830 replies to this topic

[Jackerbie]

"So, let me canvass you about that; we thought that there is currently no place for public sporting event celebrations in Victoria.  The plaza could be that spot; do you like that idea? Clap or boo!

 

[[Boos from the audience]]"

 

^Could there be a more perfect example of Victorians 

 

I nominate "[[Double Boo!!]]" on the following page

[Victoria Watcher]

isn't it a bit silly anyway?

 

if the canucks make the finals save on arena should put the games on their big screen.

 

but seriously can't people just go to bars and restaurants?

 

olympic hockey might be the only other big draw.  but that's not the best time of year and often the time is not great for north america.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 17 August 2020 - 12:56 PM.

[Kapten Kapsell]

Who is the Humboldt Valley Committee?  Is it an official committee of the DRA?

[Mike K.]

Interesting. Never heard of this group.

[aastra]

Re: the comparisons to the height of Aria, we might not remember that Aria was originally proposed to be considerably taller than it is. It got chopped down because -- obviously -- it would have been way too tall. Ruinous for the neighbourhood. So now here we are in 2020 and a building 50% taller than Aria is no big deal on the lot right next door.

 

Which once again calls into question all of the past fretting and hand-wringing. Why obligate Aria to be so short if the final building in the district is going to get a free pass re: height? (This will be the second glaring example of a 180-degree reversal in south downtown. The first example was the rejection of the art gallery tower and the subsequent approval of the retirement residence tower.)

[Rob Randall]

"So, let me canvass you about that; we thought that there is currently no place for public sporting event celebrations in Victoria.  The plaza could be that spot; do you like that idea? Clap or boo!

 

[[Boos from the audience]]"

 

^Could there be a more perfect example of Victorians 

 

Didn't the Stanley Cup riots originate near the CBC giant screen?

[zoomer]

Hilarious - Aryze and the Humboldt Valley Villagers trying to outdo one another with ridiculous statements.

It only confirms Telus’ bare bones commitment to Victoria. Imagine boasting publicly about this: “a medical clinic on the third floor - including an MRI machine”. WOW, so cool!

“We will undertake a drone survey...However that is expensive, and difficult to arrange, so it may take some time”. Yah - not true on both counts.

From Drone Focus website: “ Our Transport Canada Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) allows us to operate anywhere in British Columbia with relatively short notice. Schedule and weather permitting, we can be ready to shoot with at little as 24 hours notice, however we do prefer to have 2 business days to notify Nav Canada”.

As far as cost: “ Every location is different and every job request varies. For price reference - a typical stills aerial photo shoot for real estate clients is $200 and includes 6 edited photos. A one minute video for real estate clients is $350.” Even if this is complex and requires more time to accurately show how the Aria views will be impacted, 10 x the quoted price is still cheap and a drop in the bucket. Somehow I think they don’t really want to show the true impact until it’s too late.

http://dronefocus.ca/faq/

As far as the Falls comments re: a glass wall, Aryze comes back with well it’s “not a plain glass wall; it’s textured and visually interesting”.

Good grief- it’s a terrible glass unimaginative glass wall - it should be rejected and hopefully reimagined as a taller narrow signature building that doesn’t block everything. Add maybe with TWO MRI machines thrown in to boot.

[aastra]

From the POV of the shorter wing of The Falls and the Executive House, I'm not sure there's any way it really could be less obstructive, unless they chop it down to maybe six or seven stories. But even then it would still block out Aria and maybe all but the top two levels of the shorter wing of the Falls (commercial levels being taller than residential levels, as we all know).

 

It's just the way the various lots happen to relate to one another. If you slice off the pointy front corner and the pointy back corner then there might be some small benefit for the Falls, the Marriott, and Aria, but by doing so you'd be eliminating the dramatic footprint of the Telus building, which is the only thing that really sets it apart.

 

[PPPdev]

Hilarious - Aryze and the Humboldt Valley Villagers trying to outdo one another with ridiculous statements.

It only confirms Telus’ bare bones commitment to Victoria. Imagine boasting publicly about this: “a medical clinic on the third floor - including an MRI machine”. WOW, so cool!

“We will undertake a drone survey...However that is expensive, and difficult to arrange, so it may take some time”. Yah - not true on both counts.

From Drone Focus website: “ Our Transport Canada Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) allows us to operate anywhere in British Columbia with relatively short notice. Schedule and weather permitting, we can be ready to shoot with at little as 24 hours notice, however we do prefer to have 2 business days to notify Nav Canada”.

