As I give my tours in LA, there is always someone who says that Angelenos don’t care about their architectural history but other cities do! I’m sure they would point to Victoria as one of those cities. 
Look at this, a building from 1863! Guess what, people in Victoria were no more conservation conscious than Angelenos. The difference is that when a city is growing and thriving – the old is always replaced by new. When a city stagnates – as Victoria did from the depresson onwards, there is simply no reason to tear down the old, even if it is empty and derelict.
Victoria’s big boom was during the Klondike gold rush in the late 19th century, so many buildings were erected.
Along with an impressive custom house.
The early 20th century saw a boom in building, from businesses on Government Street.
To the Empress hotel on the bay. We had the pleasure of staying here. I say pleasure, because they have renovated the rooms. Sorry, Victorian size and style of room would have been way to cramped for me.
But all this growth and developement ended with the depression. There are just a handful of Art Deco buildings, and then nothing at all in the downtown area for quite a while.
Victoria is the capitol of British Columbia, and like most capitol cities – that is not where the business growth happens. Vancouver quickly replaced Victoria as the largest and biggest city in BC. Not just because it was on the mainland. Government and business growth simply don’t go hand in hand. Washington DC is the government center of the US, but New York is the banking, business and creative center on the east coast. Sacramento is the capitol of Califorina but Los Angeles and San Francisco is where the growth is happening. 
So Victoria became a tourist town, and that really only started happening in the 1980s.
And that is when smart developers swooped in and started renovating those old decrepit buildings. Even painting them in bright colors.
Victorian homes may have been brightly colored back in the day, but not the businesses downtown. I’m wondering if the TV show Miami Vice had any influence here as well? The old Art Deco in Miami Beach was never so colorful until that show in the 80s. So although I really enjoy these bright colors, they aren’t authentic to the period.
People love these brighter colors. But are they being honest about preservation? I am happy when old buildings get a new lease on life and I am fine when historical inaccuracies like this happen. But I’m also honest in that I don’t call myself a preservationist. I like the mix of old and new, even if it happens to be in the same building.
Painting houseboats in bright colors is also new. This is Fishermans wharf, much smaller than San Fransico. I can’t imagine people living here permenantly – all the cruise ship visitors walk here, as well as visitors like us. Who wants to live in a fish tank?
Victoria gets to claim the original Chinatown in Canada. Today Vancouver could claim the title of the largest Chinese city outside of China. This building is a school, typical of the remaining buildings in very small Chinatown, it is a combination of western and eastern building styles. Which is what is so wonderful to me about human history. I don’t get this new claim of ‘cultural appropriation’. When societies are open and accepting we appropriate from one another and grow and are better for it.
Another example of that, outside of architecture is this.
I had to go in and see, what is an Indian sweater? Apparently, it is the big bulky 70s style sweater, with some local northwestern motifs. Unfortunately, the yarn is bulky and scratchy. Carpet yarn, not hand knitting yarn.
Today I imagine people wanting to tear down the sign because Indian is no longer acceptable. But the same people probably think the sweaters are ok, natives incorporating Western crafts are fine, but for some reason the reverse in some travesty. Yeah, I’ll admit it, I think the whole political correctness movement jumped the shark a long time ago and now is in crazy land. So I’m not politically correct in the least, but I do really like when we share ideas and talents. The delights of Victoria are because many cultures mixed, not because each one built a tall wall around themselves.
Leah