819 replies to this topic

[aastra]

I was wondering why we never hear that word anymore. It was retired in 1995, because people had grown sick of hearing it every day for the previous 30+ years:

 

 

Times-Colonist
March 23, 1995

Victoria renters having trouble paying

Nearly half the tenants in Victoria may be having difficulty finding the rent, federal bean-counters said Tuesday.

With about 44 per cent of all renters experiencing "housing affordability problems" in 1991, Victoria ranked highest of 25 centres surveyed, Statistics Canada said.

That's no surprise for Victoria renters. "Victoria is the hardest place anywhere in Canada for tenants to find a place to live and they have the least chance of escaping tenancy," said Mike Walker of the Tenants Rights Coalition. "There is nowhere else in the country where things are so bad."

Walker said it's "sad" the federal government has removed itself from the affordable-housing business. "For what we have in B.C., crisis isn't the right word any more."

[Nparker]

Still my favourite crisis image.

[aastra]

I just don't know if this crisis situation is sustainable...

 

(unless, of course, successive governments and their politicians invent new narratives and new villains/scapegoats every few years, while maintaining the status quo and never actually accomplishing anything positive for anybody)

 

 

CBC News
Jul 28, 2005

A new report by the TD Bank Financial Group says Vancouver and Victoria are the two Canadian cities at greatest risk of a potential housing bubble.

The report by TD economist Carol Gomez says speculative buyers and investors are driving up prices in beyond justifiable levels in the two B.C. cities.

Gomez's report says the city's geographical location and the expected economic benefits from the 2010 Olympics are driving up Vancouver housing prices.

(aastra says: there's always a reason... which we'll forget about the next day when we invent a new reason)

But David Barclay, the president of the B.C. Real Estate Association, disagrees with Gomez's conclusions that Vancouver housing prices are over-inflated.

"Housing is supply and demand. And right now we've got a super vibrant economy. And when we've got a healthy economy, we've got demand. And I don't see the economy slowing down."

Tsur Sommerville, who teaches real estate at the University of British Columbia, agrees that Vancouver has a healthy housing market.

But he does say the city's housing boom will start to slow down at some point.

"The house price increases that we've seen in the last couple of years are not sustainable in the long term. So you know that's going to end."

Edited by aastra, 01 October 2020 - 02:22 PM.

[aastra]

Parkades:

 

 

Daily Colonist
January 1, 1960

PLANS, DREAMS
A system of downtown off-street parking facilities to keep the level of business high in the downtown area, and therefore the level of tax-receipts from the downtown area high. And a pedestrian mall or two, for the same reason.

 

That's a small bit within a goofy article entitled "Disarmament Spectre Hangs Over Victoria: Could Wipe Out Dreams of Progress". Over the past 160 years, crisis fetishists have fretted about the city's surely looming (but never quite materializing) demise from every imaginable angle, but this piece might just earn the top spot:

 

 

Daily Colonist
January 1, 1960

Disarmament Spectre Hangs Over Victoria: Could Wipe Out Dreams of Progress

...the spectre of disarmament hangs, smirking forebodingly, over the flesh-and-blood prophets of continued and greater civic progress in the next decade.

Of the 50,600 persons employed in 1956 in the region, 9,300 were employed by the defence department.

The consequences of quick disarmament, the closing of Greater Victoria's defence establishments and the dispersal of employees and their families to other parts of Canada are obvious:

The stores and services of Victoria would lose, at first, more than 20 per cent of their trade, and soon this figure would mushroom as cutbacks among their own employees became necessary.

HOMES EMPTY
Homes, shops, offices and even schools would stand empty. For those able to hang on to their property, taxes would have to mushroom, and not for monuments of progress, but for existing services, including the empty schools.

There would be no thought of progress.

But barring this economic calamity, Victoria city is expected to continue and even accelerate the progress it has made since a decade ago, when it had a new Memorial Arena and an alarming debt, and was soon to engage a city manager.

 

 

Also from that same page:

 

 

Daily Colonist
January 1, 1960

Last One
END OF AN ERA

An era of Victoria's history ended with 1959.

The last "outside convenience" in the city, according to the building inspector's office, was to be torn down yesterday.

It was behind a Lang Street home, and house and outhouse would have been torn down long ago, a city official said, except that the elderly resident was allowed to live his life out there. He died recently.

