General Suburban Updates and Rumours

[ijmorlan]

Again with the separate buildings. Can’t we have a single district which is designed for maximum mobility? Imagine if the entire Kitchener Frame site was done as one huge building with wings and towers containing everything from apartments to offices to medical clinics to retail, not to mention a retirement residence and long-term care.

So like a mall? I think that’s always the best idea in our Canadian climate, but people prefer to drive between buildings than walk between them (even if climate controlled)

Something like that, except that malls don’t usually play well with their neighbours and are usually single-owner. My idea is, let’s build the buildings one against the other and design a public internal circulation network.

Also modern malls usually have at least some of the stores randomly separated from the main building, and don’t usually have any uses other than retail. I want to take the opportunity of planning a single huge site (much bigger than any mall in this city) to arrange for maximum mobility between all the uses on the site.

As to driving vs. walking, that is partly a matter of distance, and driving is not available as an option to many people. That’s why I mention retirement residence and long-term care. Somebody living in one of those would have much more freedom if they could go for a walk to actual destinations without having to contend with weather. That is why I am so unimpressed with the UW north campus retirement residence: it’s across the street from the YMCA/Library. Why couldn’t it be immediately adjoining?