Victoria Construction - #7

[zoomer]

Yes, who knew the Brougton Square development could keep getting better and better. Maybe we string it out a few more years and the damn thing will be have gold brick sidewalks, emerald tiles and the white tiles made of polished rhinoceros tusk. Not that I'm in favour of that, so maybe we just get on and have this approved.

I agree, I like buildings that have character, more traditional buildings, but it's rare that it's done well. Vin, I like the first Oakville example, not so much the second one. The Broughton Street proposal looks to be a hybrid of modern and traditional if they commit to the quality. Same could be said for the addition to the Custom House, which I like, although I'd only give it a 8.5/10 because I'm fussy.

\

Customs House condo - March 23, 2026 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

Then again, one of its penthouses sold for over 10,000,000 and there were several others over $5,000,0000, so I don't know if it'll be realistic for the Broughton St rental building to come close.

I like the original Christ Church Cathedral proposal, very sleek, modern, Nordic - after the city got involved the design degraded, but now the zoning is in place, who knows what they'll come back with next year or ten years in the future when this gets underway.

[zoomer]

Construction updates - MappingVictoria Project Page for Spencer Block at 611 Chatham



611 Chatham St - June 5, 2026 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

And you can see the Government street side in this photo. I haven't updated the Chatham street facade with a new pic and it's still covered up as they install the brick and siding. I think I'll prefer the brick frontage to this industrial metal inspired side, it's just too grey without enough variation, but I'll wait until it's all done before being too critical.



1700 Block of Government Street - June 7, 2026 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

[zoomer]

Before we go back downtown lets check out Colwood and Royal Bay, yes miracle of miracles I did venture out into the suburbs. MappingVictoria Royal Bay project page.



Quarry Park Playground at Royal Bay - Colwood - June 3, 2026 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

I like the Flintstones feel to this playground.

Quarry Park Playground at Royal Bay - Colwood - June 3, 2026 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr



Royal Bay, Colwood - June 3, 2026 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr



Royal Bay, Colwood - June 3, 2026 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

More downtown updates tomorrow.

[zoomer]

1050 Yates St - MappingVictoria project page - 25 and 15 storeys with a connecting podium.



1050 Yates St - June 5, 2026 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

930 Pandora Ave - MappingVictoria project page - 20 storey affordable and supportive housing tower:



930 Pandora Ave construction - May 5, 2026 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr



930 Pandora Ave construction - May 5, 2026 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

Directly behind on the same block but facing Mason St is 938 Mason Street - Mapping Victoria project page a five-storey indigenous supportive housing project:



938 Mason Street - June 5, 2026 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

1961 Douglas St - MappingVictoria project page. 16, 21 and 22 storey towers on this site. I see the City has replied to the developers request for some design changes, but not details on the tracker. They have not been approved yet.



1961 Douglas St - June 5, 2026 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

THe addition to the historic former Wellburns building at 1050 Pandora Ave, Parkway. MappingVictoria project page



1050 Pandora Ave - June 5, 2026 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

I'll save a few more for later, but for the full list of under construction projects in Victoria (well, primarily just the City of Victoria as I don't follow everything outside of the core) which are mainly downtown you can find it here on MappingVictoria

[aastra]

21st-century Victoria's favourite colour is grey. Seriously, in the spots where you'd expect new development to be splashy it ends up being dreary. Do we want north downtown or North Park village to be bleak or something? I guess I should give the church addition a point for going with plain white instead of plain grey.

[aastra]

^Rather clever how you riffed on the Flintstones theme:
- quarry,
- pebbles (all over the ground at the excavation sites),
- (demolition) rubble,
- (mister) slate grey

I'll never take your photo updates for granite again.

[aastra]

(I'm obviously way too young to know much about the Flintstones but even I was able to get the references.)

[zoomer]

Originally Posted by aastra

21st-century Victoria's favourite colour is grey. Seriously, in the spots where you'd expect new development to be splashy it ends up being dreary. Do we want north downtown or North Park village to be bleak or something? I guess I should give the church addition a point for going with plain white instead of plain grey.

I assume it's meant to be a counter balance to the colourful characters and language that is already plentiful in the neighbourhood? I do expect a sudden reversal to the other end of the spectrum as developers revert to shiny bright colours to show the 'originality' and 'creativity'.

[zoomer]

Originally Posted by aastra

^Rather clever how you riffed on the Flintstones theme:
- quarry,
- pebbles (all over the ground at the excavation sites),
- (demolition) rubble,
- (mister) slate grey

I'll never take your photo updates for granite again.

That's some rock solid humour as always and there's more than a few grains of truth to those comments. I was digging around Wikipedia and "historian Christopher P. Lehman considers that the series partly draws its humor from anachronism, mainly the placing of a "modern" 20th-century society in prehistory which takes inspiration from the suburban sprawl developed in the first two decades of the postwar period."

"The main character of the series and patriarch of the Flintstone family, who is easily angered but a loving husband and father. He is an operator at the Slate Rock and Gravel Company for a bronto-crane, a Brontosaurus used as an excavating machine, but is prone to accidents. He is also overweight and likes to eat copious amounts of unhealthy food."

