My two cents: Downtown Richmond, BC
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https://www.google.com/maps/@49.1524.../data=!3m1!1e3
It is steadily transforming from a nowhereville suburban ‘downtown’ with a couple of ramshackle civic facilities and a couple malls into a legitimate small but vibrant downtown. Anchored by the traditional suburban centres of gravity, malls (soon to be redeveloped as high-density, mall-anchored mixed use developments), it has benefitted in previous decades from good bones (a grid system in the down core and a broader grid system of city-spanning arterials with a mix of impenetrable cul de sac and conventional suburbs enclosed therein). Prescient decisions over the years to locate or rebuild civic infrastructure (hospital, city hall, performing arts centre, major recreation facilities) in the downtown core have ensured there was a reason to go there, in addition to the malls.
Richmond has been close enough to the City of Vancouver to function as a commuter suburb, but simultaneously far enough away to warrant its own cultural-commercial ecosystem. The decision to extend rapid transit (SkyTrain Canada Line) to the city and host a major 2010 Olympics competition venue (Olympic Oval, designed from day-one to be a civic recreation facility afterwards) kicked high-density development, already long-under way, into high gear.
Proximity (adjacency, really) to YVR airport and the presence of flight path height restrictions had the effect of capping the height of development at a relatively low 10-15+ storeys (depending on the area), resulting in less expensive development projects that lowered the barrier to entry for local and international developers, yielding more projects across the city than its rate of growth would suggest. This has had the effect of generally having more of the downtown area experience redevelopment than would be the case with more conventional tower heights. Proximity to the airport has also resulted in the development of a significant amount of hotel space, much of traditional low-cost select service fare, but also proper full-service ‘downtown’ hotels integrated into the existing and expanding walkable downtown core.
While it has generally been residential development with modest retail and minimal office that's been built in the last 15-20 year growth cycle, newer projects have begun to include some decently-sized office buildings (<100,000 sqft). Several have been completed to date as part of larger mixed-use projects, including one mixed-use building hosting satellite campuses of local post-secondary institutions (Kwantlan Technical University and Trinity Western University). Large-scale master-planned communities in the vicinity of a future SkyTrain station (Capstan Station) were tapped with special levies to generate the majority of the capital required for the roughed-in future station to now be proceeding to construction.
Furthermore, the large and growing Chinese (Hong Kong and Mainland) population has fostered extensive commercial, particularly retail, activity over the decades. This has historically made the city the only or primary location for certain forms of retail (strata-retail malls, night markets, specialty bakeries, grocery, seafood, and butchers, etc.) and hospitality (dim sum, banquet halls, karaoke bars, etc.) in the region.
I would add, too, that the integration of the SkyTrain Canada Line into the downtown has been highly successful and minimally disruptive. It is wholly elevated and runs for several kilometers down one side of the city's main street (Number 3 Road), but the columns are low, the stations are well-designed and have good integration and relationships with adjacent buildings, and they really followed through on the promise of generous landscaping, public art, and quality architectural lighting.
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Above is the single-track 'tail' section of the line leading to the terminus station of Richmond-Brighouse (pictured). Future expansion was designed into the system, including sufficient column strength and building clearances that will permit the single track segment (~750m) to be removed and replaced with double-track and an expanded station should the line be extended further south some time in the future (no plans for this in the next 20+ years).
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Above is what a double-tracked section in the vicinity of Aberdeen Station looks like on the ground. Present, surely, but not oppressively so.
Recent projects nearing completion are quite high-quality, urban, and transformative in their affect on downtown. For example, in one fell swoop, this 4 mid-rise tower (3 residential, 1 office) mixed-use project, Paramount, replaced a rundown mini-mall half a city block in size.
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Paramount is located adjacent to the Richmond-Brighouse SkyTrain Canada Line Station with a new urban-format major Translink mid-block bus station in between, below. The huge setback for future expansion of the SkyTrain are also evident in this photo.
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And the Olympic Oval neighbourhood immediately adjacent to downtown is really filling in, too, though it definitely has more of a master-planned feel.
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And the next wave of development in this neighbourhood may take a fascinating Nordic turn as the next two renders illustrate, though the 27 acre site was just sold for $300M to Keltic Developments (same company that did Paramount, above) and the architects behind the concept (GBL, same as above, too) have taken it down from their website, hence the Imgur source links.
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CF Richmond Centre will be unrecognizable when redeveloped. 13 towers are proposed with 1,700+ units, along with office, daycare, streetfront retail, and a district energy system. GBL are, again, the architects.
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This barely scratches the surface of what's in the pipeline for downtown Richmond, too. Since the Olympics, there has been non-stop development occurring in the 'Oval' neighbourhood adjacent to downtown, and inevitably this area will be lumped in with downtown once the light industrial vestiges in between are consumed. Downtown, Lansdowne Mall is also going to be redeveloped and it's easily double the size of CF Richmond Centre, not to mention dozens of infill redevelopment sites along Number Three Road and its adjacent side streets. But despite so much in the pipeline, we're still talking decades to build it all out and I think that Richmond is going to be largely successful in still managing to achieve an organic feeling to its downtown growth.
I lived nearby for several years in the mid 2010s and enjoyed it. It's not downtown Vancouver or Toronto by any means, but it feels like an authentic place and there's people on the streets thanks to SkyTrain and a distinct sense of identity separate from the rest of the region.
Furthermore, there seems to be a lot of buy-in from residents, developers, and the City about the future of the city and the expectations on new development (inclusionary zoning, fair density bonusing, new public amenities delivered by developers or actually built by the City and other agencies using the development fees that have been collected). There are lots of parks and substantial reinvestment in them. A major order for new trains for the Canada Line will double capacity and help alleviate the sometimes-crushing (pre-COVID) passenger conditions. There's a firm commitment by the City to expand walking and cycling and transit use while still incorporating cars into the built environment, but not necessarily giving them primacy (e.g. underground or podium-enclosed parking is mandatory so no new surface parking lots, AAA [or at least AA] bicycle facilities on key corridors, including Number 3 Road, a linked system of waterfront cycling/multi-use trails and rail trails, etc.).
Lots of potential lessons to be learned by other aspiring pseudo downtowns.