Edited by aastra, 08 December 2019 - 09:13 PM.

[aastra]

 

Times-Colonist
January 16, 2020

Business owners in Victoria’s trendy LoJo district are considering hiring their own security firm due to a rise in shoplifting and the inability of police to respond in a timely way, the Downtown Victoria Business Association says.

“We’ve heard from lots of our members about a significant increase in theft and shoplifting that’s occurring and the brazen nature of it — the sense that there’s no police, there’s no enforcement, they’re just walking in and taking stuff and walking out and not too concerned,” he said.

"So we thought by us all contributing to a private security firm, it would bring a sense of safety back to the street."
 

Bray said his association has a good relationship with the police department, “but the reality is they don’t have the resources to deal with this.

“We’ve identified this now for two years that we need increased police presence and resources downtown. We need the crime-prevention unit re-established. Those are the groups that helped to prevent these crimes in the first place.”

 

 

 

Times-Colonist
April 28, 1994

Victoria police are well on their way to removing the need for private muscle to keep downtown shoppers and storekeepers safe, Police Chief Doug Richardson said Wednesday.

Richardson said enforcement on Yates Street, where merchants have hired private security guards, has been stepped up and police will soon be using a mobile police headquarters to improve response time of officers downtown. "I believe we are turning the tide on this," said Richardson.

He was responding to a Times-Colonist story that private security is being hired even though Victoria has more police per capita than any city in the province and spends almost the most per capita on police.

The story prompted more calls for "value-for-cash" in Victoria police operations from Coun. Bob Friedland.

 

...

Edited by aastra, 18 January 2020 - 12:34 PM.

[Nparker]

Everything old is new again.

[aastra]

Speaking of putting overhead lines underground:

 

 

Daily Colonist
May 7, 1960

Underground Wiring

Street Ripping Will Be Over In a Few Days

Last of the major excavation of Victoria's downtown streets for underground wiring, started in 1956, will be over in a few days.

In about a month, the B.C. Electric will let a contract for the installing of wires in some of the 128 miles of four-inch ducts buried in a 30-block downtown area, and of transformers in 38 underground vaults.

This work will continue until next April, and then the final phase of the conversion to underground wiring, the removal of poles, will begin. By the middle of 1962, the last of the downtown power poles is scheduled to be taken down.

...next fall an underground supply line duct will be started from the Horsey substation on Summit to the downtown system.

Ducts for street-lighting wiring also have yet to be completed... but these ducts require only narrow channels cut in the sidewalks.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
July 28, 1960

Building Owners Sink $1,000,000 in New Wiring

Aim of the B.C. Electric is to have downtown buildings all connected with the underground system and the old poles and wires removed by mid-1962.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
June 4, 1967

Concealed Wiring Cost Prohibitive?

Underground wiring to replace unsightly overhead lines seems to be a current aim of most municipalities but at the present time it is an expensive target.

Saanich municipal engineer Neville Life says although he would heartily endorse the placing of the wiring underground, from a landscaping point of view, the cost is almost prohibitive in an established area.

He cited the job now underway along the Gorge between Gorge view and Admirals Road as an example.

"The piece of work is costing $105,000."

A B.C. Hydro estimate to put underground wiring along Cedar Hill Cross Road near the university was $370,000 -- far higher than overhead wiring.

A recent meeting of Oak Bay council suggested another estimate be asked from the Hydro because in its publication, Progress, there was an article claiming the costs of underground wiring were falling markedly.

One of the councillors remarked that with underground wiring there would be a saving in maintenance for the municipality.

Similar points of view were expressed recently at a meeting of the B committee of Esquimalt council.

A spokesman for B.C. Hydro said the article in Progress was correct but it was being interpreted wrongly...

The reduced price does not apply to conversions, but to new subdivisions and places that are not already wired...

"Another point is that people seem to be jumping to the conclusion that maintenance costs are automatically reduced with underground wiring."

"They assume that once the wiring is buried and out of sight the system can be forgotten. This is not so,"

"There are indications the costs are not reduced. Perhaps they may be more."

STILL TOO NEW
The Hydro has not had underground wiring long enough to work out a percentage of maintenance cost ratios to compare with overhead wiring, but indications show the costs are not greatly diminished...

...to repair an overhead cable is a relatively simple matter as opposed to repairing an underground fault which is a major job.

