I was downtown yesterday for Show Canada's gathering of Canadian exhibitors. The Bayshore Hotel is the convention's base camp, but VIFF kindly put on a meet and greet for indies in its lobby. The event was originally charging a $20 entrance fee, which included a drink and a snack, but Telefilm's Barbara Chirinos stepped in and covered the cost on behalf of the agency.
On the way to VIFF I noticed some of what I've been hearing more about concerning homelessness, as well as public drug use, notably outside the "overdose prevention site" at Seymour and Helmcken. Just before that, I happened to look over my shoulder after crossing Granville Street and saw a building I had never noticed before: The Victoria.
Built in 1994, The Victoria appears to me like an even scratchier version of the drawing it began as, the kind that excites developers looking for something more than what they say they want, but are afraid to admit to; in this case, another riff-off of the Hotel Vancouver.
Like Paul Merrick's 1990 Canadian Craft Museum (oddly enough, now the Bill Reid Museum), The Victoria is too much about itself to be occupied. We have people living on the streets and architects designing condo towers not even the rich can fit into.
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