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

[SpongeG]

Was down in the area on monday eve, popped into Crate & Barrel, parked on 39th near cambie... They had traffic cops controlling the intersection, which was nice, cause trying to drive through that area in the last while has been a mess, at least cars got through and it wasn't a mess like it has been. Traffic lights were normal, the cops just made sure people moved along.

[NewfBC]

New renderings of Oakridge Centre's expedited indoor mall and food hall phase



https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/oakridge...11hGG8pFzou8zUof99wd_UkrUtayiSGvmds6khds

Ron.

[officedweller]

Here's a couple pics showing how the food hall sort of sits on the roof of the mall with a green roof with aimless paths on top of that:


https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/oakridge-centre-new-indoor-mall-food-hall-redevelopment


https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/oakridge-centre-new-indoor-mall-food-hall-redevelopment

[Nites]

Food court kind of gives me airport vibes with the massive open ceilings. It looks good.

[officedweller]

It sorta looks like a university to me.
I'm not really sure how much traffic you can drive up to the roof for food service.
There may be nearby seniors (ie like Brentwood?) but how much weekday lunchtime traffic will there be?

[Migrant_Coconut]

It and the previous render look like Westbank just copied Richmond Mall. Not a bad thing, just a lazy one.

Originally Posted by officedweller

I'm not really sure how much traffic you can drive up to the roof for food service.
There may be nearby seniors (ie like Brentwood?) but how much weekday lunchtime traffic will there be?

Probably a long-term deal - it'll struggle through Year One, but once the mall and all the towers (Jewish CC, Oak Depot, etc) are finished, the place should be fairly busy.

[scryer]

Food court inside is definitely giving me some Dubai Mall food court feels. I wish I had some photos to show you guys.

Anyways I'm also curious as to how much of the greenwashing we'll actually see .

[s211]

Originally Posted by NewfBC

New renderings of Oakridge Centre's expedited indoor mall and food hall phase



https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/oakridge...11hGG8pFzou8zUof99wd_UkrUtayiSGvmds6khds

Ron.

I call 1000% BS on the greenery hanging on the inside of the skylights, unless they intend to put fake greenery. It would be wildly expensive to maintain.

More architectural greenwashing for ya, folks.

[djh]

I just don't understand how this "inside exposed to the elements" design will work. Do the designers live in a bunker in Arizona and not know it rains for several months at a time here?

Look at the design and positioning of the skylights.Am I wrong in thinking they are not glassed over? Imagine water pouring in through that, not down 1, but down 2 floors down, into the bowels of the mall. Imagine birds flying around inside the mall. Imagine how quickly that wood will bleach on the sunward side, and gather mould/moss on the shadowed sign. And not in a good way.

This just seems like an architectural fantasy from a 1980s science fiction book showing "Life In The Future After The Reset" - far from practical but major "Gattaca" vibes.

[scryer]

Originally Posted by djh

I just don't understand how this "inside exposed to the elements" design will work. Do the designers live in a bunker in Arizona and not know it rains for several months at a time here?

Look at the design and positioning of the skylights.Am I wrong in thinking they are not glassed over? Imagine water pouring in through that, not down 1, but down 2 floors down, into the bowels of the mall. Imagine birds flying around inside the mall. Imagine how quickly that wood will bleach on the sunward side, and gather mould/moss on the shadowed sign. And not in a good way.

This just seems like an architectural fantasy from a 1980s science fiction book showing "Life In The Future After The Reset" - far from practical but major "Gattaca" vibes.

Originally Posted by s211

I call 1000% BS on the greenery hanging on the inside of the skylights, unless they intend to put fake greenery. It would be wildly expensive to maintain.

More architectural greenwashing for ya, folks.

Yeah, there's also the fact that there would be spillage to some degree from the rain yielding more maintenance and clean up demands.

Now that you guys got me thinking, it simply doesn't make sense to have it open air. Like yeah, do the skylight by all means (with possibly fake plants hanging), but the upkeep and maintenance of it from the rain in an open air scenario seems a little dumb and short sighted. I also get that they are trying to move away from being classified as just another mall but sometimes malls are indeed appropriate for certain locations (as much as we get wet over the idea of high streets), especially when they are mixed use with office and residential like this proposal is. TLDR: They're trying to masquerade as an open market, when indeed they are another mall.

