Yesterday's view from a Bayview Residences 9th floor penthouse was taken facing more or less eastwards. A turn to the right and here's what it looks like towards the south.
Custom Search
Saturday, September 5, 2009
The Best View Part 2
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
It might surprise you when I tell you these pictures break my heart.
I've watched the slow, steady growth of condos popping up on Victoria's skyline since moving here over a decade ago and the clear evolution is one of a disappearing view of why we all want to live here. Fify years from now the majority of the condo owners will be looking across at each other living in a row of glass boxes where they once would have seen mountains and the ocean. The very same selling points that property developers use to finance such projects are what will ironically become more rare as those projects are realized.
Shoal Point immediately behind Fisherman's Wharf was one of the first large/high scale projects at the entrance to the inner harbour in James Bay and there are certain to be more as long as money speaks louder than anything else.
Actually, they once wouldn't have seen mountains or ocean because nobody was living on those properties. The Vic West side and the James Bay side were both occupied by industry. Thus, many people are currently enjoying views that didn't even exist just three or four decades ago.
As development continues, it's actually not difficult to preserve views. Buildings simply need to have smaller floorplates. Build tall and thin and everyone will be happy. Build very wide and not so tall and the only people who will be happy will be the folks down front.
Also, the Harbourside buildings preceded Shoal Point by several years, and the Laurel Point Apartments and Harbour Towers Hotel preceded Shoal Point by about 25 years.
Personally, I hope money does speak loudly because I prefer attractive, high-quality developments like Shoal Point to the alternative. I only wish the later phase of Shoal Point had included a view channel right down the middle (it's too wide!). The tower phase is beautiful.
^Well said.
Money decides things because money keeps people busy, houses them, gets them to work and puts food on their tables. Development brings nothing but good, particularly high-density development. Dean, it sounds like you really need a checkup from the neck up about that broken heart of yours.
Don't think this site was meant to become a chat/forum, but the beauty of Victoria and Vancouver Island is presented here.
It may be news to some that preserving it is near and dear to the hearts of many. This includes the disappearing old-growth trees and extends to the air we breath which is slowly being contaminated by the internal combustion engines backed by a multi-trillion dollar oil industry.
Anyone who prefers to ignore these facts may need an x-ray to see if their hearts are still present.
Great photos from Bayview! They really show how Victoria slowly but surely growing up into a real city with positive and engaging achitecture. We are finally developing a skyline worthy of photographs, instead of postcards of just the Legislature or the Empress, we can include the whole skyline!
As for old growth trees, please remind me where in James Bay, Songhees, or downtown parking lots we've lost old growth trees? The ridiculousness of that statement baffles my mind, with the construction of developments such as Bayview, The Falls, Juliet, Shoal Point, Reef, Wave etc we gain an increased density in the downtown core, this means more people are living closer to where they work, where they go to wine and dine, REDUCING the amount a vehicle is needed. *shakes head*
Ignorance of the fact that the entire Saanich peninsula once was covered in old growth forests is at the heart of sentiments defending the urbanization of our natural surroundings. Individual and remnant tree clusters have been spared, with Beacon Hill park being one of the few last sanctuaries.
Pro-developers, we can be sure, would love to get their hands on the valuabe chunk of land adjacent to the Westend of downtown Vancouver, better known as Stanley Park.
Anonymous, come out of the closet, we know your real name is Rich Coleman. Private profit is at the heart of all large scale land development, not the greater societal good.
From downtown Victoria, it is gettng harder and harder to see the nearby Sooke Hills. This says it all. Seeing is believing.
Those are without a doubt, the ugliest condos I have ever laid eyes on. A definite eyesore to ruin an otherwise lovely photo.
It's a shame to see what has become of the "fair old city" with all of it's historical and heritage buildings overshadowed by cold glass and steel.
Post a Comment