Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Project Center
The Pacific Northwest. Its mountains, rugged coastlines, and mossy cedar forests draw tourists from around the world. Rain, you say? Victoria, located on Vancouver Island, enjoys 308 sunny days per year thanks to the rain shadow effect of surrounding mountain ranges. It and neighboring towns on the island make up the top 13 cities on Canada’s “best climate” ranking. Victoria is known as the Garden City and spring comes early with daffodils, tulips, and cherry blossoms starting to bloom in March.
The capitol of British Columbia, Victoria is a port city with British heritage, the second oldest China Town in North America, and a thriving waterfront. It has miles of waterfront trails from which you will commonly see float planes and small checkered water taxis.
Home to approximately 400,000 people in the metro region, the city boasts several universities and colleges including the largest, UVic, with 22,000 students. Victoria was recently ranked the most livable city in Canada for its amenities and ranks highly for its focus on cycling and walkability.
Vancouver Island has a rich indigenous history and culture with many First Nations communities contributing to its cultural identity, land preservation, and way of life. The island offers almost every ecosystem imaginable and is home to some of the last remaining old-growth forests in the world. Using the island’s bus system, numerous trails and beaches are easily accessible from the city. For weekend trips, ferry service provides connections to the bigger cities of Vancouver BC and Seattle, WA. And Port Angeles, WA, gateway to Olympic National Park, is 90 minutes by ferry. We will organize day trips on Vancouver Island to visit a temperate rain forest, waterfalls, beaches, and forest trails, as well as the aquarium and the renown Royal British Columbia Museum of cultural and natural history.
All these initiatives provide great opportunities for enjoyment and team projects. Come get to know your neighbor to the north!
D26 will be the first term of the Victoria BC Project Center. The aim is to contribute to initiatives in place that support conscious urban planning and the island ecosystem. Projects will be developed around downtown vitality and walkability, community driven planning and development, as well as climate resilience and coastal conservation. There are also opportunities to work with several museums and wildlife conservation organizations.