892 replies to this topic

[Matt R.]

We seem incapable of building anything with flair or good street presence. It all seems to be American brutalism.

You mean Parisian brutalism. We want to be like Europe, remember?

[aastra]

To be brutally honest*, I can provide some concrete* recent examples of good urban lowrise stuff in downtown Victoria. Let's not be so defeatist** in our attitude. The Union in Chinatown and the Customs House, for example. The Pearl on Store Street, too. And in the "woulda been great" file we have the final concepts for Northern Junk and 1030 Fort Street. Sovereign on Broughton doesn't thrill me but as an infill junior highrise goes I'd say it works. As a one-off I can also appreciate Ironworks, as long as it stands out as the lone example of going all-in with the rust cladding.

 

*brutalism
**France

[Bambam]

Good examples of brutalism include the UVic MacLaurin and Petch buildings, the Cadboro Commons, Craigdarroch and Cadboro residences, and of course the Saanich Municipal hall

[lanforod]

Good luck seeing the Cadboro Commons.

[aastra]

You'd think this Government Street hotel site would represent a prime opportunity to showcase everything that we've learned.

 

But nope, we're feeling "conflicted" because we really want to regress back to the blandscraper era.

 

 

Daily Colonist
September 30, 1973

Old Town Area Restored

Historic Lower Yates Now Has a New Look

Adrian Greenbank is one of the men who took a chance on investing money in restoring old buildings, rather than tearing them down...

...Greenbank bought a warehouse at 535 Yates.

"We ripped out most of the interior, dug the main floor 18 inches deeper so we could put in a mezzanine floor, and then rebuilt the interior completely,"

Highrises, Greenbank added, don't have to be inhuman and ugly. They can be blended in with any other architecture.

He blamed architects for not living up to their obligations. A good example, Greenbank said, was the city parking garage, next to his building.

The unimaginative concrete structure painted in a dull red, he said, could be "dressed up" to fit in with the new spirit of the 500 Block Yates, but that would cost money which neither the city, nor merchants were willing to invest.

 

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May 8, 2025

...“conflicted” was the key word used by many city councillors leading up to the decision, which butted against city staff recommendations.

After a lengthy discussion on the proposed construction of a 12-storey hotel in historic Old Town, Victoria’s mayor and council neither approved nor declined the developer’s application to build, but instead agreed to send staff back to the developer with a list of questions and considerations, all the while, hoping the list wasn’t so lengthy it deterred the applicant from moving forward. (aastra says: does anybody remember the Northern Junk saga? Anyone?)

[Victoria Watcher]

I suspect nobody is moving forward with hotel plans right now.

[dkuitu]

I suspect nobody is moving forward with hotel plans right now.

Nobody is going to move forward with a project that has a mathematical certainty for failure based on height restrictions.

[Fairbanks]

Maybe Mayor Dingdong should circulate a secret memo planning to move the homeless off Pandora to this location.  That should get things moving.

[HarrisonGreene]

https://cheknews.ca/...-hotel-1302550/

[Victoria Watcher]

https://cheknews.ca/...-hotel-1302550/

 

Now, CHEK News has learned that Ocean Gate instead opted to sell the property, saying it did not believe it could build an economically viable hotel with the constraints.

The site has been purchased by Redbrick and Aryze Development, who are partnering to build a hotel.

“This hotel project reflects continued investment in the future of downtown and responds to a well-defined need for additional hotel capacity in the city,” the companies said in a joint statement to CHEK News.

“Redbrick, a Victoria-founded and headquartered group of companies, is partnering with Aryze, both certified B-Corp organizations, with a strong track record of thoughtful, high-quality work. Together, it is their intent to bring forward a hotel that honours Victoria’s past, contributes thoughtfully to its future, and adds lasting value to the downtown core.”

[Victoria Watcher]

Isn't Redbrick a tech company?

[aastra]

Now that Aryze is involved, I would pay some money out of my own pocket if they could take some strong inspiration from their defunct proposal for Parry Street at Toronto Street in James Bay. That project had much more of an "old town" vibe than a James Bay vibe, anyway.

 

Seriously, if you give me 6-8 stories of the good stuff shown below on the Plaza Hotel site but with a proper Government St. commercial ground floor then I might have to concede that Victorians aren't incapable of learning from their past successes and failures. 

 

Consider everything that the new Customs House is and does at Wharf and Government, and that's 100% what the goal should be for the Plaza Hotel site at Pandora and Government. Same impressively positive vibe and energy re: a new development in a touristy older area. A bit showy but not over the top, and absolutely nailing all of the "old town" fundamentals.
 

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- pictures above were taken from Aryze's Aug 2023 document re: their James Bay project

Edited by aastra, 31 January 2026 - 01:15 PM.

[Mike K.]

That was indeed a grand design.