[Downtown Victoria] The Mozart condo & office | 39.5m | 12-storeys | Canceled

[Scaper]

Mozart Building

726-728 Yates Street
Victoria BC Canada

Status: cancelled

Floor Count: 12
Floor Area: 6,596 m²
Units/rooms: 20
Building Uses
• office
• residential
• retail



Heights : Mechanical roof 44.3 m

The Roof 39.5 m


Developer: Eric Charman
Architect: Jim Aalders, CEI Architecture

This proposal was for the 700-block of Yates street it was a mixed-use, curved tower with columns and a metronome "Mozart" clock. An integrated plaza for musical performances was to be included as well as $100,000 of public art. The tower would have included groundfloor retail, six floors of office space and 20 units of condominiums on the upper floors.

The development hoped to revitalize and spur further development in a once vibrant shopping and retail district in the 700-block of Yates Street.

Construction was expected to be finished by Spring of 2007.


The main reason this proposal failed was due to the fact it was unviable. With such a small foot print, such few units, & construction/Labour increase costs, the project never got passed the aproval stage.

Too bad cause I really like it. :cry:

[G-Man]

Apart from the musical performances and the mozart clock I love this building. It is really too bad that we will not be seeing it rise on Yates. It truly would have been a unique piece of architecture.

[aastra]

This approved proposal was indeed a beauty. I don't understand why they don't simply add a couple of stories to it and increase the number of residential units down to maybe the fifth floor.

[Holden West]

Sad to think this building was supposed to be topped out by now!

Article in Sunday's T/C on developer Eric Charman has only this to say about Mozart:

Since retiring, he keeps busy in real estate development and has been criticized by city hall for shelving plans for Mozart House (named for his favourite composer) near the Odeon Theatre, where a huge hole stands full of stagnant water.

"Eric has been a wonderful citizen, but perhaps we have higher expectations of him than other developers," says city councillor Pam Madoff, who hopes he'll clean the site soon. But Charman is focused on a $15-million redevelopment of the Brentwood Bay shopping centre.

[G-Man]

They should bump this up to 14 stories reduce the office component by 2 floors and raise the residential by 4 floors.

[aastra]

You and your "solutions."

[G-Man]

It just seems sad that we are missing out on such a great looking building...

[aastra]

Would they be able to build 14 stories of residential without going through the whole rigamarole again?

[aastra]

So Mr. Charman has "been criticized by city hall" because they have "higher expectations of him than other developers."

You're criticizing somebody for not going forward with something that isn't viable? Does that really mean you have higher expectations of the guy? Sounds more like you're trying to play him for a sap.

[G-Man]

I am sure that the site specific zoning they did for it included wording that set office and residential amounts.

[Baro]

Seems a lot of projects in this city get scrapped by greedy developers for obscure technical reasons like "can't even break even" or "no longer proffitable". These developers being rich corporations, which as we know are always evil and have infinately deep pockets need to be gouged more. We should make them put at least 50% of the projected proffits (projected by council) into ammeneties, up front, before they can even apply! Surely this will greatly help the city and hold these horrible people to account!

[aastra]

Good idea. Force them to complete the amenities before they start work on the building itself. That way, if the projects stall, you'll still have the amenities.

A mid-block walkway is still a pretty sweet amenity, even if there are no buildings around it.

[Mike K.]

Nature reserves aren't bad, either.

[aastra]

Downtown's nature reserves tend to get lost in the development frenzy, you're right.

[Holden West]

Originally Posted by aastra

A mid-block walkway is still a pretty sweet amenity, even if there are no buildings around it.

Yes, that's true. Even if you have to spray paint it on the ground and imagine the other buildings.



Theatre Alley

[Caramia]

Hahahaa!

[Icebergalley]

Thanks for the memories Holden....

I do miss the option to hoof it through Market Square and off to "the Bean" instead of having to deal with the traffic lights at Pandora snd Store etc...

The DRA's little note about it's presence is smart, but, it still doesn't cut across the block...

[aastra]

This document contains a good image of the rendering and also a nifty aerial of downtown:

http://http://www.jjb.co...l+2006.pdf

Upon seeing the good rendering, I'm more than a bit flummoxed by the enormous setback on the left side of the facade. What the heck was that all about? Vehicle entrance?

There would have been a 7-story blank wall on the east side. Just in case the Royal Theatre and St. Vincent de Paul weren't blank walls enough for you.

[G-Man]

I guess that wall is at the lot line. If they put windows in it they would have to set it back. At the SVP wall will soon be hidden by 819 Yates. It seems dumb that you can't put windows on lot line walls anymore but you know people would complain when they got covered up.

[aastra]

Isn't that a heritage building east of the Mozart?

[G-Man]

Is it? It has that Island hearing centre in it but I am not sure if it is a heritage building.

[Galvanized]

It used to be an old hotel before they wrecked the front of it.

[Nparker]

Despite its blank East wall, I really liked this proposal. I wonder if a new developer might revive it?

[Ms. B. Havin]

Originally Posted by aastra

Upon seeing the good rendering, I'm more than a bit flummoxed by the enormous setback on the left side of the facade. What the heck was that all about? Vehicle entrance?

There would have been a 7-story blank wall on the east side. Just in case the Royal Theatre and St. Vincent de Paul weren't blank walls enough for you.

Good question re. the East elevation... The proposal suggests a building that goes back a long way (deeper than wide), so it's almost as if the Island Hearing/ Old English Sweet Shop building meets the Mozart part way, and the back portion is blank wall further up because ...?the site behind the Sweet Shop might get developed?? I don't know, it's pretty weird.

As for the big setback on the left (West) side of the facade: that's where there used to be a passageway, no? I seem to recall that shops went back along there...? So maybe the idea is to recreate another mid-block passage?

It's incredible that nothing is happening on this site...

Oh, PS: I thought this came up in another thread, but I can't find it, so I'll mention it here: the alley further East will officially be known as Millie's Lane in honour of the store owner who died not too long ago: [url=http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/capital_van_isl/story.html?id=d8a35b61-785f-42f4-b808-9ffee49b3b63:c3fce]Alley off Yates Street is now Millie's Lane[/url:c3fce].

[Caramia]

That's better than the name it was known as while I was growing up - Piss Alley.

I love stuff like this - when people get together to name their streets, alleys, intersections. Christopher Alexander has a blurb on the psychological importance of community naming, and how it adds to that sense of home and encourages people to feel they have a stake in their enviroment. Good for City Council for going along with it.