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Friday, October 21, 2011

Victoria Skyline

This building has the style and features of an heirloom structure but it appears to be a new building that echoes features other older buildings in downtown Victoria. And to my eye it does this very attractively and successfully. If any visitors know more about this View Street building I will be grateful for any additional information.

6 comments:

Dean Lewis said...

I'm pretty sure this is an original historic/heritage building that was integrated into the new Eaton Centre (now Bay Centre) when it was constructed only about twenty years ago. And there are similiar restored/saved facades on the Fort Street side.
The original Broad Street went straight through between Pandora and Broughton.

Benjamin Madison said...

Hi Dean - you might be right. I wasn't able to find out anything about this building online. I guess next time I'm downtown I have to go inside and see if there's some info posted somewhere.... If it is heritage then it has been beautifully restored. It looks new.

Fern said...

Hi, I don't know a whole lot about this new building but there is an interesting post with a few photos of the old Eatons and the construction of this building here.

http://victoriavision.blogspot.com/2009/03/some-old-pics-of-eaton-centre.html

There are also pictures in the mall, but they are down a side hallway that leads to the administration offices on the bottom floor.

Nice picture!

JoJo said...

This is a new building? They did a great job of making it fit in with the other older buildings! I love it!

Anonymous said...

It's a replica of a portion of the Driard Hotel. The original building was quite a bit larger and was completely demolished when the mall was built (as was every other building that formerly occupied those two blocks).

They did a very good job with it, I agree. I'd much rather have this accurate partial replica than nothing at all. The replica of the Times Building on the Fort Street side of the mall is not as successful, I think. But it's also still pretty good.

Benjamin Madison said...

Thanks Anonymous for that information. Googling the Driard Hotel brings up quite a lot of information. Here's a link to some more background: http://heritageconsultants.ca/?page_id=287