68 replies to this topic

[Icebergalley]

Over the past couple of years many of the Douglas Street and plaza retail shops in the Victoria Conference have been vacated... including a two level art gallery right at the the higly visible corner of Douglas, Burdett and Humboldt..

In some,there are displays of old street banners, some art... and in at least one, a For Lease sign..

What gives?

[Galvanized]

From what I know they are moving some of their offices into the retail area and coverting the old offices into more conference space.

[aastra]

You know, because Victoria really needed a dead conference centre district. Every other city has one.

That corner space would be an excellent spot for a coffee shop or small pub/restaurant.

[gumgum]

The retail section is a piss-poor design. Those setbacks don't help.

[Mike K.]

What are you talking about? Those setbacks are obviously the only thing bringing those stores any business at all. I mean if it wasn't for the setbacks nobody would shop there because they'd be too full of customers

[gumgum]

I like to think that this city has very recently learned its lesson about setbacks.
Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know.

[Mike K.]

...but you realize my post was a joke, right?

[gumgum]

Of course!
I was just thinking out loud.

[Mike K.]

Oh, ok ok.

[Icebergalley]

As an able bodied pedestrian, I value those colonnaded bits on the VCC especially on a rainy day...

And, until the leases stopped being renewed, it seemed that over a period of 6 years they also seem viable as there never seemed to be a vacancy...

I notice that buildings of a certain recent vintage in Victoria seem to have used the colonnade as a design conceit... VCC and the building on th NE corner of Douglas and Johnson (now glassed in...)

Was there an urban design or downtown development policy to use them on all new buildings on Douglas (or?) at one time?

[G-Man]

Yup it was encouraged and seen as a symbol of Victoria. I guess it must have started with the best of the best the Fisgard Parkade at Centennial Square. I mean those shops are great!

[Ms. B. Havin]

I notice that buildings of a certain recent vintage in Victoria seem to have used the colonnade as a design conceit... VCC and the building on th NE corner of Douglas and Johnson (now glassed in...)

I'm confused -- I thought the NE corner of Douglas & Johnson is the Oddfellows Bldg...?

The colonnades on the VCC are worse than useless since they not only set the shops back too far, hiding them, but they also have stairs, making for a really awkward stroll. Flaneurs under colonnades shouldn't be in danger of falling off a step or three... It's so inelegant! <jk> But seriously: a colonnade shouldn't be so low-ceilinged, either. Colonnades are grand and spacious things, not invitations to go spelunking! The VCC is a design disaster, IMO.

EDIT: re. the stairs: it's a retailing rule for department stores that stairs are an absolute no-no on the outside of the entrance. It's ok if you have a stair or two once you're inside the store, but there should never be the hindrance of stairs to get into the store in the first place. It turns people away, vs. getting them to flow and drift naturally into the premises. Getting them through the door is half the battle -- the architects should have consulted with some department store and retail experts first before coming up with these kinds of awkward store frontages.

[aastra]

Do you think maybe they're supposed to be awkward? To slow things down? All toward creating the un-city that so many people seem to think is some sort of Holy Grail?

[Icebergalley]

on th NE corner of Douglas and Johnson (now glassed in...)[/quote]
I'm confused -- I thought the NE corner of Douglas & Johnson is the Oddfellows Bldg...?

North west?? It's opposite but on the same side as the Macs Milk or 7:11 Convenience store.... It's got one of the employment agencies on the ground floor... It's that building that now has no setbacks at all...

[Holden West]

Ms. B, NE corner of Douglas and Johnson is your beloved monument to brutalism.

The VCC is hailed as a model to pattern future development after in the City Planning Department's new Old Town Design Guidelines. It's true. I picked up a copy (free) at City Hall and when I saw the picture of the VCC I expected to see a caption reading "Do Not Do This". But this is what it read:

The Victoria Conference Centre at 720 Douglas Street is valued as an exemplar of 1980s urbanism in a significant historic precinct.

The characteristics that underlie the building's value include:

- the building massing and spatial composition that acknowledges the powerful plan geometries of the Empress Hotel and the Provincial Legislature.

- the open public spaces and their landscaping [which have been filled with a big tent ]

- the mid-block walkway

- the materials of construction and their colours that refer to the materials of the Empress Hotel and the Crystal Garden across Douglas Street

- the roof form that echoes [imitates?!] the profile of the nearby Crystal Garden

- the scale of the shop display windows and entrances along Douglas Street

[Icebergalley]

Who was the architect for the VCC?

[aastra]

- the building massing and spatial composition that acknowledges the powerful plan geometries of the Empress Hotel and the Provincial Legislature.

How the heck does it do that? It's a big flat slab for crying out loud.

- the open public spaces and their landscaping

Remind me again why we're using the front lawn of the leg as a model for downtown Victoria? Then again, does the conference centre even include any landscaping?

- the mid-block walkway

It's a semi-successful hallway linking the conference centre to the Empress. Big whoop.

- the materials of construction and their colours that refer to the materials of the Empress Hotel and the Crystal Garden across Douglas Street

You know, because nothing says respect like architectural mockery.

- the roof form that echoes the profile of the nearby Crystal Garden

Did I mention architectural mockery?

- the scale of the shop display windows and entrances along Douglas Street

Scale? Is the Empress about small scale?

I swear, it's all made up.

[Ms. B. Havin]

Oh, of course! The NE corner -- I was confusing it with the SE corner (d'oh, sorry Icebergalley!).... Well, learned something new: I didn't know that my beloved <kof> brute used to be open colonnades. Ewww, that would not have been an inviting sight. Sort of like a superbug having its way with concrete...!

I did notice that some uplights (sort of like sconces) are on the building facade now (at 2nd storey or so level), which at least adds some night-time interest...

Haha, aastra, I think you're right: it has to be all made up (please, someone say it's all made up, please???)....

[Holden West]

Who was the architect for the VCC?

[url=http://www.maltwood.uvic.ca/Architecture/ma/design_story/architects/bawlf.html:b31ee]Nick (The Wing) Bawlf[/url:b31ee].

[m0nkyman]

The VCC is hailed as a model to pattern future development after in the City Planning Department's new Old Town Design Guidelines. It's true. I picked up a copy (free) at City Hall and when I saw the picture of the VCC I expected to see a caption reading "Do Not Do This". But this is what it read:

The Victoria Conference Centre at 720 Douglas Street is valued as an exemplar of 1980s urbanism in a significant historic precinct.

Thus proving once and for all that the entire planning department does not live, work, or play in downtown Victoria. Ever.