As far as cost: “ Every location is different and every job request varies. For price reference - a typical stills aerial photo shoot for real estate clients is $200 and includes 6 edited photos. A one minute video for real estate clients is $350.” Even if this is complex and requires more time to accurately show how the Aria views will be impacted, 10 x the quoted price is still cheap and a drop in the bucket. Somehow I think they don’t really want to show the true impact until it’s too late.

http://dronefocus.ca/faq/

As far as the Falls comments re: a glass wall, Aryze comes back with well it’s “not a plain glass wall; it’s textured and visually interesting”.

Good grief- it’s a terrible glass unimaginative glass wall - it should be rejected and hopefully reimagined as a taller narrow signature building that doesn’t block everything. Add maybe with TWO MRI machines thrown in to boot.

 

Keep going, it's quite amusing how well versed you are in matters of development 

 

I'm especially curious about how you would undertake a drone photo survey of nearly a hundred different balconies/windows and matching all those photos to georeferenced renderings for $350 (or $3500) in two days.

Edited by PPPdev, 17 August 2020 - 04:18 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

the drone survey is tricky when you have to know heights and exact locations. not so easy.

[zoomer]

Well I don't think I've EVER heard a developer promise one hundred individualized drone view perspectives before - are you commiting to this promise publically prior to the public input process?! Impressive if true.

I incorrectly assumed it would be the basic floor by floor views as for most in Aria it's clear their view will be negatively impacted. Not that their view is a good given right, but the design doesn't have to be this bad. Oh well, if having no view gives the residents a migraine they can always visit the private clinic on the third floor for an MRI to make sure everything is ok.

[aastra]

Here are some pics from TripAdvisor from the various adjacent buildings:

• https://media-cdn.tr...66/exterior.jpg
• https://media-cdn.tr...26-largejpg.jpg
• https://media-cdn.tr...2/photo3jpg.jpg
• https://media-cdn.tr...c/photo4jpg.jpg
• https://media-cdn.tr...riott-inner.jpg
• https://media-cdn.tr...d/nice-view.jpg
• https://media-cdn.tr...ner-harbour.jpg

Edited by aastra, 17 August 2020 - 04:35 PM.

[Mike K.]

This just reinforces how the buildings in that area should have been taller, as originally proposed. Ten-storey office buildings have been a part of the Douglas Street landscape since the 1920s. You’d think by now planners would know that situating 12-storey residential buildings mid-block along the 700-blocks would mean they’d eventually be blocked by equally as tall or taller buildings.

[zoomer]

Yah, I only see two ways out, a spectacular four storey building, or a skinny 20, with bigger floor plates on the bottom for offices and the rest for condos to make it a viable project. I mean let's be honest - this is a terrible location for an office building, it just doesn't fit. There are so many other locations which would have been better suited than this tiny triangle lot with all the condos in 'relative' harmony at the moment.

That being said, yes, I'm not an expert in these matters quite obviously, just another guy with an opinion trying to liven up the discussion. That being said, I apologize for my tone being on the a-hole side for sure.

[aastra]

 

-this is a terrible location for an office building, it just doesn't fit. There are so many other locations which would have been better suited than this tiny triangle lot...

 

You mean like this?

 

Or like that?

 

Thegreatscaper has some pics of the apex property from high up:

 

https://www.flickr.c...N00/3397831399/

 

https://www.flickr.c...N00/3031819748/

 

https://www.flickr.c...N00/3397797705/

 

https://www.flickr.c...N00/3397842755/

Edited by aastra, 17 August 2020 - 05:00 PM.

[m3m]

The hotels would seem to be the ones most affected by this. The loss of views likely will lead to a loss in income. You can’t charge as much for a room if you don’t have a view of the empress or the water.

[Rob Randall]

The split in the Falls tower was deepened in order to give the Doubletree guests a bit of a better view but I don't think there's much you can carve away from the Telus massing to improve anyone's view.

 

As for the fly-around drone view, that can all be done with 3D modeling software. I saw an impressive one over ten years ago for a Fort St. project, the graphics technology must be much better by now.

[PPPdev]

You can't compared the proposal to a 0m parking lot. The zoning allows for a 45m tall building here, these views have been on borrowed time. The dialogue is about our requested 9m increase over the zoning, still below the 15 storey OCP height. 

[Mike K.]

Indeed. Aria's towers are roughly 36 meters tall. The hotel might be around 45?

 

I do recall from way back that the people who bought into Astoria (the 20-storey tower there) were very upset to learn of Aria, and the City scaled back the initial proposal which was either 17 or 19-storeys for one of the towers and a lower height for the other. Both ended up at 12-storeys. 

[Mike K.]

Here's a screenshot from a video on http://capitalparkvictoria.com/