Victoria Construction - #7

[vicdevelopments]

Originally Posted by saintjohnirish☘

Loads of contruction going on in Vic. Bring some of that east

Nah we need it all and more.

[vicdevelopments]

Originally Posted by aastra

You can have View Towers if you like. Come pick it up anytime.

View Towers isn't that bad it's just left all alone. They need to build as tall or taller around it. It would blend in just fine. I'm so disappointed in that 12 story condo proposal beside it. It almost makes me want to go to the council meeting when it goes forward and speak against it. Some one needs to email the developer. Once it's built you cant go back.

[aastra]

View Towers needs to go. Failing that, the ground floor and especially the corner needs a total makeover.

[vicdevelopments]

I always wonder if they could make the bottom into store fronts. I think they had left it half done when the second tower was cancelled. The developer left it half done.

[Phil McAvity]

Everyone likes to bag on View Towers (myself included) but remember the paint job it got? Painting over the bare concrete really made a positive difference, it looked 10X better after that

[vicdevelopments]

I don't mind View Towers. I just don't want to see it as the tallest structure.
I hate 12 stories being built right beside it.

The paint job they did years ago made a huge difference. I would also like to see shops open up in the bottom of it where the now concrete bricks are.

thumbnail_IMG_0222 by steven roberts, on Flickr

[aastra]

The condo tower behind the Hudson may finally be happening for real:


pic by jonny at www.vibrantvictoria.ca

*****

Legato on Yates is making progress:


pic by MarkoJ at www.vibrantvictoria.ca


pic by MarkoJ at www.vibrantvictoria.ca

*****

The controversial lowrise proposal for Cook Street village:


pic from https://www.buzzbuzzhome.com/ca/cook-st

*****

Pandora Ave. between Quadra and Vancouver:

[osirisboy]

Legato is awful. I hate seeing these stubby point towers being built in Victoria. The one on pandora however looks great!

[aastra]

I'm liking Legato a lot. But then I'm also a big fan of Chard's small-footprint buildings, like Corazon and the Juliet and 834 Johnson. Victoria has no shortage of wide modern buildings (slabs, buildings lying on their sides, etc.), so the variety is welcome. And the small footprints are a good fit within downtown Victoria's historic built form. Literally, they're a good fit. They fit wherever there's a space. No blockbusting required.

I should also note, even though officialdom has had a fetish for wide proportions for almost 50 years, Victorians themselves have complained loudly pretty much that entire time about shadowing and blocked views.

The Executive House was downtown Victoria's first modern 1960s highrise and it wasn't a wide building. The Permanent Loan (later Bank of Toronto) Building was the tallest historic office building and its proportions were similar. It's not a new thing, is my point.


pic from http://www.playle.com/listing.php?i=SCVIEW190617


pic from http://search.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/b...re-in-victoria

[osirisboy]

Can't buildings be wide and tall? Legato doesn't have a small footprint at all. It doesn't fit in well to the historic built form whatsoever. It should should just go straight up from the ground, not have a set back after the 3rd floor

Those examples have some glaring differences. Mainly the 60s one has a podium and the older one doesn't, not to mention the one from the 60s has a huge blank wall along the sidewalk

[Phil McAvity]

Originally Posted by osirisboy

Can't buildings be wide and tall?

He just explained the problem with them

Originally Posted by osirisboy

Legato doesn't have a small footprint at all.

Yes it does, it occupies a small fraction of the block it's on

Originally Posted by osirisboy

It should should just go straight up from the ground, not have a set back after the 3rd floor

I agree, but better there be a setback on the third floor than on the upper floors

Originally Posted by osirisboy

Those examples have some glaring differences. Mainly the 60s one has a podium and the older one doesn't, not to mention the one from the 60s has a huge blank wall along the sidewalk

Not only is that not a huge blank wall but I couldn't even tell you if it's still there or not it's so insignificant. Besides, not only were the two buildings built about half a century apart but they served completely different functions so it's apples to oranges.

[Phil McAvity]

The recently completed exterior improvements to the Victoria Regent are all done


For some reason the owner's of the Sutton Place buildings felt a paint job was in order but I can't imagine why, I thought the beige looked fine


This is the future site of "The Wade" and while they won't be adding any floors to the existing building they will be converting it to residential (shocking!) and stretching it. I'm just happy that all those doctors and specialists got the boot, who needs them anyway?






Also, does anyone know what's happening with that now empty little lot behind the Mondrian on Johnson St? For some reason I thought they were going to put a high-rise in there too.

[osirisboy]

I'm going to try and remember what I was getting at. I think my point was Legato would look better if it wasn't a stubby point tower. So if the tower part was the same size floorplates as the podium.

And aastra was saying the proportions of the other two buildings were similar and I disagree. One has a podium the other doesn't and relative to the older building yes the newer one does have a huge blank wall. You can't see that?! And I know they are built decades apart. I wasn't the one comparing them

[Phil McAvity]

The most secretive building in Victoria's history, no renderings, no prices, no dates, not even a name:



Just in time for the new government:



So far 989 looks terrible:

[vicdevelopments]

Thanks for the pictures

[vicdevelopments]

Originally Posted by osirisboy

I'm going to try and remember what I was getting at. I think my point was Legato would look better if it wasn't a stubby point tower. So if the tower part was the same size floorplates as the podium.

And aastra was saying the proportions of the other two buildings were similar and I disagree. One has a podium the other doesn't and relative to the older building yes the newer one does have a huge blank wall. You can't see that?! And I know they are built decades apart. I wasn't the one comparing them

I like the Legato. It's just starting to poke through the skyline. I think I'll really like it when it is done.

[vicdevelopments]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

The most secretive building in Victoria's history, no renderings, no prices, no dates, not even a name:



[/IMG]

Isn't this going to be a rental building?

[aastra]

The most secretive building in Victoria's history, no renderings, no prices, no dates, not even a name:

I'd say the one on View Street is even more secretive. I don't know if I've ever seen a proper rendering of it.

[Phil McAvity]

^You mean the Jukebox?

I just noticed the other night that the crane for 989 Johnson is up but it looks like it's about 300 feet tall which i'm pretty sure makes it the tallest structure ever erected in Victoria but what I can't figure out is, since it's going to be about the same height as Legato why the towering crane? Did we use up all our 200 footers?

[hired_goons]

Originally Posted by saintjohnirish☘

Loads of contruction going on in Vic. Bring some of that east

Not much going on in NB (as usual) but Halifax is rocking with 6 new mid-high rises completed or nearing. Plus a new IKEA!