Designers take care to keep heritage look intact
Times Colonist
June 7, 2008
The message that heritage esthetics have market value is getting across to developers.
Townline Group of Companies is redeveloping The Hudsons Bay store at Douglas and Herald Streets into residential units, and it is keeping the store’s original windows.
Lee McGuire, construction manager overseeing the conversion, says, “It’s quite an historic-looking building. If you change the windows from the original shape, I think you’d lose that historic perspective.” He leads the way through the gutted cavernous second storey of the old building to an on-site restoration workshop where the windows are being upgraded by Vintage Woodworks, a local firm that specializes in restoration and replication of vintage windows.
Ken Coley-Donahue, a partner in Vintage Woodworks, produces a list of 14 other similar projects in Victoria and Vancouver where the developers are taking pains to restore rather than replace heritage windows.
What does it cost compared to replacing the windows with new?
“A lot,” is all McGuire will say, but he adds, “It’s worth it. When this building opened in 1921, it looked great. When we open it again in 2009, it will look great again.”
View Full Story: Developers restoring, not replacing [PDF]
