432 replies to this topic

[MarkoJ]

Starting to look like Vivid?

[Mike K.]

Just six more floors to go. But it feels so short, from this angle.

[Sparky]

There have been quite a few pictures posted lately of a large number of homes being built.

Shouldn’t there also be a drive to expand the infrastructure to support these new occupants?

…you know like doctors?

[Victoria Watcher]

There have been quite a few pictures posted lately of a large number of homes being built.

Shouldn’t there also be a drive to expand the infrastructure to support these new occupants?

…you know like doctors?

 

If the government did not regulate the supply (of doctors) by imposing wage and price controls, this would not be an issue.  Like nothing in the free market is an issue.

 

But more to your point, Canadians are free to move wherever they want in the country.  I'm not completely sure that restricting building is the solution to medical issues.  Since both doctors and patients can move about, new housing or not.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 15 March 2022 - 06:27 AM.

[Casual Kev]

Housing supply being so scarce and expensive is a fairly minor reason why Victoria is bleeding family doctors. Main problem though, they're simply paid like **** for the amount of work they have to do. Even if the province graduated twice as many family doctors, most of them would end up out of province quickly for better pay. Tying up so much money in a mortgage when they already have massive debt to pay off with a comparatively meager earning is just the straw breaking the camel's back.

[Barrrister]

We dont need more doctors since all the politicians and top bureaucrats have one. The rest of us should stop complaining and be happy with whatever is thrown to us. 

[corvus]

I submitted my name to a waiting list for a newly-opened clinic over a year ago, and my name was pulled lottery style a couple of weeks ago! Very exciting, I'll have a doctor for the first time since I moved to Victoria ten years ago. 

 

Separately, the infrastructure I'd be more interested in expanding to support these occupants would be transit. As far as I can tell there's no clear link between increased density, often with parking variances based on transit accessibility, and an actual increase in transit service to the area. An interesting disconnect between municipal approvals and regionally supplied infrastructure.

 

(for clarity, i'm fully in support of transit oriented development and parking reductions - but we make it hard to advance when the ball is often dropped on the transit part of that system) 

Edited by corvus, 16 March 2022 - 09:10 AM.

[aastra]

From some angles east/northeast of downtown this building and the office block between Pandora and Cormorant look like they're a twin tower project. Both of them have similar plain white panel cladding and small windows.

 

I'm still not sure how Victoria ended up going all in with this odd esthetic after so many decades of uber-cautious hand-wringing about architectural design.

[RustyNail]

Starting to look like Vivid?
20220312_155329_resized.jpg

Definitely some similarities in terms of the cladding panels and colour, in my opinion. This building also has a black/brown brick podium like the VIVID too, I believe

[Nparker]

...I'm still not sure how Victoria ended up going all in with this odd esthetic after so many decades of uber-cautious hand-wringing about architectural design.

We should have known that Hudson Place One was an outlier and not a template for future development.

[aastra]

The way things are shaping up I think I would have preferred a tower version of Hudson Mews over this HP2.

[aastra]

You know what i would like to see ... is a building you heavy posters thought was great.

 

I thought the refined concept for this building was pretty darned good, before it was struck by the blandening™.

 

And yet it was the same massing, mostly the same materials. But it looked sharp and refined and finished.

 

I'm sure I must have said it earlier in this thread: I wish the forces behind the blandening™ would lighten up a bit. If HP2 had ended up somewhere in the middle between what it is and what it could have been then I probably wouldn't mind it at all. Sure, I would still be griping about what could have been. But I wouldn't be out every night flipping parked cars and egging the vehicles in Mike K.'s driveway.

[Nparker]

...This building also has a black/brown brick podium like the VIVID...

It seems as though the HP2 podium is going to be its most aesthetically pleasing feature. I find the warm coloured brick and the bright white panel cladding above it quite jarring when viewed together. They feel like they belong on two completely different buildings.

[aastra]

 

 

But I wouldn't be out every night flipping parked cars and egging the vehicles in Mike K.'s driveway.

 

Just to clarify, the parked cars I've been flipping were parked in front of Mike K.'s house.

[aastra]

Anyway, this tower isn't a horror show. It's just much lamer than it should have been or could have been, and especially so since it's one of the tallest buildings downtown.

[Mike K.]

That was you?

[Nparker]

I've missed your posts aastra. 

[Nparker]

Anyway, this tower isn't a horror show. It's just much lamer than it should have been or could have been, and especially so since it's one of the tallest buildings downtown.

It also sits in a very prominent site. If its location was swapped with HP-1 it would have less of an impact and its blandness would be more forgivable.

[aastra]

 

That was you?

 

I can only take credit for eggings and flippings that happened during the 7pm-8pm slot, Monday through Thursday. Anyone who wants to egg Mike K.'s place on the weekend needs to be prepared to take a number, and I just don't have the patience for it.

[aastra]

Lest anyone should spoil my perfect record* and accuse me of being a cantankerous sidewalk superintendent with mercilessly high standards and a rusty old axe to grind, let me just say this: the distinction of the top two levels may end up having a big impact re: my overall impression. It would be very lame indeed for those plain levels to stack up to the 23rd floor and then just end without any resolution to the design.

 

*for today