He observed, however, it was much less likely to have underground wires damaged than it was overhead lines.

While he said he would like to see the wiring go underground he agreed that it was an expensive proposition.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
September 28, 1967

Houses Cost Enough Now With Pole-Lined Streets

Mayor Queries Wiring Burial

The cost of underground wiring could push the already high cost of housing even higher, Victoria Mayor Hugh Stephen warned...

Commenting on a report issued Monday by the Victoria branch of the Community Planning Association of Canada, which suggested the removal of utility poles along Marine Drive, Mr. Stephen agreed that the scheme was esthetically good.

"I don't think the municipality or the hydro company will want to absorb this cost."

"If you insist upon underground wiring," said the mayor, "Then houses are going to cost more, because underground wiring costs more."

IT'S DIFFICULT
"We have a situation in Canada where it is difficult for people to afford to buy houses as it is."

"I think they have the right to save money by putting up with the looks of overhead wiring if they wish, while underground wiring can go into the more expensive subdivisions."

Oak Bay Reeve Allan Cox commented that his personal opinion is that it would not be fair to the taxpayers to insist on underground wiring which they would have to pay for.

"We have to remember," said Mr. Cox, "that maintenance costs are bound to be cut when we get wires away from wind, storm, and ice factors."

COULD BE COSTLY
"On the other hand, in changing the wiring, we are asking the utilities to abandon their present materials -- wires, poles and transformers -- and replace them, and that could be costly."

Saanich Reeve Hugh Curtis is chairman of a Union of B.C. Municipalities committee which is preparing a report on underground wiring for the union.

THEY'RE RELUCTANT
"It's obvious that in the past at least B.C. Hydro has been somewhat reluctant to get into underground wiring."

"The municipalities are keen on it..."

...European, and other North American areas, are able to install underground wiring at less cost, by lowering the standards of conduits and cables.

"We don't want to sacrifice safety, but this could be looked into by the provincial inspector and B.C. Hydro."

"The safety factor is also important..."

"Ironically at about the time I was delivering the report a child was killed in the province when a power line fell across the car she was in."

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
March 13, 1970

Overhead Power Lines "Never Through Uplands"

Overhead transmission lines are an eyesore and would never be built through Uplands, according to the Vancouver Island manager of B.C. Hydro.

A.J. Macdonald was speaking at a meeting Thursday night organized to protest the proposed erecting of 75-foot-high steel power poles by B.C. Hydro on Interurban and Burnside Roads.

"I don't like seeing that line go overhead," said MacDonald, but he pointed out it was mainly a matter of economics.

...Macdonald said there was obviously danger if a car should hit a pole.

"I suppose there is always that possibility, but it would certainly be extremely remote," he said.

He agreed with a questioner that overhead transmission lines are an eyesore. He said he would like to see all lines go underground.

"We will put in underground wiring anywhere if someone else will pay for it," he said.

"If B.C. Hydro had the money to build transmission lines underground they would certainly go underground, but we could only spread the extra cost over the whole of the rate structure."

"The only place B.C. Hydro gets money is from you people -- every cent of it. If we borrow you pay the interest on the bond and you pay off the debt," he said.

A questioner suggested that the Saanich residents were being treated like country cousins. "I don't think they would put that abortion through the Uplands," he said.

"I quite agree," replied Macdonald. "That is true. I don't think they would put it in the Uplands."

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
April 1, 1970

Protest by Council Urged

Gorge Overhead Lines

Victoria city council will be asked to register a strong protest against B.C. Hydro plans to install overhead power lines across the waters of the Gorge.

Council will be asked to seek a meeting with Hydro officials to discuss the problem. If no solution can be found, the city should consider the possibility of taking legal action against B.C. Hydro.

The decisions were taken Tuesday by Victoria's public works committee.

B.C. Hydro's plans involve the building of a 75-foot-high transmission line through four miles of suburban Victoria. Resting on huge pylons, the line is to run along Interurban Road in Saanich to the end of Burnside Road in Victoria.

At Harriet Road, the line is to turn west across the Gorge waters leading into Arm Street on the Esquimalt side.

The petition states that such a project would adversely affect the value of all houses, apartments and motels in the area.

"...Fifty years ago, it was possible to have large residential areas fully serviced without the use of unsightly poles and overhead cables. Surely the same applies today with the improved materials and engineering techniques..."

