B.C. Electric Building (1954)

1515 Blanshard Street at Pandora, Victoria

Architects of original: Sharp Thompson Berwick and Pratt
Design architect: Ron Thom
(Addition: Siddall, Dennis Warner Architects, 1974)

B.C. Electric, shortly before public expropriation, was undergoing a massive expansion as part of the general post-war resource industries boom. The Victoria regional head office was the first of two major building commissions awarded to STBP; the second was the Vancouver office tower on Burrard. Ron Thom devised the siting and design scheme. A sheer narrow building was located to save the mature Blanshard side trees to provide a park like entrance. The concrete structure supports a glass curtainwall. The cross motif in the roofline concrete frieze is a Deco style holdover, but strikingly innovative was the use of die-caste aluminum sun louvres, marking the curtainwalls with strong horizontal bands. Unfortunately the original colour scheme by B.C. Binning has not survived renovations by the British Columbia Building Corporation, part of which has been the 1974 Neo-Brutalist 200,000-square-foot. addition (Richard Blanshard Building) by SDW architects, for the Ministry of Health. The lobby features various pieces from the Provincial Art Collection, including a large mobile, "Intersection" by Joseph Caveno.