Victoria Construction - #7

[vicdevelopments]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

any updates on mayfair mall?

progress seems to have slowed somewhat so it seems. I'll take some pics soon. Chapters is moving to mayfair malll from their downtown location when completed.

[vicdevelopments]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

Yup, near Topaz on Blanshard


When SOFA was built I was disappointed since it wasn't much bigger than the Memorial Arena but after seeing all the shows it's attracted, it might have been the right size after all.


It sounds like Stew Young is as much a dreamer as many high-rise developers have been in the Westshore with his idea that a 40,000 seat arena will get built there. I started a thread about the games here in the BC/Alberta section

I agree it's had some larger attractions but they sell out so quickly. When Elton John played here he had sold out back to back shows. The arena should have been at least 10,000 seats. I hope one gets built in Langford time will tell.

[aastra]

Pieces of the new JSB arriving by barge:


pic from https://www.flickr.com/photos/gary_hoyer/36578798472/


pic from https://www.flickr.com/photos/gary_hoyer/35939587283/

[craneSpotter]

Originally Posted by vicdevelopments

I agree it's had some larger attractions but they sell out so quickly. When Elton John played here he had sold out back to back shows. The arena should have been at least 10,000 seats. I hope one gets built in Langford time will tell.

I agree with this. I always thought that 10,000 (or even 12,000) seats for concerts would have been perfect, with 8 for hockey. Not sure if it was designed to allow for some future expansion?

[craneSpotter]

Commercial Real Estate: 'There are cranes everywhere' as downtown Victoria experiences building boom

August 22, 2017
http://vancouversun.com/business/com...-building-boom

A new wave of residential and commercial towers is going up in downtown Victoria that is reminiscent of Vancouver’s downtown revival in the early 1990s.

It is great to see the massive amount of development downtown...just need a few towers with some height!

[Vin]

Thanks for the beautiful evening shots! Exciting times for Victoria.

[Phil McAvity]

Originally Posted by craneSpotter

I agree with this. I always thought that 10,000 (or even 12,000) seats for concerts would have been perfect, with 8 for hockey. Not sure if it was designed to allow for some future expansion?

It seems to me that the only shows we miss are the biggest that play at venues like BC Place, Skydome, etc...

And no, it wasn't designed for expansion.

[vicdevelopments]

The Q center or the former Bear Mountain arena was built for future expansion. But only to about 7000 seats about the same size the SaveonFoods Memorial Arena.

In Aastra's second photo the 1550 Douglas Street office building looks really large and tall.

[vicdevelopments]

A bit of an off topic comment. I had a pizza from pizza hut tonight. I only ate half so I thought I'd drive downtown and give it to a homeless person. I drove downtown and there were so many people on the sidewalks and streets and no homeless people. For a thursday night there were so many people. I drove around town three times when I finally found a couple of homeless to donate it. I don't know where all the homeless people went.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by vicdevelopments

progress seems to have slowed somewhat so it seems. I'll take some pics soon. Chapters is moving to mayfair malll from their downtown location when completed.

ok. I like the chapters where it is, is there something taking over that spot? It might do a bit better at the mall

[Phil McAvity]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

ok. I like the chapters where it is, is there something taking over that spot? It might do a bit better at the mall

I agree, it couldn't be more central. I predict another big dollar store there

Speaking of taking over a spot, does anyone know what's happening to the old crappy tire on Douglas? I don't really know why it closed in the first place since it's about 2 miles from the store that replaced it

Originally Posted by vicdevelopments

I don't know where all the homeless people went.

That is weird, I sure hope they come back though. Harris Green has become like Victoria's downtown eastside so if you can't find them there, you can't find them anywhere

Everyone in town is so obsessed with the cost of the new bridge no one has talked about the design which I find about as stupid as the original so I e-mailed the city about it and here's the exchange we had starting with my inquiry:

Hi there,

Could you explain to me why the new bridge, with probably 100X the volume of traffic that the old bridge had when it opened, will also only have three lanes of vehicle traffic?

Hi,

Traffic studies of the area have indicated that three lanes for vehicles is sufficient to accommodate the daily volume of cars and trucks that travel across the bridge. On-road bike lanes, a multi-use path for bikes and people who walk, and an accessible pedestrian pathway are enhancements being added with the new bridge to support the 3,000 bikes and 4,000 pedestrians that travel across the bridge daily and also encourage more people to choose sustainable modes of transportation.

I hope this is helpful


Hello again,

I can't see the city's attempts to socially engineer us out of our cars working, particularly as the city grows, so focusing so much on pedestrians and cyclists seems like folly to me as both account for less than a quarter of current vehicular traffic across the bridge and that number will only rise, so while the bridge may be able to accommodate current levels of traffic, wouldn't it have been better to design the bridge for increased vehicular traffic in the future?

