584 replies to this topic

[Rob Randall]

There's a bit of a slope there. You have to step up to enter the Johnson side and step down to enter on the Quadra side. I'm sure a handrail will be installed on that step. I'm just surprised there isn't 50 skateboarders trying it out.

[RustyNail]

This building looks like its mostly done now.

[DavidSchell]

This building looks like its mostly done now.

 

I really like how this building turned out ... yet another project Ben voted against, but got built anyways and will now supply much needed housing. 

[Sebbo]

My partner and I will be moving in October 1st. I can post some pics of the interior/unit if people would like?

[Vin]

Why doesn't the City try to underground the Hydro lines? It's a missed opportunity here, IMHO. The views of the churches and the rental building would've been improved without those overhanging lines.

[Mike K.]

My partner and I will be moving in October 1st. I can post some pics of the interior/unit if people would like?

 

Totally! That would be much appreciated, Sebbo, and welcome to VV.

[Victoria Watcher]

My partner and I will be moving in October 1st. I can post some pics of the interior/unit if people would like?

people would like.

[aastra]

 

Why doesn't the City try to underground the Hydro lines? It's a missed opportunity here, IMHO. The views of the churches and the rental building would've been improved without those overhanging lines.

 

I wanted to know the history of the overhead lines saga so I posted a ton of old news items a while back. Long story short: in the 1950s it was an expensive but feasible proposition, whereas now it's an expensive but infeasible proposition.

[baconnbits]

Why doesn't the City try to underground the Hydro lines? It's a missed opportunity here, IMHO. The views of the churches and the rental building would've been improved without those overhanging lines.

It’s expensive for the developer and or BC Hydro

[Vin]

I wanted to know the history of the overhead lines saga so I posted a ton of old news items a while back. Long story short: in the 1950s it was an expensive but feasible proposition, whereas now it's an expensive but infeasible proposition.

I suppose they will stay around in perpetuity then? 

 

Not sure how much it would cost to underground it, but I thought it would be do-able block-by-block as per new development. If it needs to be extended to the next block, latecomer fees can take care of that. Much of old town has already been undergrounded and the area looks spectacular! Now I wonder how they could secure the finances to do that in the first place. 

[Mike K.]

You know, I don't think I ever consciously realized there were no overhead lines in Old Town!!

[aastra]

Check it out here...

 

And check it out here...

 

 

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
August 12, 1952 (!)

 

Planning for the Future

...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, (aastra asks: would ~70 years be enough time? Not even close to enough, because we're still talking about this issue in 2020 as if it were some new thing.) 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. (aastra says: Planning, yes. Action, no.)

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
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]

^For some reason those links to old Daily Colonist articles no longer jump to precisely the right page. But if you scroll up or down a bit you'll find the articles that I was linking to.

[Mike K.]

I asked Mrs. Mike K today if she realized there were no power lines in Old Town. Mind blown.

[aastra]

 

You know, I don't think I ever consciously realized there were no overhead lines in Old Town!!

 

No worries. It's only been a year and eight months since I posted that link about it.

 

It's not like we expect you to read everything on this board. Heck, it's not like we expect you to read anything on this board.

[aastra]

I think most of us are impressed if you even bother to show up at all.

[Mike K.]

See, my plan was to respond to this in like nine months.

[Vin]

I asked Mrs. Mike K today if she realized there were no power lines in Old Town. Mind blown.

When there is a will, there is always a way. 

[aastra]

Pic by thegreatscaper or possibly somebody else on flickr.com.

 

I nominate this building for VV's prestigious "That turned out way better than I thought it would" award. The early images were not flattering, and the design change was such a severe departure from the original concept it almost seemed like they were just struggling to do anything that would get approval. But it turned out well and it's actually quite original. I'm starting to think the premise that every new residential building in Victoria looks exactly the same might be a bit of a misrepresentation. A tad exaggerated.

Edited by aastra, 18 September 2021 - 11:55 AM.

[zoomer]

Sigh.. yes the great Scaper has taken many fine photos of that building, but alas 'tis mine. And for the record, right from the onset I loved this building, check the tapes! Um, thread.