383 replies to this topic

[gumgum]

These will have to be super-luxury for 800 a sq ft.

[Doc Sage]

Guess having that gap in the middle would require two seperate elevator systems further adding to the cost.

I like it though...a lot...with the gap.

Doc Sage

[Nparker]

I don't "hate-hate" this design, but why make it so stubby? Would 2, 20-story narrower towers have been THAT offensive?

[Scaper]

quite the oposite actually!!! But I would rather see a 20 and 16 story proposal...I am not a big fan of equal height towers.

[aastra]

Here's the thing. You're building three highrise buildings on a hilltop location in the heart of the city...and yet many units won't have a city view at all:



A cut-out in the long building would be ideal, as a way to enable views from the units in the adjacent tower that will otherwise be staring straight out at the back side of the long building.

[aastra]

Question: is all of that empty land going to be turned into green space, for good?

Does the Songhees really need so much green space? There's a big park right across the street. There's the waterfall park by Parc Residences.

Is the idea with that to create a tranquil refuge from the bustle of the Songhees?

[G-Man]

Yep that park was part of the deal.

I am sure that in a building that size they have more than one elevator shaft. I would bet that code required it actually.

[aastra]

I don't object to the park in principle, but that thing is about twice as big as it needed to be. A big empty park in a notoriously quiet area with little through traffic, right on the edge of downtown and surrounded by one of the city's poorer neighbourhoods? I can't think it's a particularly good idea.

Playing fields and ponds and fountains might have been better.

[aastra]

Actually, townhouses right along that long sidewalk would have been really neat. Might have created a neighbourhood feel along the strip there.

[D.L.]

maybe that ultra green patch right in the middle will have something built on it. renderings often show future development sites as a green field. better for sales I guess.

[G-Man]

Nope this has already been built. The paths are there all you need is your dog and you ccan walk there tomorrow.

I agree though there is a massive park just across the street. Though it is full of undesirables.

[aastra]

Isn't there a big ugly retaining wall thing below the Bayview site? Is that going to be permanent? I presumed there was still a ton of landscaping to be done.

[Doc Sage]

Why is it that I like the tall version better?

Doc Sage

[Scaper]

Cause it is better??? hhahahhaa...

[valdez12]

Just to show the massing on site, stole the foot print of the first Bayview building from their now operational website and plunked it down onto the CRD natural atlas picture to show the massing..

warning, scale might be a bit off, but you get the idea of size as it fits into the site boundary. (the black circle was for the north arrow allignment).

[url=http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bayview1pq7.jpg:f97f2][/url:f97f2]

Indeed, it will be a bit of a wall from certain angles as it will be a 10 storey building, not just 4 -5-6 like shutters, the Edge, and smaller condos in the songhees.

[/img]

[Mike K.]

Albertans snapping up Victoria condos
Lure of ocean, good weather, quick air service attractive to investors looking for real estate

BY MARIO TONEGUZZI CanWest News Service

Oil-rich Albertans are helping fuel interest in a more than one billiondollar luxury condominium and townhouse project by Bayview Properties at the Inner Harbour.
Developer Ken Mariash said the first phase of the development on the eightacre hilltop site will have three residential buildings with between 300 to 400 residences. There would be five to six more buildings to follow in the second phase of development.
“Western Canada especially is becoming an integrated community. There are a lot of seamless situations now between British Columbia and Alberta,” said Mariash, principal owner of the project with his wife Patricia.

[...]

[zoomer]

Good article, I posted it over on SSP Derf. Can't figure out why Mike Harris or Brian Tobin would be a draw or attraction though!

Of course this article will stoke the fire of the nimbys claiming that out of towners are driving up prices and building heights...

[Doc Sage]

Just to show the massing on site, stole the foot print of the first Bayview building from their now operational website and plunked it down onto the CRD natural atlas picture to show the massing..

warning, scale might be a bit off, but you get the idea of size as it fits into the site boundary. (the black circle was for the north arrow allignment).

[url=http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bayview1pq7.jpg:35dcf][/url:35dcf]

Indeed, it will be a bit of a wall from certain angles as it will be a 10 storey building, not just 4 -5-6 like shutters, the Edge, and smaller condos in the songhees.


valdez,
This is great...yet it does little to show the impact at steet level. These 10 stories will be sitting on top of the hill some four or more "floors" above all other buildings in the neighbourhood.

Doc Sage
[/img]

[Caramia]

I have to admit a bit of a NIMBY feeling on this issue. I vastly prefer the cultural attitudes of the west coast to what I have experienced in Alberta (I grew up here, so yeah I admit I a biased). I don't mind a few Albertans in the mix for diversity's sake but when you get hordes of them moving here I am worried about a shift of culture. Oh well, my worry won't do anything to change things. I just hope people moving here want to be here, and not to bring there here. If you know what I mean.

[Holden West]

Yes I know what you mean; from the hard-sell marketing going on there in the media it almost seems like the developers are recruiting.

The Province has spent millions of dollars over the last century trying to convince people to live and work here and we seem surprised and a bit perturbed that people are now actually taking us up on the offer!