Humber Green - A Great Spot for a New Urban Centre
Humber Green (as it is now sometimes called), has always been an important place for the City of Victoria. It has long been one of the main crossroads of the city, perhaps only second Uptown. From here you can choose to go south to downtown either along Douglas or Government Street; east along Hillside to Oak Bay; west along the Gorge waterway; or north to the ferries or anywhere else north of the city on the island. In the early days of the city, there was a watering hole here for horses and their owners on their way to the markets of Victoria. In the 1930s a second fountain was added, this was a gift of Maurice Humber (more on him later) to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the city. After the Second World War, as the city was getting busier, a large roundabout was added that would become the defining aspect of the area for many years
During the first few decades of the City of Victoria, this area was known Five Corners. In 1962, it was decided that the roundabout wasn’t working for the growing city and in particular for the growing amount of cars that were on the road. Also, the roundabout was a bit of an anomaly in the city which meant that many people didn't know how to use them. The decision was made to change it to a straight through road focused on Douglas and Hillside with a series of slip lanes and lights controlling the access points. Essentially, the changes made it what we know today. If you are driving in a car, this space can be daunting, on a bicycle or walking through it can be scary. As it is now, this is a very clear car zone.
When the old traffic circle space was diced up, it created a couple large traffic islands which were eventually filled with dirt and had grass and trees added to them. It is these oddly shape “greens” that give the space its modern name, well half anyways, the other part comes from Maurice Humber, a settler and well known Victorian of the early twentieth century that donated the second of the two fountains that had adorned the traffic circle, The Humber family at one time owned the brickyard that occupied the space where present day Mayfair Mall is (also as a side note, if you have ever wondered why Topaz park has all those different levels, it was the source of a lot of the clay for the brick factory). If you ever wanted to see the original water fountain from the Five Corners, you likely have already, if you have ever walked off Johnson Street into Market Square. As you enter there is a large black fountain which has bowls at the bottom for horses (or dogs now) and a proper one on top for people.
The now abandoned Volvo Building
Humber Green as I said before, is car land, but in my opinion is actually one of the best spots to create a dynamic people focused urban centre north of downtown and the NotCh. The area already has some incredible buildings that are a starting point for the creation of the node. Two these are already in the process of redevelopment. The Times Colonist building is being reborn into a trendy commercial office development that could really be the spark of the district. Just to the north is the Scott Building, a beautiful old Edwardian office building that is being turned into a large residential and commercial development. Across Hillside avenue is the now vacant Volvo dealership, which I personally think has a huge amount of potential as an entertainment hall of some sort. Maybe an arcade, pool hall pub sort of place like was proposed for Uptown a few years ago. A vibrant people place like that could really encourage further development of some of the other underused or poorly used lots.
If there is something to gain from the current sliced and diced lots created by the roads here, it is the unique shape of a number of the lots. As an example, the current Petro-Canada lot at the south end of the intersection would make a great place for an Flatiron shaped building. What I think could differentiate this space from others is using the busy-ness of it to its advantage. Focusing on nightlife and food service in the area especially that caters to a younger crowd makes the current movement in the area less of a hindrance.
A little shift on Government Street could reduce a large amount of the asphalt and makes some great opportunities for placemaking!
I do think that over time there will be a need to slow some of the traffic down or at least divert it. Perhaps one of the easiest changes to make would be actually remove the Government Street exit lanes South Bound. This could create a great park space and really is unnecessary. Cars needing to access Government Street south of here could use Bay Street. We have already begun to see the beginnings of a rapid transit corridor along Douglas Street and hopefully over the next few decades that will be built upon. The larger of the two ‘Greens’ in the intersection has a large bus stop that serves this line. It is clear that this will continue to be a transportation crossroads for the city and an important stop on the transit network. This is again, something that can be used to the advantage of the area as a vibrant urban village.
Apart from the two big development projects and the opportunity in the Volvo building, at the south end there are already a few buildings with sidewalk focused retail and these can be anchors for this new village as it develops. One of the buildings, The Leland, is perhaps the most underappreciated heritage building in the city for its prominence and legacy as a commercial and residential building. As I have pointed out there are lots of great buildings to start with here but there are lots of developable lots as well and that means that if this is a direction that the city would want to go, it would need to be acted on as proposals come forward. The Burnside Gorge Neighbourhood Plan does have some hints of this possibility, but I don’t think it is quite at the scale I would like to see.
So what do you think? Is this an area that could be turned from a car focused backwater into an exciting urban village? Let me know in the comments!