1720 Store Street | Heritage Brick Wall Reconstruction 
Victoria, BC

Story

1720 Store Street sits in one of the most historically layered parts of downtown Victoria. Store Street has long served as a transition zone between the old commercial core, Chinatown, and the waterfront industrial district that grew up around the harbour and railway. That history still shapes the character of the area today: it is a place where warehouses, workshop buildings, retail spaces, and heritage storefronts all sit side by side, each reflecting a different period in the city’s growth.

By the early twentieth century, Store Street was especially well suited to warehouse and light industrial use because of its close connection to the railway and the working waterfront. Over time, that practical industrial character gave way to reuse and reinvention, as older buildings were adapted for retail, hospitality, studios, and commercial tenants. The result is a streetscape where the past is still visible in the scale, materiality, and rhythm of the buildings, even as the uses have changed.

The building at 1720 Store Street is part of that story. Originally built in 1908 as a warehouse, it later became part of a broader industrial grouping that included neighbouring structures on Store Street and Herald Street. Like many buildings in this area, it has evolved through additions, alterations, and new uses, but it still carries the sense of the district’s working past. That makes it more than just another commercial building; it is part of the built record of Victoria’s expansion and adaptation over more than a century.

The surrounding neighbourhood adds another layer of interest. Just a short walk away are some of Victoria’s most recognizable heritage landmarks, along with the streets and laneways that helped define Chinatown as the city expanded northward in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Fan Tan Alley, historic Fisgard Street, and the broader Store Street corridor all contribute to a district that feels compact, old, and unmistakably Victoria. For a masonry project, that context matters, because even repairs that are not prominently visible still need to feel appropriate to the historic fabric around them.

In that setting, the brick reconstruction at 1720 Store Street had to do more than solve a structural issue. The work needed to respect the age of the building, the character of the neighbourhood, and the visual continuity of a streetscape that has survived through constant reinvention. That balance between durability and heritage sensitivity is what makes masonry work in places like this especially rewarding