392 Mike K.

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 09:32 AM

For the purposes it serves, it is more than adequate 

 

Nah, it's been inadequate since it opened in 1980. The story of it ending up there is interesting in that the province built an office complex and couldn't lease the space. So in went the library which had outgrown its presence in the Carnegie Building on Yates.

 

Who locates central libraries in office buildings?


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#393 aastra

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 09:46 AM

...

 

 

Daily Colonist
May 2, 1929

Library Site May Be sold

Board will consider any reasonable offer to purchase existing building

Ald. Marchant outlines scheme to finance new library from sale of present one

The Victoria Public Library site and building is on the real estate market to any offer that the library board deems a reasonable one, Alderman William Marchant stated yesterday, when discussing plans for a new public library.

...the only feasible solution to the present congestion at the library was the erection of a new building. The existing building did not lend itself to expansion...

In order to keep within the agreement of the Carnegie Library Endowment, the city would have to have a site donated for the library before a new building could be erected.

The new library would be modeled along more modern lines...


Edited by aastra, 22 November 2018 - 10:23 AM.


#394 Rob Randall

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 09:55 AM

^Hilarious. Obsolete by 1929 and still in use when I was a kid. So essentially it's been 100 years since we've had a satisfactory library.



#395 Mike K.

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 09:58 AM

Priorities.

 

We were dealing with a housing crisis back then, remember?


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#396 aastra

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 10:09 AM

 

So essentially it's been 100 years since we've had a satisfactory library.

 

Methinks the 1950s addition behind the Carnegie represented a pretty significant expansion.

 

Carnegie building: 1904
Blanshard addition behind Carnegie: 1951?
Relocation to Waddington complex: 1981?
Next library: 2025?
 

*****

 

 

Daily Colonist
February 9, 1904

Fine Stone - The stone blocks for the Carnegie library being received from the sandstone quarries at Saturna Island are splendid specimens. Some of them weigh seven tons and measure fourteen feet long by two feet deep. The largest are intended for the doorways.


Edited by aastra, 22 November 2018 - 10:23 AM.


#397 Mike K.

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 10:15 AM

It moved to the Broughton space in 1980, according to Wikipedia.


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#398 aastra

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 10:22 AM

 

Daily Colonist
October 29, 1949

Plans for the proposed four-storey, $325,000 addition to the Victoria Public Library were approved by City Council yesterday.

Members of the board declared plans for the addition presented "the most economical and feasible means" of providing much-needed library space.

...the board had considered the possibility of selling the present site and erecting a new building, but found that it would prove very costly to find another suitable and accessible site.

The site on which the present library stands is ideal...

The board has also discussed the idea of combining library facilities with a new City Hall and found it to be unsatisfactory...

Daily_Colonist-Library_Addition-October_29_1949.png

 

So exactly when was the addition remodeled to have more of a faux-historic look? Was that in the 1990s?


Edited by aastra, 22 November 2018 - 10:23 AM.


#399 Rob Randall

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 10:22 AM

Methinks the 1950s addition behind the Carnegie represented a pretty significant expansion.

 

Yes, I will concede there likely was a period of time in the 1950s where the library site was considered thoroughly fine and adequate. 



#400 Coreyburger

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Posted 22 November 2018 - 10:50 AM

Nah, it's been inadequate since it opened in 1980. The story of it ending up there is interesting in that the province built an office complex and couldn't lease the space. So in went the library which had outgrown its presence in the Carnegie Building on Yates.

 

Who locates central libraries in office buildings?

 

Indeed, there are a whole bunch of problems with the current central library, including floors that are too lightly built, poor electrical, etc. When I used to work for the library almost 20 years ago people were complaining about it and will be until the day they move out.


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