Steeples to Civic Spaces: The Redevelopment of Victoria's Church Properties – Part 2 – First Metropolitan
Last month I wrote an article on the upcoming review by the City of Victoria of the Christ Church Cathedral redevelopment plans. You can read that article here if you missed it. As an update to that article, the project passed the Committee of the Whole making way for the church to start to look for potential development partners. This project is still many years off, but interesting to see that it has cleared that first hurdle.
As I alluded to in that first article, Christ Church Cathedral is not the only church around downtown looking to have a reawakening through redevelopment. Just a few blocks north along Quadra Street sits the First Metropolitan Church. First Met, as most Victorians refer to it, sits at three civic addresses, 1701 Quadra and both 932 and 934 Balmoral. Like the Anglican Church, the United Church has been facing some economic challenges for the last many decades, but unlike the Anglican Church, the United is continuing to see a decline in membership. This prompted the recent combination of the First Met and St. Aidan churches into the new Broad View United Church located a few kilometers north, in Saanich. Since then, the now deconsecrated building has been referred to as United Commons and is being used for community events.
Like Christ Church Cathedral, the property First Met sits on is far larger than just the footprint of the church itself. There are large parcels to the east and north of the building. Since the church itself is a protected heritage building, the other pieces of land are what is being focused on for a new development. The United Church is partnering with Aryze Developments to add residential, commercial and community spaces to these other parcels.
The Plan
In addition to fixing up the old heritage building, the project designed MA+HG Architects, has three new component structures. These structures are a mix of community and functional components, as well as residential and commercial components. To the north of the building, on what is now an empty grass space, will be a new entrance to the church along with a smaller gathering and performance space in its own right. The windows of this structure will have alternating stained glass windows to provide context alongside the original building. On the rear of the church will be a new functional structure that will provide stage and loading access. To the east is a new building, that at the ground will feel like a three piece grouping. This will be the new residential and commercial component to the project. If you want to see the entire plan, you can visit the Vic Dev Site here.
The new residential and commercial structures are capped at six storeys to maintain the church as the pinnacle of the space. There are currently plans to include 129 residential units, with sizes ranging from studios to three bedroom apartments. In my opinion, it is great to see that there are family sized homes going into the project. In this instance the plan includes eight three-bedroom apartments. With the proximity of George Jay Elementary School, Central Park and Crystal Pool, having kids be a strong component of the project is amazing. Along Balmoral, under the two apartment buildings are commercial spaces which hopefully will provide some opportunities to further build out the growing urban node at this location. Just around the corner is the amazing Vinyl Envy and the new North Park Design space. Across the street in the nearly completed Estoya building (also by Aryze) is a planned coffee shop unit. Also relatively new to the neighbourhood is the Daily Fresh Supermarket (which is really a large corner store) that allows for new residents quick access to daily necessities and some yummy South Asian food too.
For me, one of the more exciting components is the pedestrian access plan. Like the Christ Church Cathedral plan, the design process has heavily included a thoughtful and interesting pedestrian plan. Just to the north of the new access building on Quadra will be an entrance to what is being referred to as ‘mews’. This walkway will circle the church building and open up into a larger space as it reaches Balmoral. Adding this permeability to the project will make it feel like it is a real part of the community rather than just another private place. Even better is that there is a plan to make this a statutory right of way, so that it will be required to maintained as open to the public.
From a transportation perspective, the building is already in a very walkable location to downtown. The focus here is on reducing the use of cars and the project has been granted a variance to reduce the total parking on site to about .66 parking spots per unit. There will be however, generous bike parking with 162 spots and includes some for cargo bikes as well.
Perhaps the most important part of the project is the maintenance of the First Met itself, which will be improved through the process, but overall kept as it is as one of the most beautiful buildings in this part of the city. Turning it into a dedicated performance space with room at completion for 650 guests will cement it as a cultural destination for the city. I have even heard rumours that the Victoria Symphony may use this space for some of its schedule.
As you can see, this project is much further along than the Christ Church Cathedral plan. With the hopes of getting final approvals from the City in the fall, we might see this project come to reality over the next couple of years. I think that this might be the most exciting project happening in North Park at the moment. The fact that we are seeing the preservation of an amazing historical building and creating a vibrant new space is wonderful. That said, I would love to hear your thoughts on it. Let me know what you think in the comments!
