Anyone see this?

[satchmo35@mas.to]

@RyeNCode This idea is pretty cool.

[chigaze@mstdn.ca]

@satchmo35 Maybe unusual here but it sounds like more common in other parts of the world. Seems like a decent idea especially with the LRT line being right there as well.

[dragonfrog@mastodon.sdf.org]

@satchmo35 I feel like as soon as you include West Edmonton Mall in any idea it becomes "pretty wild" just because of the scale of the place.

Personally I think if I lived in one of those apartments the biggest factor in my "never going outside" wouldn't be how lovely the mall is or how cold Edmonton gets, it would be that I lived in the middle of the world's largest parking lot, which is in turn surrounded by a ring of busy roads with very few places to cross.

[dragonfrog@mastodon.sdf.org]

@Chigaze @satchmo35 in the most general sense of buildings being retail on the ground floor with apartments above, that's lots of big cities. And certainly if you include small malls - basically an indoor shopping street from one side of a city block to the other - I've been to a number of those that had several storeys of apartments above.

There are several small malls in downtown Edmonton that are the ground floors of office towers. I don't know if some are in apartment towers.

[elleninedmonton@mstdn.ca]

@dragonfrog @Chigaze @satchmo35
Apartments connected to WEM is a totally obvious choice, now that the LRT is coming that way. ALL of the major malls in Asian mega-cities are connected to LRT stations and residential development. It's SO convenient to grab food and services as you disembark and head home.
Also, all high-rise developments should have goods and services available on the ground level.

[megmac@social.treehouse.systems]

@dragonfrog @Chigaze @satchmo35 I believe that there are a couple of residential towers downtown that are connected to the pedway, and I think that counts.

[megmac@social.treehouse.systems]

@EllenInEdmonton imo any new multiunit residential over 3 stories (so not just high rise) should be required to have podium commercial bays proportional to their resident capacity.

@dragonfrog @Chigaze @satchmo35

[dragonfrog@mastodon.sdf.org]

@megmac @EllenInEdmonton @Chigaze @satchmo35 I don't know if I agree about a requirement - at least at that low a height. For sure the zoning should automatically allow it though - no zone should exist where you can build 4 storeys of apartments but not 1 of commercial + 3 of apartments.

[megmac@social.treehouse.systems]

@dragonfrog we are *so far* behind on having viable street level commercial in medium density areas that I do actually think a radical solution is needed if it's gonna change.

@EllenInEdmonton @Chigaze @satchmo35

[ameliasbrain@mstdn.ca]

@satchmo35 Sounds like a fine idea to me. Shopping on lower floors & apartments above are generally a good use of space in urban areas (ground level preferred for shopping, but is a negative for apartment). No one complains about the shade from your tower when it's shading a parking lot. Residents & retailers both benefit from the proximity. Even more so when the mall has facilities link a rink & pool & such.

If you were planning it, new, you'd want to put greenspace on the roof of the mall for resident's benefit, as well as underground parking. Not sure if you could make that work as a retrofit.