Ald. Clyde Savage told the meeting the city should consider taking legal action against B.C. Hydro. If all other attempts to put a stop to this sort of pollution failed.

"...We have to stand up to these people," he said.

Ald. Pollen said the city should make it very clear that it wasn't willing to accept anything below a certain minimum standard. B.C. Hydro's proposal to clutter the area with poles and cables, he said, was obviously below any standard.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
April 8, 1970

Go Underground -- For Cash

There is no obstacle to putting B.C. Hydro's controversial Interurban-Burnside power line underground...

"If the people in the Greater Victoria area are prepared to pay the additional cost."

"...underground construction for a line such as this costs approximately 10 times as much as an overhead lining utilizing wood poles."

COST OF LINES
B.C. Hydro has estimated the cost of an underground line at $303,000 a mile; tubular steel poles at $80,000 a mile and wooden poles at $25,000 a mile.

The four-mile line of 75-foot-high steel poles is planned to carry 138,000 volts from Goward substation along Interurban and Burnside to Horsey substation behind the Ingraham Hotel on Douglas Street.

...because the line will be in a rapidly growing metropolitan area, special tubular steel poles will be installed.

"We believe that this will provide a much more pleasing appearance than the standard wood pole line and trust that it will be an acceptable compromise under the circumstances..."

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
April 9, 1970

Bury All Wiring in New Areas -- Mayor Curtis

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
August 16, 1978

Curb-hugging poles target of alderman

Victoria Ald. William McElroy is embarked on a campaign to have B.C. Hydro power poles relocated away from the edge of heavily-travelled streets in the city.

...poles on some of the city's busiest streets are right on the edge of curbs and constitute a traffic hazard.

Stretches mentioned were Hillside between Douglas and Hillside Mall, Bay Street between the bridge and Government Street, and portions of Esquimalt Road.

"Many of the poles in these areas have been nicked or damaged because they are so close to the road."

...he would like to see the poles replaced with underground connections but realized this could be costly.

A Hydro spokesman said the location of poles close to curbs had resulted from road widening projects undertaken by the city.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
September 22, 1979

Escape the everyday real world at Dean Park Estates (advertisement)

Here on the southeast slopes of Mount Newton you will find a secluded country estate -- a quiet haven separated from the cares and distractions of the commonplace world.

The views are un-real.

Many homesites overlook the beautiful Dominion Agricultural Farm. Many have breathtaking views of the Gulf Islands. Many have unforgettable forest and park vistas. And no matter what sight you set your heart on, all come with a complete range of services, including underground hydro and telephone already installed.

You can also be assured your home and every home within this exclusive community will compliment one another. There is an approving panel to review designs in order to maintain a high architectural standard and overall compatibility.

Edited by aastra, 23 January 2020 - 08:15 PM.

[Rob Randall]

The definitive post in this thread.

[aastra]

The way this has all played out is very murky to me. For example, exactly when were overhead lines removed in the vicinity of the legislative buildings, and why were they left in place along the south side of Superior and along both sides of Menzies as far north as Quebec Street?

 

Anyway, I don't think I'm being unfair when I say attitudes re: overhead lines have been very inconsistent. On the one hand it was a high priority in the 1950s to put lines underground in downtown proper, presumably for both esthetic and functional reasons (street widening and sidewalk narrowing), but on the other hand no reasonable person should care about overhead lines in greater downtown even all these decades later, because what harm do they cause?

 

An esthetic issue is not an issue depending on what neighbourhood or street (or even what side of the street) we happen to be talking about. Victorians only care when they care, and don't care when they don't. It seems odd to me that people in the 1950s/1960s didn't think Yates or Fort east of Blanshard were worthy of attention. But then again, do very many people in the 2020s think Yates or Fort are worthy of attention even now?

What about the ugly and unfortunate chopping of trees because of overhead lines? Victorians are obsessed with protecting trees and the natural environment... except when they aren't.

I consider the ongoing crusade re: getting public amenities from new developments, how the esthetics of every development proposal gets micro-managed, the inscrutable-as-ever "livability" narrative... and I wonder how everyone just plain stopped caring about the overhead lines thing (except here or there)? If downtown proper was licked in a few years during the 1950s then how many more blocks could have been dealt with during the last ~60 years as part of a gradual/ongoing program?

