500 Block of Yates: Renovations
Several buildings in the 500 block of Yates Street in downtown Victoria have undergone significant renovations over the last year.
The Leiser Building, built by Jacob Leiser in 1896 as a retail store, has been redeveloped as loft condos. The adjacent Thomas Earle Warehouse was also renovated as part of the project; both buildings contain street-level retail and share a common courtyard. The Daniel Webster Building (at centre-right in the bottom image), built in 1855, is one of the oldest commercial structures in the city; it recently received a complete facade renovation and a coat of blue paint.
This once-nondescript 1970s office building received a radical transformation as grey tiles and a glassy storefront. Nood (New Objects of Desire), a New Zealand furniture chain selling inexpensive replicas of famous modernist furniture pieces (by Charles & Ray Eames, Le Corbusier, and others), opened its Victoria location here shortly after renovations were completed.
The Humphreys Building, built in 1891, has been transformed into a mixed-use development with 12 rental apartments on the second and third floors; perhaps a bakery or coffee shop will soon occupy its first floor. :)
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