Hi,

The studies were for current and anticipated future traffic volumes and three lanes were sufficient

Thanks

So according to this, the city isn't expected to grow at all over the next century

[vicdevelopments]

Shoppers drug mart is going in where Chapters is now. I don't know what will take Shoppers current location. That building is in bad shape.

I should be able to get some pics of Mayfair's expansion site tomorrow.

[vicdevelopments]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

I agree, it couldn't be more central. I predict another big dollar store there

Speaking of taking over a spot, does anyone know what's happening to the old crappy tire on Douglas? I don't really know why it closed in the first place since it's about 2 miles from the store that replaced it

That is weird, I sure hope they come back though. Harris Green has become like Victoria's downtown eastside so if you can't find them there, you can't find them anywhere

Everyone in town is so obsessed with the cost of the new bridge no one has talked about the design which I find about as stupid as the original so I e-mailed the city about it and here's the exchange we had starting with my inquiry:

Hi there,

Could you explain to me why the new bridge, with probably 100X the volume of traffic that the old bridge had when it opened, will also only have three lanes of vehicle traffic?

Hi,

Traffic studies of the area have indicated that three lanes for vehicles is sufficient to accommodate the daily volume of cars and trucks that travel across the bridge. On-road bike lanes, a multi-use path for bikes and people who walk, and an accessible pedestrian pathway are enhancements being added with the new bridge to support the 3,000 bikes and 4,000 pedestrians that travel across the bridge daily and also encourage more people to choose sustainable modes of transportation.

I hope this is helpful


Hello again,

I can't see the city's attempts to socially engineer us out of our cars working, particularly as the city grows, so focusing so much on pedestrians and cyclists seems like folly to me as both account for less than a quarter of current vehicular traffic across the bridge and that number will only rise, so while the bridge may be able to accommodate current levels of traffic, wouldn't it have been better to design the bridge for increased vehicular traffic in the future?

Hi,

The studies were for current and anticipated future traffic volumes and three lanes were sufficient

Thanks

So according to this, the city isn't expected to grow at all over the next century

I have thought all along that the new bridge should be 4 lanes. This city is so backward thinking. Also the Bay Bridge should be 4 lanes too. Good on you for sending in a letter. I also thought that the new bridge should have had a rail portion to it. In my hopes that they will do a rail system from Langford to Victoria on the E&N route.

[SpongeG]

ok cool

I was surprised there was only 1 chapters in the greater vic area, i would have thought maybe 2. I imagine it will reopen as indigo since they killed off the chapters name

[aastra]

Methinks Bolen Books (like a Chapters but considerably better) and the glut of smaller book shops probably explains why there was only one.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by vicdevelopments

A bit of an off topic comment. I had a pizza from pizza hut tonight. I only ate half so I thought I'd drive downtown and give it to a homeless person. I drove downtown and there were so many people on the sidewalks and streets and no homeless people. For a thursday night there were so many people. I drove around town three times when I finally found a couple of homeless to donate it. I don't know where all the homeless people went.

Isn't that a good thing? Hope they finally got jobs. Can't say the same about Vancouver. Plenty to give your pizza to.

[craneSpotter]

Originally Posted by aastra

Methinks Bolen Books (like a Chapters but considerably better) and the glut of smaller book shops probably explains why there was only one.

Looks like Josh Brolin prefers Russell Books... haha

http://www.goldstreamgazette.com/new...medium=twitter



Image (Instagram/barbrastreisand)

[Phil McAvity]

^Yeah, that's another one, as well as Munro's books. Plenty of competition in town for the literary set.

Originally Posted by SpongeG

I imagine it will reopen as indigo since they killed off the chapters name

Nope, Vic said Shoppers Drug Mart is moving in there.

Josh looks like the Rock in that pic so i'm sure he's been hitting the gym pretty hard because he sure didn't look like this in No Country For Old Men (great movie by the way).

I knew Johnny Depp was in town shooting something but I had no idea Ryan Reynolds, Barbra Streisand and Josh Brolin were here too, man the movie business is really booming now.

[aastra]

Westbay Quay in Esquimalt. This will be great for the marina area.





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1075 Pandora by MarkoJ over at www.vibrantvictoria.ca:



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New office building on Pandora by Marko J:



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Legato on Yates by MarkoJ:



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Yello on Yates by MarkoJ:



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Capital Park in James Bay by Bingo over at www.vibrantvictoria.ca (from a month ago):

[Phil McAvity]

Thanks for the pics Aastra

Originally Posted by aastra

Westbay Quay in Esquimalt. This will be great for the marina area.

I was sorry to see that this house got torn down not long ago but had no idea a midrise got built in it's place which is weird because i'm usually the last person that wants to save anything architecturally but it was apparent that the owner of the house had put in a huge amount of time and effort making a neat, kitschy little house. Every time I was in the 'hood I stopped and checked out that house. Fittingly, that new building looks like a cruise ship so I like it, I just think it's too bad they took out the house to build it.