I am writing in response to your recent article, “Developers propose tallest Island building for downtown Victoria.”
I’m not opposed to tall buildings. Quite the contrary, I think that in a city’s downtown core, building up makes much more sense than building out. The suburban sprawl we’re seeing in the region, especially up the slopes of poor Bear Mountain, is horrible, not just because of the loss of precious forest, but because of the bland, verging on ugly, architecture.
As far as I know, there has been no real community consultation on this new development, One Victoria Place. They’ve had an open house, but they're showing people what they’re planning, not asking us what we want. Personally, I’d love more diversity in our architectural landscape. This design, according to CEO of Reliance Properties Jon Stovell, “blends heritage style elements … honouring the past while looking to the future.” It's supposed to echo the architecture of the 1960s brutalist CIBC building at View and Douglas, but it’s just bland.
In Victoria, we tend to be timid, reluctant to make bold architectural statements lest we offend anyone or suggest we aspire to mimic Vancouver. But when we harken back to the good old colonial days in our new designs, we end up with buildings like the cheap, nondescript postmodern hodgepodge of hotel and condos along the Songhees Walkway, whose turrets and rooflines nod embarrassingly to the Empress and Legislative buildings (beautiful historical structures, exemplary of their time, to be proud of indeed). A notable exception to our proclivity for blandness is the new Johnson Street Bridge which incorporates homage to the old "Blue Bridge" into its futuristic design (all controversy aside).
The proposed design for One Victoria Place seems simply a developer's pandering to the stodgy old guard of Victoria. Why should it not instead, as a potential new landmark in B.C.’s capital city, show some daring and originality? That would make me proud.
Carolyn Affleck
North Saanich
