81 replies to this topic

[gumgum]

Here are the renderings of the townhomes going in, posted originally by the late Oxford Sutherland:
http://aycu09.websho...95387710_rs.jpg
http://aycu35.websho...07566620_rs.jpg

[aastra]

Not an inch taller than the Shamrock, thank God.

[Ms. B. Havin]

How do you spell pastiche...?

[aastra]

That's my favourite flavour. It's just so flavourful. So many flavours to savour.

[D.L.]

I think that's a nice design. Course I also like bands on Blanshard.

[gumgum]

Hard to tell from the pics but they've slowly started on the foundations:




(Photobucket.com's new bulk uploader is effing awesome!)

[victorian fan]

50 plus years ago, James Bay had a terrible reputation. That's where the houses were just "old houses". That's were the James Bay hooligans lived. That's where the people who couldn't afford anything "new" lived. The closer you lived to Beacon Hill the better.
Anything east of Oswego was off limits to me.

I'm glad to see times have changed but what a shame the most beautiful homes are long gone.

[gumgum]

^I've heard James Bay had a nasty reputation. I was talking to a cabbie a year or so ago and he was saying that twenty years ago, he's avoid driving in that area if he could.
What there substance to this reputation? Did bad things actually happen, or was the place the source of a handful of urban legends?

I lived there fairly recently, and I can tell you the place feels as safe as any neighbourhood today.

[Mike K.]

Yeah, it's tough to imagine JB being much different than it is today.

Although given the large tracts of industrial land that JB once had along its western shoreline, the neighbourhoods abutting industry were probably not the most sought after by your regular citizenry. I did hear, though, that JB of the 1950's was sketchy and things began to look up throughout the latter half of the 20th Century. Gentrification at work, I suppose.

[victorian fan]

There was definitely an east/west divide. Just as today, the poorer areas had the most problems. Those were the boys who swore, played truant and got into trouble. Those were the girls who swore and smoked. tsk tsk

But on the 'good' side, the east side, things were safe and a wonderful place to grow up. From the old museum in the parliament bldgs, to Beacon Hill Park, to Dallas Rd beaches and everything in between. That was our playground.

Members of my family lived, met, married and had children in James Bay from the 1890s to 2005.

[gumgum]

Here's a new rendering we haven't seen before. It's up on a billboard in front of the site:



Progress:

[aastra]

I get it. South Park School has a couple of peaked roofs so it only makes sense that this new building should have a bunch of them.

Ironically, the motel didn't have a peaked roof. And yet people wanted to save it. Because it fitted in so well.

[aastra]

On the plus side, the level of detail seems to be much higher than on those new Breakwater condos.

[Ms. B. Havin]

^ A slightly peakier Songhees? :-/

[Ms. B. Havin]

Cyclopses (plural) in pointy hats?

(A surfeit of "surprised" single eyes, with wide open mouths, topped by pointy hats...)

[Ms. B. Havin]

All I can add is, "those soffits on the undersides of the pointy hats below the round single eyes better not be made of cheap vinyl, they better be made of some quality product, like real wood..."

Nothing ruins faux heritage faster than faux materials...

[Koru]

Thanks for posting that rendering and progress shots gumgum...I've been sitting up here watching them at work there and wondering what the heck they were building because everytime I drove by there was nothing...and i didn 't clue in this was the forum for that site ...DOH

[Zimquats]

Pretty bland in my opinion. The rendering is interesting though. I wounder if the hunchback in the white shirt knows yet that he's about to be mugged by the scoundrel hiding behind the planter. And when it happens, will the bookworm in black help him, or run away. It's all really so exciting I might buy a place......

[Nparker]

Am I alone in thinking that this is quite an attractive looking project? "Dissing" the peaked roofs and "faux" heritage aspects is unfair, IMO. Clearly the architect is paying homage to the next door neighbour, Southpark school, and from what I can see, doing it quite well. Assuming the materials used are of high quality and the finishing done well, this may end up being one of the more appealing developments in the area.

[Koru]

Am I alone in thinking that this is quite an attractive looking project? "Dissing" the peaked roofs and "faux" heritage aspects is unfair, IMO. Clearly the architect is paying homage to the next door neighbour, Southpark school, and from what I can see, doing it quite well. Assuming the materials used are of high quality and the finishing done well, this may end up being one of the more appealing developments in the area.

I'll most certainly side with you on this one...I think its going to be a great addition to the neighborhood and especially the corner. It will fit in a lot better than the old Shamrock