03-18-2021, 04:27 PM
(03-18-2021, 04:13 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(03-18-2021, 04:06 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Ultimately, I find it incredibly ironic that malls like Conestoga have activated their parking lots with patios like this: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.4976967,-...384!8i8192
Not a particularly pleasant place to sit. I feel the same thing is wrong with the Fairway plans. And yet a significant block of our downtown is a completely dead blank wall: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.4486528,-...384!8i8192
It is pretty blank, even if it does provide some protection from the elements. But I don't see why you couldn't add some entrances there and reconfigure the interior in this part to enable standalone retail units.
In the 1960s, the future was seen as shopping malls. And, so, to save the downtown, we got two shopping malls downtown. As things turned out, though, that did not work so well. But hindsight is always 20-20.
Yeah, actually ironically, it's already functions as a bit of a portico that some here are such big fans of. As for why you cannot add entrances, I'm not sure just entrances are enough---there are some already. There needs to be something there at streetlevel, shops, even just hallways. I can't tell for sure, but it looks like the floor level of the building is not at ground level there. That could be very hard to rennovate. There also appear to be utility accesses and garage doors that could be hard to rennovate around.
Ultimately, I don't really know for sure how easy/difficult it would be, especially as I have not seen inside the building, but it is a situation where I can imagine fixing this could be difficult, and I would accept it if told that it isn't feasible (of course, at that point, I support demolishing the building).
As for the future in the eyes of the 1970s...yeah, I understand what they thought, but it is a bit disappointing. I don't really think it was impossible to know in the 70s. After all Jane Jacobs wrote The Death and Life of Great American Cities in 1961, clearly some planners were aware of the problems with 1960s planning. It's nothing more than hubris and blindness. I mean, I guess we see that even today...albeit, hopefully in smaller things, just look at the idiocy around access to some LRT stations.
It also makes things harder now, because people now say "you were wrong in the 70s, how do you know you're not wrong now"...and that totally ignores the fact that we've learned a lot since the 70s.