Oakridge Park | 13 Towers | 154m | 52fl | 5M sqft | U/C

[giallo]

The rooftop park.

[SpongeG]

in the second pic will the ground level be retail or offices?

[jollyburger]

Looks like retail on the left side?



https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showpost.php?p=10605198&postcount=2753

[hollywoodnorth]

Any update as to when the Safeway opens?

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

in the second pic will the ground level be retail or offices?

This is the space - it's for Goh Ballet.
Would have been a good Apple store.

Originally Posted by officedweller

[dleung]

I visited the mall yesterday and was disappointed with the overall lack of vision for such an expensive disruption. The food court is the best part, but otherwise the interior public space, with the disjointed rectangular skylights framed by a distracting amount of drywall bulkheads, is a downgrade from the double 100m galleria from the original mall. The new mall doesn't "reimagine" anything; in fact I'm surprised by the lack of attempt to create anything resembling an indoor/outdoor street for basic wayfinding as was done at The Well in Toronto or the St James Quarter in Edinburgh. Instead, they just throw in Fazioli pianos, valet parking, led screens over the elevators, and over-designed seating steps that make the surrounding drywall look cheap and temporary in comparison. It's like the vision was about maximizing retail square footage and usable roof/"park" area, while sacrificing the quality of that square footage or whether the roof even feels like a park.

[blippo]

Originally Posted by dleung

I visited the mall yesterday and was disappointed with the overall lack of vision for such an expensive disruption. The food court is the best part, but otherwise the interior public space, with the disjointed rectangular skylights framed by a distracting amount of drywall bulkheads, is a downgrade from the double 100m galleria from the original mall. The new mall doesn't "reimagine" anything; in fact I'm surprised by the lack of attempt to create anything resembling an indoor/outdoor street for basic wayfinding as was done at The Well in Toronto or the St James Quarter in Edinburgh. Instead, they just throw in Fazioli pianos, valet parking, led screens over the elevators, and over-designed seating steps that make the surrounding drywall look cheap and temporary in comparison. It's like the vision was about maximizing retail square footage and usable roof/"park" area, while sacrificing the quality of that square footage or whether the roof even feels like a park.

These are all very fair points, the main floor is a write off and mainly caters to the affluent. However, there have been times I've gone in the weekday for lunch and the lower levels are pretty packed. I think we generally underestimate the appetite for luxury shopping especially with Nordstrom gone.

I'm still optimistic and in many ways it's already been a nice addition to my life. Have caught a couple games at Timeout Market and it's a good time. Considering the community centre/library, the office spaces, canadaline concourse and safeway/liquor store are yet to open it could get much better.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by blippo

These are all very fair points, the main floor is a write off and mainly caters to the affluent. However, there have been times I've gone in the weekday for lunch and the lower levels are pretty packed. I think we generally underestimate the appetite for luxury shopping especially with Nordstrom gone.

I'm still optimistic and in many ways it's already been a nice addition to my life. Have caught a couple games at Timeout Market and it's a good time. Considering the community centre/library, the office spaces, canadaline concourse and safeway/liquor store are yet to open it could get much better.

I mean success/failure for QuadReal is on how many residential units they sell and how much money they manage to squeeze out of the commercial/office space. I doubt they'll care about someone critiquing the loss of the galleria skylights in 50 years.

[memememe76]

I went to Toronto back in May and went to The Well. I can acknowledge the creativity of the buildout but the place was empty. It's weirdly located and not close to a transit hub, although I think the City is expanding on that. Their food hall there is not as nice as others in Toronto.

I went to Time Out last week and the US/Bosnia game was on. A really great space to watch a game. I can see Time Out being extremely popular during Canucks games. I do not see Time Out being tuned out anytime soon.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by officedweller

This is the space - it's for Goh Ballet.
Would have been a good Apple store.

ah ok. Thanks for the info.

People have been posting videos/reels showing how "dead" the mall is, but they go on a weekday morning or afternoon. What do they expect?

I heard Chanel did a million in sales at its opening. Chanel is extremely hot right now, their new designer has really been putting out sellable clothes.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

ah ok. Thanks for the info.

People have been posting videos/reels showing how "dead" the mall is, but they go on a weekday morning or afternoon. What do they expect?

I heard Chanel did a million in sales at its opening. Chanel is extremely hot right now, their new designer has really been putting out sellable clothes.

A high end mall isn't a high traffic mall.
The high end stores can probably do fine with high spending low volume traffic, but that won't make for a busy atmosphere at the mall, and given the emphasis on "culture" (ballet and classical music), I don't expect Oakridge to have any kind of a "buzz" - other than the TimeOut Market.

The mall and 'modern' architecture in general have a very sterile look to it, and the mall corridors at Oakridge are no different. As dleung noted, the major design elements seem mismatched (circular seating alcoves under a big rectangular skylight) or missing. The old mall had barrel vaulted skylights, integrated tree planters and sunken seating and children's areas. The new mall corridors have plain drywall ceilings and wide open floors with a few scattered seating areas and planters that constitute "staging" more than "design". But all of that is pretty typical of modern mall asthetics.

