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Monday, May 21, 2007
City of Victoria Clock Tower Receives Award of Merit
By City of Victoria
VICTORIA – The City of Victoria has received an Award of Merit for the restoration of the City Hall Clock Tower from the Hallmark Society. Each year, the Hallmark Society honours outstanding achievements in the field of heritage preservation, conservation, restoration, and advocacy.
"The City of Victoria has always taken great pride in its heritage buildings," said Mayor Alan Lowe. "We are particularly proud of the heritage status of our own building and we are committed to preserving its architectural integrity," he added.
City Hall is designated as a national heritage site and its 105 foot clock tower serves as a significant heritage landmark in the Old Town District. It is a highly visible landmark for many people who live, work in, or visit the city.
Portions of the clock tower were in disrepair. The original sheet metal covering the four faces of the clock tower had rusted through, affected the clock and discoloured other areas of the tower. It became necessary to repair, restore and protect the Second Empire-style heritage architectural elements of the building.
To help with the cost of restoration, the City applied for and received a $25,000 grant from the Heritage Legacy Fund of British Columbia to restore and preserve the heritage, architectural, historical and cultural value of the clock tower located at #1 Centennial Square (City Hall).
# View the City's Press Release.
Ding-Dong: City Hall Clock Tower gets heritage award
Started by
Ms. B. Havin
, May 23 2007 02:07 PM
1 reply to this topic
#1
Ms. B. Havin
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- Member
- 5,052 posts
Posted 23 May 2007 - 02:07 PM
From Civic Info BC, which got it via a City of Victoria press release:
When you buy a game, you buy the rules. Play happens in the space between the rules.
#2
HB
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- Banned
- 7,975 posts
Posted 02 April 2012 - 09:19 PM
Digging through the VV archives I decided to add to this thread and bring it alive.
Did you know that when the restoration work was being done workers found the a bullet had at one point pierced one of the hands of the clock. Yep. No one knows when but when they lined up the hand that was shot with the marks that the bullet left on the face it told them that the trajectory was from the sidewalk next to the Douglas Hotel . Now the Douglas Hotel has had a beer parlour for many years. Maybe someone brought a gun in there in the 1920s and wanted to try it out. Or maybe it was in the 1970s?????
Anyway the newspaper report said that it was teh big hand that was shot then later on says that investigators knew that it was shot at the hour of 5. the only way they would know this is if the small hand had been shot.
well I was curious so I headed out to see if I could find the bullet hole.
I did. It IS indeed on the small hand.
I went at 5pm and took a photo of it. When the hand is a the 5pm place the hole show up perfectly because of the way the sun shines through it. Earlier in the day the hole is visible but not as good because the hand has a shadow that makes it hard to see but it IS still visible.
Check out my pictures then read the story.
Zoom in on this one and you can see it still . In the first picture it looks like a white dot in this one its black because of shadow
Mysterious bullet hole turns up in restoration of city hall clock
It's slower these days. That's understandable given its age, not to mention the bullet that blasted through its big hand.
By Times Colonist (Victoria)May 27, 2007
It's slower these days. That's understandable given its age, not to mention the bullet that blasted through its big hand.
Who pulled the trigger remains a mystery.
After some CSI-like deductions garnered from the angle of entry, experts say the shooting took place from outside the Douglas Hotel at either 5 a.m. or 5 p.m. But there's no clue about what year the incident happened. Or who had the gun.
The victim -- the City of Victoria's clock tower -- is still standing.
Damage to the clock was revealed last year when the City of Victoria took on a project to restore the 32-metre clock tower on the national heritage building. The city learned last week that the $125,000 clock tower restoration project was given an award of merit from the Hallmark Society.
Richard Linzey, City of Victoria heritage planner, said the bullet hole was among the mysteries uncovered as workers got close to the clock and its bell.
Mention of the damaged hand and suspected cause was made in a Hallmark Society newsletter and Linzey was sure that would prompt more details about the mystery shooting.
But nothing so far.
The hole remains. "It's part of its history now," said Linzey.
In the meantime, Linzey talks with pride about the project that saw 10 layers of paint taken off the clock tower bell, "restoring its sound to a lovely tambour ... It has a much clearer ring now. It was very muffled before."
Writing found on one of the paint layers suggested that bell might have been commandeered by the navy or the militia.
"But that's all speculation," said Linzey, with the care a detective might use to weigh details against probable outcome.
Drawing on old photographs, Linzey designed replicas of 20 urns for the ledges above and below the clock, which were fashioned out of fibreglass by a local manufacturer.
Gold leaf was reapplied to the clock face after layers of paint were removed.
