Access guide

Arrival

Our Victoria office is in a midrise office building in the downtown core, accessed from Courtney Street through a gate.

The entrance is wheelchair accessible with a low-grade incline from the street to the entrance. The building's gate is 1 metre from the sidewalk; the entrance door is 10 metres from the gate. The building's front gate is not power-operated, it is a heavy metal door that opens outward with a twist doorknob. The entrance door is power-operated and has a large circular metal power-operated button located to the left of the door that is clearly identified with blue accessibility signage. Between 8:30am and 5pm all doors, and the elevator, are unlocked and do not require a fob.

hcma's office suite shares Level 2 with one other office, and is accessed via elevator.

As you head inside the front entrance, there is a small irregular-shaped vestibule with a wall directly ahead, about 1 metre. This wall is actually the side of the elevator shaft. Turn to the left around this corner, then briefly head straight, and the elevator will be on the right. There are call buttons for the elevator on the wall to the right. In the elevator, there’s a control panel located on the front wall to the right. The buttons have tactile markings and braille. The bottom row has one button: the emergency call button. From the bottom moving up, the second row has the open/close buttons. The third row has the parking (P) and main floor (*M) buttons. The fourth row far left button is Level 2 (2). The elevator does not have voice announcements.

When you exit the elevator on Level 2, you will enter a small vestibule with a locked door 2 metres directly ahead. The hcma office suite entrance doors are not power-operated and can only be opened using a fob or ringing a doorbell for attendance. To the right of the door there are two doorbells, one for each firm that works on Level 2. hcma is the doorbell button to the right, approximately 2.5 metres, identified with text and a coloured sticker. This button will ring a doorbell in our office, and someone will come to welcome you.

Within the office, most areas are wheelchair accessible. The office features a large outdoor patio through manually operated sliding doors in the main office space and kitchen. There is one step up to access the outdoor patio space.

Parking and drop-off

There is paid street parking on Courtney Street, and a public pay surface lot 50 metres down the street heading west. There is not a designated drop-off zone at the entrance, but there are paid parking spots that are typically available for short-term drop-off needs. The lot is wheelchair accessible but does not contain designated accessible stalls. From there, head to the entrance on Courtney Street (wheelchair accessible with a low-grade incline from the street to the building’s main lobby).

Washrooms

We share gender-designated multi-stall washrooms with one other tenant on the second floor, as well as a shower room. The exterior washroom doors are always open and unlocked, providing access to individual stalls. There are no washrooms with accessible stalls located within the building, and there are no all-gender washrooms. The shower room does not contain accessible stalls. We are currently working with building management to provide more accessible washroom options.

In the meantime, the closest accessible washrooms are within the Greater Victoria Public Library Central Branch 230 metres away. The library is open between 10am and 6pm, Monday to Saturday, and closed on Sunday. It is across the street via Blanshard Street, with a stair-free entrance from the sidewalk to the entrance.

In order to get to the library from the hcma building's front entrance, head west 90 metres down Courtney Street until you reach the crosswalk at Blanshard Street. Continue forward, crossing Blanshard, at which point you will find yourself on the library grounds, which is a large courtyard that extends from the sidewalk to the library's main entrance.

The main entrance does not face any streets but instead opens onto a large interior courtyard. Between the sidewalk and the entrance there is a low and wide set of stairs, with an accessibility ramp immediately to the right of the stairs. The steps/ramp are approximately 55 metres from the sidewalk. Approximately 70 metres directly ahead of the bottom of the stairs/ramp you will reach the most interior space of the courtyard and will find the wide, automatic sliding doors of the library to your immediate left.

Questions?

For any inquiries, or for photos and videos of the space, we kindly ask that you reach out to our team.