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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The Atrium

We'll take a break today from wild Victoria and have a look at a new addition to the downtown office building population. Yes, not all Victorians spend their days strolling along scenic walkways and communing with nature. Some wear suits and work in offices. Pictured today is a new office building called The Atrium, right downtown on the corner of Yates and Blanshard Streets. I'm not an informed critic when it comes to office buildings but, while I don't find this a strikingly attractive building, my penchant for curves is satisfied here and there seems to be some nice indoor/outdoor social spaces on the ground floor.You can read an informed discussion about this building on the Vibrant Victoria Forum by clicking HERE.

6 comments:

JoJo said...

Last time I was in Victoria, in 2007, there were so many new buildings going up that I nicknamed the city 'Cranetown'.

BTW, I am really bummed that the Crystal Gardens are closed. I never made it there in past trips and was making plans to see it this time. Oh well.

Mike Laplante said...

JoJo...re: the Garden... you and a lot of other people. A lot of us fought the Provincial Capital Commission -- the government 'owners' of the Garden -- long and hard over the Garden closure. Aside from a place to rejuvenate one's soul during grey winter days, it was the closest we had to a zoo here and it was a participating member of a world wide conservation program to save rare and endangered species. It was also one of the few non-tacky tourist attractions in the downtown core.

Briefly it was a money-losing museum before its current incarnation as a soul-less conference centre.

Pathetic...

Benjamin Madison said...

JoJo - I have to agree and second Mike Laplante's comment. When the Crystal Garden was a real garden it was a great place to visit and hang out in, especially during the winter.

Dean Lewis said...

Another excellent photograph beautifully composed.
Great to see such a fine new building downtown, especially with the street-level friendliness of an outdoor cafe.

Speaking of PCC-owned buildings, it will be quite interesting to see how well they transform the seismically upgraded wax museum CPR steamship building with a new tenant and attraction next year.
Let's hope it is something of quality and succeeds in such a prime location.

Angela Hemming said...

what a great shot! Love this.

Stefan Jansson said...

Looks like an interesting building. I'm guessing one could spend a few hours shooting it from every possible angle.