The Well in Toronto is an exception in terms of design, but its location and the disjointed retail unit sizes and layouts meant it didn't get a good tenant mix. It's also a covered outdoor concourse in Toronto. The Well may not have critical mass on the retail side of things to consistently draw traffic.

Remember what the original main atrium was supposed to look like
- they kept the rectangular skylight and inserted the circular elements to make it less boring.
Imagine if it had been built like this:


https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/oakridge-centre-redevelopment-construction


https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/oakridge-centre-redevelopment-construction

This is about the same angle as the last rendering, and that [permanent] kite sculpture is pretty ugly.
I think Metropolis at Metrotown has better rotating themed displays in its main atrium.


By Canmenwalker - Own work, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=193023495

[jollyburger]

Is there any way COV would allow them to build that kind of staircase?

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Is there any way COV would allow them to build that kind of staircase?

It probably would have had a lot of handrails that tapered into dead ends at the top of the triangles,
but it was probably intended as seating.

[city guy]

Originally Posted by dleung

I visited the mall yesterday and was disappointed with the overall lack of vision for such an expensive disruption. The food court is the best part, but otherwise the interior public space, with the disjointed rectangular skylights framed by a distracting amount of drywall bulkheads, is a downgrade from the double 100m galleria from the original mall. The new mall doesn't "reimagine" anything; in fact I'm surprised by the lack of attempt to create anything resembling an indoor/outdoor street for basic wayfinding as was done at The Well in Toronto or the St James Quarter in Edinburgh. Instead, they just throw in Fazioli pianos, valet parking, led screens over the elevators, and over-designed seating steps that make the surrounding drywall look cheap and temporary in comparison. It's like the vision was about maximizing retail square footage and usable roof/"park" area, while sacrificing the quality of that square footage or whether the roof even feels like a park.

I completely agree with you on this

[AlessioSBT]

I mean let's be honest.
We all know that Westbank is bleeding money everywhere and this project already had several "problems" even before opening the first phase. Without counting the residential part that will probably be one of the biggest loss in real estate history.
You can absolutely see that the whole concept here was "minimum effort maximum result" with a bunch of cheap marketing (the signs "cultural centre of Vancouver makes no sense, what's the culture part exactly?)

Even the time out market, after the first excitement I went back a second time. Yes the food is better than a normal food court but generically speaking the whole thing is not that different from the food court in Brentwood.

I am actually starting to prefer Brentwood already because at least there are a few things around (real stores, the rec room, etc) and the exterior space is even more functional (for now).

[griswold]

I haven't been yet but I've watched some videos online and it looks like there are parts of the mall that are dark and poorly lit. Is that still the case?

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by griswold

I haven't been yet but I've watched some videos online and it looks like there are parts of the mall that are dark and poorly lit. Is that still the case?

The dark parts aren't helped because large windows and doors are completely blocked out with wraps once they get removed, which should help bring in a lot more light.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by AlessioSBT

I mean let's be honest.
We all know that Westbank is bleeding money everywhere and this project already had several "problems" even before opening the first phase. Without counting the residential part that will probably be one of the biggest loss in real estate history.
You can absolutely see that the whole concept here was "minimum effort maximum result" with a bunch of cheap marketing (the signs "cultural centre of Vancouver makes no sense, what's the culture part exactly?)

Even the time out market, after the first excitement I went back a second time. Yes the food is better than a normal food court but generically speaking the whole thing is not that different from the food court in Brentwood.

I am actually starting to prefer Brentwood already because at least there are a few things around (real stores, the rec room, etc) and the exterior space is even more functional (for now).

I mean you can say that and totally ignore that they did manage to assemble a fairly strong luxury retail lineup that probably has enough legs to serve as a viable shopping destination. Just because you aren't shopping there doesn't mean there isn't a market in Vancouver for those products.

[memememe76]

Brentwood specifically, and Burnaby generally, has that awful highway that will mark it hard for that area to truly be pleasant. Burnaby has the greatest number of "useless" Skytrain stations. And Metrotown is such a draw but the other side of Kingsway has seen virtually no updates.

Oakridge's outdoor area is quite nice and with the public library and community centre opening up, it will be a big community hub--for Vancouverites who don't want to drive Downtown and for transit users. So weird that none of Vancouver's libraries are next to a Skytrain station.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by memememe76

Oakridge's outdoor area is quite nice and with the public library and community centre opening up, it will be a big community hub--for Vancouverites who don't want to drive Downtown and for transit users. So weird that none of Vancouver's libraries are next to a Skytrain station.

Interesting observation. Mt Pleasant Library and CC will be close the the new station there, and the Firehall branch will be close to the Granville station.