[aastra]

Check it out:

 

 

Daily Colonist
August 12, 1952

Planning for the Future

In April and June of this year the Colonist published a series of pictures dealing with some of the drawbacks of an overhead street wiring system, and suggesting that this matter be taken under advisement for the development of a long-range policy. Since then, so far as we are aware, nothing has been achieved on a problem with is admittedly costly and only possible of solution in a co-ordinated way over a considerable period of years. Meanwhile the physical structure of the community is being rapidly altered, as instanced by Government Street where both the Dominion and the Province have built handsome, permanent structures. Talk now of an improvement on Government Street brings this discussion sharply into focus. Isn't it time a start was made to find some solution?

Not a few other cities in Canada have already begun the elimination of their overhead wiring. On a long-range plan where the cure is spread over 50 or more years, and the costs divided by provincial, municipal and utility contribution, the bogey of expense can be reduced to some order. Victoria certainly paved the way for some improvement along this line when it lifted its car tracks and did away with the cumbersome street-centre trolley wire cables. To stop there and leave this grim forest of light and telephone poles, with their overhead squirrel cages of interlaced wires everywhere, is to fail in a worth while vision. It would be manifestly unfair and impracticable to expect public utilities to bury their distributing systems unaided. Provincial and municipal help would be required; the former possibly by way of a capital-city grant, and the city directly in its own interest.

If the costs could be split three ways, and the term over which replacement work was to be done extended over a reasonably long period, much that appeared impossible initially might upon full and proper investigation be found well within the competence of this community. Planning for the future is the logical function of a town planning commission. Once more we invite attention to this existing opportunity. Victoria, with its miles of grass and clay boulevards, should be a much easier city to convert to buried conduits than others of similar size in Canada. In the long run the cost, great as it might be, would be more than fully returned.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
August 12, 1952

Overhead Cables Spoil "New Look" on Government Street
 

Victoria's latest building, the fine new $2,000,000 Federal Building and Post Office has given a new lease of life to Government Street on the west side. On the east side this line of stark gibbets stretches into the distance, like the abandoned relics of a forgotten age. With its car tracks up and its trolley wires also gone, Government Street could, and should, be made an attractive approach to the town.

 

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
October 18, 1952

Overhead Wiring Now Classed With Dirt Roads, Engineers Told

"Overhead wiring is becoming associated with the era of wooden sidewalks and dirt roads," Kenneth Reid, city electrical engineer said last night.

He and G.F. Green, light and power superintendent of the B.C. Electric here, spoke on underground wiring to a joint meeting of the B.C. Engineering Society and the Engineering Institute of Canada in the Douglas Building.

Too much stress has been placed on the cost of underground wiring, Mr. Reid felt. "Progress brings additional expenditures," he said. "The first concrete sidewalks cost many times the cost of wooden ones."

Mr. Reid listed eight major improvements which he felt would be effected by installation of underground wiring throughout the Victoria area:

1. (unreadable) in placing equipment used in fighting blazes would be greatly aided.
2. Improved street appearance.
3. Improved street lighting and control circuits.
4. Up-to-date fire alarm and police siren systems.
5. Damage to boulevard trees avoided.
6. All electrical services immune from storm damage.
8. Electrical service improved through elimination of old service built up on a piecemeal basis.

Overhead systems... now are regarded as unsightly hindrances to property development.

Mr. Green placed cost of converting the entire city to an underground system at between eight and twelve million dollars, cost of converting the main business district alone at slightly more than $1,000,000, not including elimination of present overhead wires.

He felt the logical answer where new lots were involved was to add the cost to the lot at the time of subdivision, as is being done in Uplands.

Edited by aastra, 23 January 2020 - 09:43 PM.

[aastra]

The Colonist was really pushing this one:

 

 

Daily Colonist
April 4, 1952

Underground Electric Wiring

Those of the laissez faire school who contend that the burying of electric cables is impractical in Victoria at present should note what is being accomplished in other Canadian cities. Montreal's long-range policy of getting rid of overhead reticulation progressively has been mentioned previously. Now comes word that Ottawa, too, is making a definite advance in the same direction...

This is the sort of beginning that Victoria and the surrounding municipalities should be making. Fences of unpainted poles and festoons of wires are hideous to look at, dangerous in storms and a hazard at all times to firemen. The desirability of getting rid of them seems to be recognized, but in a despairing sort of way, with nobody in authority displaying any inclination to make a start...

