Victoria Construction - #7

[The Great Scaper]

A progress photo of the Home Depot Development in Saanich. Photo taken from the top of Mt. Tolmie.

The Home Depot Development by thegreatscaper, on Flickr

[Apey]

Originally Posted by The Great Scaper

A progress photo of the Home Depot Development in Saanich. Photo taken from the top of Mt. Tolmie.

The Home Depot Development by thegreatscaper, on Flickr

Wow, the project is really coming along! Nice to see the progress, thank you for the update @The Great Scaper!

[svlt]

According to Reddit, the Roundhouse development in Vic west is going back to committee of the whole on Thursday, with a 4% reduction in total floor space from the previous proposal, due to James Bay NIMBY complaints:

https://pub-victoria.escribemeetings...ab=attachments

Send a letter to mayor and council at mayorandcouncil@victoria.ca

https://www.reddit.com/r/VictoriaBC/...west_is_going/

[Apey]

[/QUOTE]

Interesting Reddit thread! Good Read!

[svlt]

Unanimously passed by council to go to a public hearing: https://www.cheknews.ca/after-more-t...an-18-1174704/

No exaggeration to say this is the biggest development project in Victoria in history.

[zoomer]

/\ thanks svlt. Two thoughts - 1. Likely this will take a couple decades to build out and will change several times as it has already. 2. The density/high rise opposition has literally evaporated. Even with the past council they would nickel and dime buildings down in height thinking they were doing a great public service. Now no one blinks an eye at 30 plus storey proposals.

From the official submission I pulled a couple images to give a better idea of what the massings will look like. I hope the final design has variety and breaks from the current Roundhouse design esthetic although the quality is good.

Roundhouse Development Proposal - October 2023. by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

[VantageHD]

Last time in Victoria we rented bikes and ended up at Spinnakers. The area was really nice, but seemed overwhelmingly residential for so close to downtown. This would be great if they create another commercial node and this location seems like the perfect place for that. Nice work Victoria!

[zoomer]

/\ Hey VantageHD . About three blocks behind here is a modest shopping plaza called West Side Village, about a 7 minute walk, and a bit less than that to downtown so perhaps that’s why there isn’t much here. Still, I agree it would be nice to have more in this area, especially closer to the water but that area is already developed. The new luxury marina has certainly added some life and a nice new destination with its restaurant. As for this new development they seem rather vague still, sounds like some cultural and or meeting spaces and a small amount of commercial.

[zoomer]

Here’s an example of what we’re likely to see more of regarding Victoria’s Missing Middle housing strategy.

A proposal for 395 St. Charles Street in Fairfield. Right now it’s a non-descript 1970ish looking bungalow hidden behind a lot of bushes in a beautiful neighbourhood. Proposal calls for 3 houses to replace the one, and each will also have a self-contained bachelor unit, so there will be a total of 6 new separate housing units. Images are from the proposal shared on the Victoria Development Tracker.

395 St. Charles Street Proposal - Victoria BC. October 2023 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

[VantageHD]

I love this type of development! Not to be on every lot, but dispersed randomly around well established neighbourhoods, I think works really well and adds to them. Probably the hardest part with this type of infill development is going to be the parking situation. That looks like only 3 spots for 6 units. Too bad there wasn't an alley and they could have got at least 3 more spots. Regardless, I still wouldn't hate to see this pop up next to my house.

[Metro-One]

A new video of mine exploring the variety of film locations throughout southern B.C. This includes Victoria and the Island of course! Besides the movie clips all the shots are my own taken over the last few years:

• Video Link

[VantageHD]

This is great! Nice work. I'm always pointing out Vancouver sets in movies when it's supposed to be somewhere else. Curious why you wouldn't mention Kamloops when you point to it on the map? Way more movies are filmed around here than Kelowna.

[Metro-One]

Thanks! The lack of Kamloops was just due to circumstances. Originally I had it in my video concept as well, but this summer when I was doing all the filming, it was smoked out in Kamloops so there was nothing to film… Hopefully when I return for a visit again next summer I can get some good footage for another video!

[zoomer]

Awesome Metro One, i recognized most of your footage from previously viewing it on YouTube. Did you also create the Hollywood video or did you license your footage to someone else? There is a real lack of updated (within a couple years) quality stock footage of BC cities, you could be meeting a need for YouTube creators!

[Metro-One]

These videos are 100% my own creation. I have two channels, one focusing on film and entertainment (the video above is this channel) and another one that is more loosely for fun, with travel vids about Japan, and montage vids of my footage of BC. So maybe you saw it in one of those vids of mine. I haven’t licensed my footage to anyone (though if someone ever asked I would be happy to do so!)

I plan to get a lot more footage next summer too!

PS, I always appreciate a share and a sub! (Sorry, need to do the obligatory shameless plug, haha)

[zoomer]

Oh I'm subscribed to your travel channel that's for sure! I check out all the videos, great stuff. I'll subscribe to the other one now that I know you're behind it - keep up the good work Metro! If that's your voice, you've also got a good YouTube voice as well.

[Metro-One]

Thank you very much! I got lots of cartoons I make on this channel too! (As long as you like dark humor).

Haha, I always thought my voice is too nasally, but I'm happy to hear you think otherwise!

[zahav]

I love the upcoming infill with the 3 homes (incl. basement suites), Vancouver is so hellbent on no single family homes at all, so the infill here is always townhouses or apartments (ie. Oak and Cambie corridor). It works for those streets since they are busy and warrant the multi-family density, but I think outside of arterial roads, the Victoria example is way better than plunking down a 5 unit townhouse complex in a neighbourhood. One cannot expect all families to be in a townhouse or condo, we're just not there yet. I agree with upzoning but cringe at excessive density in traditional neighbourhoods, I fee like Vancouver should follow this Victoria model, at least to start

[zoomer]

I agree, it's a great little development that results in 6 units without being blocky and overwhelming in what's a single family neighbourhood. Along aertial - fill your boots, but within established neighbourhoods you can still greatly increase density (6 x in this case) in a sensitive way.

That said - Victoria also has more than it's fair share of chunky infill. Examples from Aryze - which is Victoria's highest profile residential infill developer.



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Ok, this one won awards, looks kind of cool so I won't judge it too harshly. It was built on a triangle lot, but they could have done a better job connecting it to the sidewalk, the building presents a blank wall in a lot of way to the street, which I'm never a big fan of:



source

[VantageHD]

Not a big fan of the first one, but that second townhouse is beautiful. I can see how it would have won awards for that design.