Sierd Hortsing, the city's manager of facilities planning and projects, says restoration work takes a different approach from the average reno.
"You have to step back and take some time to consider what you're doing, and the implications of what you're doing. [City Hall] is a national heritage site, after all. But we have some great in-house expertise," and Linzey is among them.
In 1993 Linzey coincidentally did restoration work on a similar clock made by the same company in England.
Clock towers aren't fashionable in architecture anymore.
"The last ones were built in the 1960s," said Linzey.
"Modern architecture isn't so literal. It is trying to reinvent the city hall to have more iconic status in a different way.
"Clock towers were a metaphor for order and it was critical to keep the time correct on the city hall."
Today, city staff still pays attention to the time on the clock tower, but a little more often. Linzey says it loses a couple of minutes every day and has to be adjusted.
"It's getting quite tired."
It is, after all, more than 110 years old. And it has had a bullet through its hand.
© © CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.
Did you know that when the restoration work was being done workers found the a bullet had at one point pierced one of the hands of the clock. Yep. No one knows when but when they lined up the hand that was shot with the marks that the bullet left on the face it told them that the trajectory was from the sidewalk next to the Douglas Hotel . Now the Douglas Hotel has had a beer parlour for many years. Maybe someone brought a gun in there in the 1920s and wanted to try it out. Or maybe it was in the 1970s?????
Anyway the newspaper report said that it was teh big hand that was shot then later on says that investigators knew that it was shot at the hour of 5. the only way they would know this is if the small hand had been shot.
well I was curious so I headed out to see if I could find the bullet hole.
I did. It IS indeed on the small hand.
I went at 5pm and took a photo of it. When the hand is a the 5pm place the hole show up perfectly because of the way the sun shines through it. Earlier in the day the hole is visible but not as good because the hand has a shadow that makes it hard to see but it IS still visible.
Check out my pictures then read the story.
Zoom in on this one and you can see it still . In the first picture it looks like a white dot in this one its black because of shadow
Mysterious bullet hole turns up in restoration of city hall clock
It's slower these days. That's understandable given its age, not to mention the bullet that blasted through its big hand.
By Times Colonist (Victoria)May 27, 2007
It's slower these days. That's understandable given its age, not to mention the bullet that blasted through its big hand.
Who pulled the trigger remains a mystery.
After some CSI-like deductions garnered from the angle of entry, experts say the shooting took place from outside the Douglas Hotel at either 5 a.m. or 5 p.m. But there's no clue about what year the incident happened. Or who had the gun.
The victim -- the City of Victoria's clock tower -- is still standing.
Damage to the clock was revealed last year when the City of Victoria took on a project to restore the 32-metre clock tower on the national heritage building. The city learned last week that the $125,000 clock tower restoration project was given an award of merit from the Hallmark Society.
Richard Linzey, City of Victoria heritage planner, said the bullet hole was among the mysteries uncovered as workers got close to the clock and its bell.
Mention of the damaged hand and suspected cause was made in a Hallmark Society newsletter and Linzey was sure that would prompt more details about the mystery shooting.
But nothing so far.
The hole remains. "It's part of its history now," said Linzey.
In the meantime, Linzey talks with pride about the project that saw 10 layers of paint taken off the clock tower bell, "restoring its sound to a lovely tambour ... It has a much clearer ring now. It was very muffled before."
Writing found on one of the paint layers suggested that bell might have been commandeered by the navy or the militia.
"But that's all speculation," said Linzey, with the care a detective might use to weigh details against probable outcome.
Drawing on old photographs, Linzey designed replicas of 20 urns for the ledges above and below the clock, which were fashioned out of fibreglass by a local manufacturer.
Gold leaf was reapplied to the clock face after layers of paint were removed.
Sierd Hortsing, the city's manager of facilities planning and projects, says restoration work takes a different approach from the average reno.
"You have to step back and take some time to consider what you're doing, and the implications of what you're doing. [City Hall] is a national heritage site, after all. But we have some great in-house expertise," and Linzey is among them.
In 1993 Linzey coincidentally did restoration work on a similar clock made by the same company in England.
Clock towers aren't fashionable in architecture anymore.
"The last ones were built in the 1960s," said Linzey.
"Modern architecture isn't so literal. It is trying to reinvent the city hall to have more iconic status in a different way.
"Clock towers were a metaphor for order and it was critical to keep the time correct on the city hall."
Today, city staff still pays attention to the time on the clock tower, but a little more often. Linzey says it loses a couple of minutes every day and has to be adjusted.
"It's getting quite tired."
It is, after all, more than 110 years old. And it has had a bullet through its hand.
© © CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.
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