The Willows subdivision is a striking case in point. Here was an untouched area without a road, house or pole on it. There were no gardens, sidewalks or pavement to be spoiled and the ground had yet to be excavated for sewer and water pipes. It was a perfect opportunity for the municipality to lead the way by requiring that the electrical wiring be laid underground as other services were being put there. Yet before the first house began to take shape, up went the usual forest of unpainted poles with their fungus of transformers and spider-webs of wires. Only when it was too late to do anything to save its last remaining big subdivision from this sort of disfigurement did the Oak Bay council begin to talk vaguely about requiring new wiring to be buried in the future.

The longer Victoria's municipalities put off the framing of some kind of policy in this matter, the larger must be the ultimate cost.

[aastra]

Urban campers on Dallas Road, etc.

 

 

Daily Colonist
May 1, 1973

Overnight Parking

Camper Clutter Rouses Comment

Motor campers using city parks, streets and promenades for overnight parking are becoming a serious problem, Victoria Ald. Malcolm Anderson said Monday.

In anticipation of a record tourist season, the city is considering the possibility of providing off-street parking facilities for motor homes, truck campers, and travel trailers...

"We have been thinking of providing some facilities on the north side of the city, somewhere past Hillside and Blanshard."

Anderson said the presence of hundreds of camping mobiles on Dallas Road, for instance, posed no actual traffic problem. It just wasn't the proper thing to do.

"Unless we'll find some alternative, we'll be faced with wall-to-wall campers at every scenic spot in the city," he said.

Until now, council has refrained from instructing city police to chase campers away from Dallas Road. On many occasions, police have directed campers from Beacon Hill Park to Dallas Road.

Anderson said, "We aren't prepared to tell the police to enforce regulations we aren't very keen on ourselves. If we tell campers to leave Dallas Road, we have to tell them where else they can go."

He pointed out that city council was quite aware of the importance of campers -- to tourism, and that was why, until now, "our approach to the problem has been one of benign neglect."

[Jackerbie]

benign neglect

 

Playing at the Tinto Rocks Festival 2020

[Mike K.]

Note that the campers then were considered tourists.

[Nparker]

Free-loading camper tourists then - and now - don't give much back to the local economy.

[Mike K.]

Oh I wouldn't say this is freeloading for all of the individuals, though. I've camped like this in towns before. You arrive late in the evening, you're not really sure where to go, or you've encountered full campgrounds, and you've got to weigh whether spending the night out of town in an unfamiliar rural side road is the way to go, or to find a spot in a safer area. So you go with the safer area.

 

But there is a difference between staying some place for one night and moving on, and remaining in place for days/weeks/months.

[aastra]

 

Note that the campers then were considered tourists.

 

I've made the point before, how every few years these longstanding issues will get a new paint job to suit the political narratives du jour, and maybe some minor new twist or embellishment (that everyone will soon forget about... and deny vociferously if anybody ever reminds them about it later).

 

But the fundamental underlying issues remain the same (year after year, decade after decade). The housing crisis narratives really demonstrate this. Same fundamental issue, same dancing around the fundamental issue, same inaction... but in 2020 the housing crisis is about [insert some trending 2020 hang-up here], whereas in 2011 it was about [insert some trending 2011 hang-up here], whereas in 1989 it was about [insert some trending 1989 hang-up here] whereas in 1967 it was about [you get the idea].

Edited by aastra, 05 February 2020 - 11:12 AM.

[aastra]

Di Castri's little building on Douglas was supposed to be the podium for a much larger building, with elevated parking levels that remind me a lot of the Centennial Square parkade:

 

 

Daily Colonist
March 1, 1964

Downtown Reaches for Sky

Things are looking up downtown -- about 16 storeys up.

In the Burdett-Humboldt-Penwell triangle whose apex just touches Douglas Street, a 158-suite apartment hotel will be started "as soon as possible." Owners are a Victoria firm called Executive House Ltd. and the 16-storey building will be named Executive House.

On the site of the vacated Woodward's store at Douglas and Courtenay a 15-storey twin-tower office building will be started "before the end of May."

...the building was designed by Victoria architect John Di Castri.

