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BUILT
601 Herald
Uses: condo, commercial
Address: 601 Herald Street
Municipality: Victoria
Region: Downtown Victoria
Storeys: 5
Condo units: (studio/bachelor, loft, 1BR, 2BR)
Sales status: sold out / resales only
601 Herald Street is a five storey, 27 loft-style unit woodframe condo with ground floor retail situated at He... (view full profile)
Learn more about 601 Herald on Citified.ca
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[Downtown Victoria] 601 Herald | Condos| 4-storeys | Built - completed in 2011

Condo Commercial

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229 replies to this topic

#41 Nparker

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Posted 04 June 2008 - 12:41 PM

I really like this one. I hope it gets off the ground soon.

#42 Baro

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Posted 04 June 2008 - 12:41 PM

Wow, 5 stories, fills up the lot with no setbacks, exact same height as its neighbour, actual good 'heritage' architecture. Perfectly fitting. I wonder what people will cry about for this one. The loss of the 7up ad?

#43 Rob Randall

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Posted 04 June 2008 - 01:03 PM

No, it's only four storeys. There's an open courtyard just to the left of the 7up sign.

The Kabuki Kab proposal walls the courtyard in on the east side, so that's unfortunate. Ideally, two courtyards or a small light well could be together to maximize the open space but the Kabuki is pretty much full site coverage (they are also four storeys but are going full 3:1 density as opposed to 601 which is around 2.5:1.)

#44 Baro

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Posted 04 June 2008 - 01:47 PM

Maybe I'm not understanding, but it looks 5 stories to me. I count 5 windows. Is the bottom floor 2 stories? Is the top row of windows.. decorative?

#45 Rob Randall

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Posted 04 June 2008 - 02:29 PM

Top floor has lofted ceilings. Almost every new residential building has extra height in the top floor.

#46 Baro

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Posted 04 June 2008 - 02:40 PM

Ah cool, so 4.5 floors. Density seems a bit low for the area though. I'd love to see a site plan to understand this light well issue.

#47 jaylow

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Posted 04 June 2008 - 03:34 PM

I Look Forward to this happening, as i work just up the street and walk by this site often.
Glad it won't be an empty lot anymore.

#48 hotdoglegz

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Posted 04 June 2008 - 10:04 PM

I too am excited to see this site developed. It feels like it has been en empty, garbage collecting space for a long long time. It will be a shame to loose the couple of free parking spots along Herald Street though.

I've been told not to expect the Kabuki Kab lot to be developed any time soon.

#49 aastra

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Posted 05 June 2008 - 03:50 PM

It makes me wonder why there aren't more proposals for the old town along the lines of this one.

That reminds me. I saw a rendering of Bambu somewhere on the web that showed an angle I had never seen before. It looked pretty good, but it was a small picture. Does anybody have any other images of that one? (other than the familiar pic that was used all over the place?)

#50 jklymak

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Posted 05 June 2008 - 04:49 PM

This looks really nice. There is tons of room for infill down there, and there is lots to do. I hope it goes through.

#51 Rob Randall

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Posted 05 June 2008 - 10:23 PM

The courtyard faces the west wall of the Kabuki building.



#52 G-Man

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Posted 06 June 2008 - 07:32 AM

How about a green wall along the face of the courtyard?

#53 D.L.

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Posted 06 June 2008 - 09:41 AM

That's a nice deisgn. I hope it sets a high standard of design for other buildings that come along.

The height of the retail spaces along Government St. looks a little short. I hope this isn't because there is a height limit on the site, and the developer is trying to squeeze in as much as he can within that height limit. There's nothing worse then retail space with low ceilings.

And that Kabuki Cab building could at least put in windows on the portion of the building that overlooks the courtyard.

#54 Baro

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Posted 06 June 2008 - 10:15 AM

Nope, they can't. In the old days we could do that. You could take into account your neighbour's building. But now it's totally to do with property lines. We have to imagine the property line is just a brick wall, made out of FIRE, and design our buildings as such. It really stifles a lot of what you can do.

Sometimes there's ways around it, like crazy fire-proof windows, but even so those have to be set back a bit.

#55 Rob Randall

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Posted 06 June 2008 - 11:31 AM

Someone said to me that they thought the bay windows didn't really fit in Chinatown, that the building should be flat, as shown in the first version (overhead view I posted above).

I agree that Chinatown is more about balconies and fire escapes and that bay windows are more associated with Yates St. but I'm not entirely convinced bay windows won't work here.

#56 G-Man

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Posted 06 June 2008 - 11:51 AM

I am for things not "fitting in".

#57 Baro

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Posted 06 June 2008 - 12:06 PM

I think massing should fit in, but styles should be exciting and varied. Brick and bay windows, glass curtain wall, what ever. Just do it right and fit the street-wall.

#58 Nparker

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Posted 06 June 2008 - 12:56 PM

Baro is correct. And what exactly is wrong with bay windows in this location anyway?

#59 Baro

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Posted 06 June 2008 - 01:31 PM

Tall buildings need a proximity to mountain-views, so what's in "lo-jo" that makes it suitable for bay windows? We need to figure out the formula, crack the code so to speak. With it we'll be able to build anything totally unopposed!

#60 Rob Randall

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Posted 06 June 2008 - 01:55 PM

I think massing should fit in, but styles should be exciting and varied. Brick and bay windows, glass curtain wall, what ever. Just do it right and fit the street-wall.


We have to be careful that we don't randomly introduce the same styles in every neighbourhood or we will lose the individual character of the area.

This is why I felt so strongly that the Peacock and View/Fort towers in Harris Green introduce more "funky" elements to enhance the vibe created by the Jigsaw and Mosaic buildings. Otherwise we won't be able to differentiate Chinatown from North Park from Old Town.

It doesn't mean we should be imitative but we should still think about the neighbourhood.

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