Proposals to renovate two Victoria heritage buildings, including a Rattenbury-designed industrial building on Discovery Street, will go to public hearing.
Matt Phillips has applied for rezoning to renovate the upper level of the old Victoria Electric Railway Co. building into a co-work space for individuals and small start-ups. The ground floor at 502 Discovery is currently used as the Duke pub and Victoria Gymnastics. They are to remain and plans call for the addition of a coffee shop fronting Store Street.
The renovation would see construction of a flat-roofed addition between the two existing sloped roofs to connect two large spaces that feature massive wood beams. Addition of skylights would improve natural ventilation and lighting, as well as passive solar heating. Plans include adding bicycle parking and end-of-trip facilities.
Coun. Pam Madoff called the proposal an “innovative and graceful intuitive solution to allow access to these upper floors, which will also allow access to quite an extraordinary timber structure.”
She noted the proposal is compliant with heritage-standards guidelines.
“And I have to say that these days, with the challenges we’re facing with many of our heritage buildings, that’s not always the case,” Madoff said.
Mayor Lisa Helps said she strongly supported sending the proposal to public hearing, calling the application “a blend of heritage and innovation — a blend of old and new.”
Designed by architect Francis Rattenbury in 1901 (with an addition in 1907), the building is said to have historical value “because it is an important part of Victoria’s and British Columbia’s industrial and transportation history,” a staff statement of significance says.
The building’s “utilitarian form, large size, open interior spaces and proximity to the street are important because they reflect the building’s intended use as a car shed for the electric streetcars which ran in the city for the first half of the 20th century,” the statement says.
Councillors have also agreed to send to a public hearing a separate proposal to include 11 rental units in a 2.5-storey addition to the Hall Block at 727 Yates St., a vacant heritage commercial building built in 1897.
721 Yates Street Properties of Vancouver, whose directors are Elizabeth Lee Rennison and Warren Andrew Rennison, has applied for a heritage alteration permit to add the extra floors, which would be stepped back from the street.
Plans call for retail space on the ground floor. The 11 one-bedroom units would be accessed via the existing entrance for the adjacent building, which has the same owners.
The new upper floors would be stepped back to reduce their visibility.
The building is to be seismically upgraded and the existing facade preserved.
The owners are seeking variances to reduce the east-side setback to 0.85 of a metre from 4.5 metres and to reduce the parking to zero from nine (including one visitor stall).
City staff said the Hall Block is one of the oldest surviving commercial structures in the block. It was built at the height of a real-estate boom.