Outstanding feature of the structure will be square twin towers predominantly of glass. Two glass-enclosed elevators between the towers will give views of the Strait of Juan De Fuca... Ground floor retail stores topped by three floors of parking will provide a rectangular base for the towers.

Executive House was designed primarily for tenants and guests who wish easy access to downtown Victoria and the immediate surrounding area...

Stores at ground level will front on Burdett. Already spoken for are units for a dry cleaner call office, barber shop, beauty parlor, sauna bath, massage room and florist.

Three lower floors will be divided into motel rooms and an enclosed parking area will accommodate 127 cars. The remaining floors will be finished as apartments and may be rented furnished or unfurnished. Non-transient rates will run from $75 a bachelor suite to $350 for a penthouse.

Costs of the twin-tower office building will be in the multi-million-dollar range. It will be topped by a restaurant and an observation deck.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
October 11, 1968

Douglas and View

Bank Announcing 14-Storey Building

Construction of a 14-storey downtown building, to be the second-highest in Victoria, will be announced today by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

The structure, which will cost around $3,000,000, will go up on what is a parking lot at the southeast corner of Douglas and View, opposite Eaton's.

The new building will still be topped by Executive House, which has 19 floors and is the tallest in the city, but stands downhill from the site of the new building.

 

(aastra says: funny how they mention the fairly new parking lot but don't mention the building that had long occupied the site prior to the parking lot.)

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
November 16, 1967

New Owner Will Raze Blanshard Landmark

Paul Arsens, Victoria restaurateur who bought the old YMCA building at Blanshard and View at a sheriff's auction Wednesday, said he would tear down the four-storey structure.

There were 23 bids before the red-brick landmark was knocked down by Sheriff Eric Wilkinson for $52,500.

Mr. Arsens said that aside from demolition he had no immediate plans for the site.

The new owner said it was also possible that the site would be converted into a downtown parking lot.

"A lot depends on the development of Blanshard Street in that area,"

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
October 17, 1973

Lofty Gourmet Perch

Victoria's first roof-top restaurant will be situated on top of 17-floor Chateau Victoria hotel-motel apartment complex downtown, due for completion next spring. Building is owned by Farmer Construction and with land is valued at $4.5 million. Photo by Jim Ryan was taken from the 17th floor of nearby Executive House.

Edited by aastra, 06 February 2020 - 06:16 PM.

[Nparker]

Are there any renderings of Di Castri's proposal?

[aastra]

Sure, check the link. And then check this out:

 

 

Daily Colonist (The Victoria Express)
December 6, 1973

Home-owners must give ground

Housing minister urges lifestyle changes

Faced with an increasing shortage of land and a rapidly growing population, British Columbians must make concessions in their lifestyles, provincial Housing Minister Lorne Nicolson believes.

"it is physically impossible if not always sociologically acceptable" to make the kind of changes necessary to provide dwellings for everyone.

He argued, however, there still is a place for the single family home, even though it may appear to be an inefficient dwelling unit.

While an increasing proportion of the population is living in multiple dwellings, British Columbians should still have the option to live in their own detached home "in the foreseeable future," he said.

But to protect single-family living, changes must be made. He cited the use of smaller lots and the de-emphasis of roads in residential areas as ways in which detached homes could continue to be built.

...Nicholson said single-family zoning should be questioned. "I really wonder what is wrong, for example, in having duplexes in single-family areas," he said.

On the shorter term, Nicolson said efforts are being made to meet the housing shortage in B.C. through all levels of government.

He said municipalities have come to recognize the urgency of the shortage and are making way for more housing, having passed through the phase where municipal councils approached all developers as bad.

At the same time, he said there is a "log jam" of applications for developments in many municipalities caused by hold-ups of rezoning and the issuance of building permits. He said his department is trying to break up that log jam.

Public housing... will continue to be a part of the over-all picture in B.C., with an increasing number of people -- "not just the poor and the elderly" -- being able to turn to direct government rentals.

Nicholson said he has begun to feel that many of the traditional complaints against public housing -- the conformity of life and the isolation of the residents -- are in fact unfounded.

"There is, of course, no single panacea to the housing problems we have," Nicolson said. More than one program or one practice will have to be applied.

He wondered if the considerable attention paid by the press to the housing shortage has not created "a psychological problem" whereby "we have begun to think the problem is greater than it is."

Edited by aastra, 06 February 2020 - 09:00 PM.