So yes, suburbia, living in or working in a quarry/gravel pit - just to name the obvious, maybe they should change the name to Flinstonia.

Also the new provincial museum collections and research building is progressing as per this update - I believe they have some fossil collections from the area, probably around the time of the Flinstones as it appears to show a stone car, human and dinosaur remains which they hypothesize was domesticated. Still a lot we don't know about the period millions of years ago when man and dinosaurs roamed the earth together.

[aastra]

...they have some fossil collections from the area, probably around the time of the Flinstones as it appears to show a stone car, human and dinosaur remains which they hypothesize was domesticated. Still a lot we don't know about the period millions of years ago when man and dinosaurs roamed the earth together.

You didn't mention the ancient aliens. They showed up later, in a vain effort to prevent the looming cancellation extinction. But nobody liked them, mainly because they were really annoying.

Anyway, I think this digression has hit Bedrock.

[zoomer]

So it has - but here's an update on two small projects that are the glue that knits (metaphor mess up) together the urban fabric into a rich dense soup far outweighing their actual height..

837 Broughton Street - MappingVictoria project page - same side of the block as the Royal Theatre and old Y downtown. No parking but car share memberships for each unit,59 bike stalls, rooftop deck, communal yard, and extensive bicycle parking facilities.



837 Broughton Street - Victoria BC by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr



837 Broughton St - June 10, 2026 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

& &

By that I mean and now Ampersand [&] the new name for 324 Cook Street - MappingVictoria project page.

Apologies for the large images but linking directly to the source:

The design has been tweaked a bit from the original rendering, mainly noticeable on the corner and a more refined rendering of course.



Source

Updated render:



source

[aastra]

I appreciate your punctual updates. When you revealed the Cook Street building's name I'm sure a question mark materialized in mid-air over my head. And then I let out an exclamation of dismay. But all things being equal I suppose it's neither a plus nor a minus. And it would probably cost them money to change it now, so I won't pound the issue. You can quote me on that.

[aastra]

By that I mean and now Ampersand [&] is the new name for 324 Cook Street

Methinks keyboard warriors will be eager to give that name the proverbial finger.

[zoomer]

^ Just my two ¢ but I'm willing to bet $$ that a large % of folks won't give a rat's #*#@! about the name, don't you think? & if they do, the could always change the name from "Ampersand" to "AmberSand" and just add a nice beach type landscaping complete with driftwood from Dallas Road. Or Driftwood from the neighbouring liquor store.

Check out MappingVictoria Site Updates for some Vic West updates. I like this townhouse project, it appears the construction will begin once pre-sales hit their target. The signage on site shows 4 of the 12 units have been sold.



315 Edward Street by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

[aastra]

There might just be some gold buried in your amber sand idea.

Meanwhile, someone on your writing team said the following:

...while the Nelly McClung library entrance looks good the towers have been beaten hard with a big ol' ugly stick.

A similar opinion was offered by a forumer over at VibrantVictoria:

...the esthetics on the broad face of that tower pretty much nail it re: exactly what you wouldn't want a Saanich highrise to look like after the municipality has been holding out against highrises in general for so many decades. Dreary grey vibe with seemingly lots of plain panel cladding, small windows, and no balconies... It's too bad some of the ground-level flavour wasn't evident on the tower levels.

Viewed from the east this building might actually seem quite sharp. It should look slim from that direction and there are windows and balconies. But from the north? Dang...

[zoomer]

/\ Just checked our database, and yes that story was written by Charles Rupert Fullerton.

We let him editorialize a bit as he's an bit ornery and quite the contumacious old chap. Plus he works for minimum wage, a generous dental plan an an unlimited supply McVitie's Digestives.

But I can see his point and it's the beauty of MappingVictoria, unlike the TC or CHEK who just report the 'facts' without opinion we can actually say "the proposal is quite the ugly piece of crap".

And damn that VV poster really nailed it. You should tell him/her/they about the thread here, I think they'd enjoy it. Now we need to get the GreatScaper back and posting and we'll be set.

[Tvisforme]

Originally Posted by zoomer

...it's the beauty of MappingVictoria...

Is there anything like MV or VV for the mid-Island area (Nanaimo and the Gulf Islands)?

[aastra]

I doubt it. It takes an immense investment of capital and staffing to sustain something like that. Heck, the salaries for the photographers alone must be crazy.

[zoomer]

IslandTime under the Nanaimo threads does a good job of keeping us up to date on the latest developments there.

Yah, staff are a big expensive plus camera, video equipment. Looking also to purchase our own MappingVictoria plane for aerial photos. Unfortunately the only one for sale at a reasonable price in BC right now is an old Boeing 747, a bit big for our needs, but it'll be nice and stable when we fly it over downtown. We'll be sure we're high enough to avoid the totem poles.

Speaking of aerial photos I posted a thread in the Canada section and someone also has a recent shot when it was green.

[aastra]

Did you know about "Ovis One" in Langford?

I did not.

I'm wondering now, how many buildings there are in the west comms of 10 stories or higher? The total must be closer to double digits than to zero? It was zero not all that long ago.

When zoomer has a bit of free time maybe he could put together a photo spread of all the applicable buildings.