To me, it looks too greenwashed to be true.

[SFUVancouver]

I'm not sure what everyone is talking about. From my look at the rendering of the food hall, it's clear that there's a glass skylight dome above each opening, and the domes are not immediately adjacent to the portal. For maintenance alone, there will need to be access to the inside perimeter of the skylight portal and I can imagine there being planters around the perimeter with hanging vine plants and automatic irrigation. That would be extraordinarily low-maintenance landscaping and not particularly challenging at all to implement and maintain.

[s211]

Originally Posted by djh

I just don't understand how this "inside exposed to the elements" design will work. Do the designers live in a bunker in Arizona and not know it rains for several months at a time here?

Look at the design and positioning of the skylights.Am I wrong in thinking they are not glassed over? Imagine water pouring in through that, not down 1, but down 2 floors down, into the bowels of the mall. Imagine birds flying around inside the mall. Imagine how quickly that wood will bleach on the sunward side, and gather mould/moss on the shadowed sign. And not in a good way.

This just seems like an architectural fantasy from a 1980s science fiction book showing "Life In The Future After The Reset" - far from practical but major "Gattaca" vibes.

Pretty sure I'm seeing enclosed space there.

My point is that accessing the interior planters that high up requires specially trained and certified horticulturalists. There is no way that anyone could bear the cost of mechanized access to the suggested planters up there. Even those much vaunted green walls: anything requiring more than a simple ladder involves cherry pickers at a minimum, and that's when costs go into the stratosphere.

[djh]

If the skylights are glazed over, that makes a lot more sense (I have to admit I was looking at it without my glasses on my mobile phone). So that's why I asked if the skylights are glazed or not.

But as others have raised the issues: watering those plants would be nigh on impossible, impractical, and replaced by plastic after the first gardening invoice.

The wood would still get bleached by the sun and look pretty unmaintained after a few years. Not as bad as if the skylights were exposed to the elements, and I always appreciate high-quality wood design. I hope they can preserve it (UV-treated glass, multi-coating the wood, etc.)


What about the far end of the food court? Is that a glass wall, or exposed to the elements?

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by s211

Pretty sure I'm seeing enclosed space there.

My point is that accessing the interior planters that high up requires specially trained and certified horticulturalists. There is no way that anyone could bear the cost of mechanized access to the suggested planters up there. Even those much vaunted green walls: anything requiring more than a simple ladder involves cherry pickers at a minimum, and that's when costs go into the stratosphere.

It's Westbank, you expect practicality? Join me for a skate on the cracked glass sidewalk outside Telus Garden.

[SpongeG]

you can run watering hoses into and through the planters.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

you can run watering hoses into and through the planters.

I don't envy the poor bastard who goes up to check the hoses... or the one who gets the bill. A "regular" green roof like the Convention Centre is apparently enough of a headache as-is.

[officedweller]

Here's another rendering from the Oakridge website that shows glass above those openings:


https://www.oakridgecentre.com/reinventing-oakridge/

and here's a video walk through the existing mall (October 4, 2020) all chopped and partitioned off:

• Video Link

[Henbo]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Here's another rendering from the Oakridge website that shows glass above those openings:

Large glass roofs always make me nervous in an earthquake zone

[Vin]

Originally Posted by officedweller

It sorta looks like a university to me.
I'm not really sure how much traffic you can drive up to the roof for food service.
There may be nearby seniors (ie like Brentwood?) but how much weekday lunchtime traffic will there be?

It really depends on how big the future mall space is and how much shopping one can get done in it. The more people going there to shop or hang out, the more will dine at the food court. Even the old food court was always crowded for such a small mall.

I'm glad they have decided to place the food centre upstairs as this makes the proposed mall multi-storeyed instead of single. This current set-up feels spacious and airy. Looks really good!

Originally Posted by s211

I call 1000% BS on the greenery hanging on the inside of the skylights, unless they intend to put fake greenery. It would be wildly expensive to maintain.

More architectural greenwashing for ya, folks.

Gardeners can access that from the park upstairs, perhaps?

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Henbo

Large glass roofs always make me nervous in an earthquake zone

Not to mention in our seagull-rich environment they often look (literally) like shit. They better have a robust cleaning plan in place.