That's classic DiCastri. Compare the horizontal rows of windows to the Ballantyne's/Rexall building on Douglas.
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Original Owner: Moore-Whittington
Contractor: Moore-Whittington
Architect: John Di Castri
Date of Construction: 1951
Description of Historic Place
The Moore-Whittington Offices is a two-storey office block composed of horizontal and vertical rectangular components, with angled clerestory windows capped with flat, floating roof planes. It is located at the southwest corner of Turner and David Streets, within an area of industrial buildings in the Burnside neighbourhood of Victoria.
Heritage Value of Historic Place
The Moore-Whittington Offices is significant as one of the key commissions undertaken by architect John Di Castri (1924-2005), who played a seminal role in establishing modern architecture in Victoria during the early postwar years. It illustrates Di Castri's interest in the development of a personal brand of modernism. His work remains distinctive for its regionalist architectural expression - a rich fusion of materials and complex, eccentric forms that demonstrates Di Castri's interpretation of Wrightian motifs including horizontal planes, manipulated volumes and irregular geometry. Throughout his career, DiCastri retained a singular vision of modernism, one that did not shy away from historical references or decorative elaboration, paralleling the later work of Frank Lloyd Wright. The long, linear composition of this building recalls Wright's early Prairie School houses, with interlocking horizontal lines anchored by vertical projections. The continuous clerestory windows bow out, seemingly under pressure from the oaring roof planes, setting up a dynamic tension that animates this soaring design. The angled fascias were one of Di Castri's distinctive design features.This site is also significant for its associations with Moore-Whittington, established as carpenters and builders in 1893, and prominent for many years in the Victoria region. The company experienced significant growth after the Second World War and was renamed as the Moore-Whittington Lumber Co.Ltd., a large lumber operation that was absorbed by BC Forest Products in the 1960s.The Moore and Whittington Offices reflects the community character of the Burnside neighbourhood,which has a blend of industrial, residential and commercial uses that has always been distinct from Victoria's other neighbourhoods. Although heavy industry had largely disappeared by the 1980s, the Rock Bay area of Burnside, where these offices are situated, remains a light industrial district today.
Character-Defining Elements
Key elements that define the heritage character of the Moore-Whittington Offices include its:
- location at the southwest corner of Turner and David Streets within an industrial area in the Burnside neighbourhood.
- continuous commercial use- commercial form, scale and massing as expressed by its low, linear massing and irregular, two-storey high plan of horizontal and vertical rectangular components, capped with flat, floating roof planes- construction materials, including: rough-textured tan brick; vertical wooden planks; and wide horizontal lapped wooden siding- modernist design details such as: projecting roof eaves with angled fascias; tan brick base, entry stair cheeks, stepped wall fins and entry planter; butt-glazed corner at the front entry; and continuous wooden-sash clerestory windows that bow out in the centre, with reeded glass on the lower levelhttps://pub-victoria...documentid=3921