Urban Neighbourhood

North America’s Most Sustainable Telecommunications Company Plan’s New LEED Platnum Headquarters

As North American telecommunications companies go, it is hard to find a company with better sustainability cred then TELUS. The firm made the decision to reduce its environmental footprint about 9 years ago, before sustainability was cool and embarked on a now decade long journey to lower it’s impact on the environment.

..everything from diesel generators and chemicals to batteries and pole storage. “As an incumbent telecommunications company, we’ve been around a long time, so we have older infrastructure in some areas,” says Joe Pach, Telus’s environment director. “We recognize the risk that that represents to us, so we’ve embarked on a program to upgrade these systems.  In the past, we have had people say to us, ‘Why are we even doing this? They’re not.’ [But] we can’t take that approach, because the risk to the company in terms of its public profile … is greater to us than the monetary risk of, say, a fine … TELUS wants to send a very clear signal to the investment community that we are a very well-managed company.” And there’s no better way to do that than taking care of all the small, green details. S.

It is all well and  good for a company to say that . it is a green company but the proof is in the details and TELUS has those to back it up.  TELUS has been ranked among the world’s leading companies on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for the past nine years. It is the only North American telecommunications company to make the list and one of only 11 Canadian businesses across all sectors included on the global index.S.

As part of its ongoing efforts TELUS has also being upgrading its corporate offices, Known as TELUS Houses, 3 so far have been renovated or constructed,  TELUS House Toronto and Ottawa were awarded LEED Gold, and TELUS House Quebec LEED Silver. For its new National Headquarters in Vancouver the company is aiming for LEED Platinum.  The $750-million, one-million square foot project will radically transform an aging downtown block into one of the most technologically and environmentally-advanced sites in the world

In the Company’s own words:

The million-square foot, $750 million project will see almost the entire block of prime downtown real estate bounded by Georgia, Robson, Seymour and Richards rebuilt into one of the most technologically and environmentally-advanced sites of commerce, employment and living in the world. It will create half a million square feet of much-needed new office space available for multiple tenants and 500 new residential units, all setting new standards for environmental sustainability. The 22-storey signature office tower will be the first building in Canada built to the new 2009 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum standard and the 44-storey residential tower will be built to the LEED Gold standard.

“TELUS Garden will exemplify the TELUS brand and be a truly amazing destination for our team members, the community and the city,” said Darren Entwistle, TELUS president and CEO. “Our vision is that TELUS Garden will be a beautiful and unique location where leading-edge technology, urban living, environmental sustainability and tomorrow’s work styles are elegantly integrated into a vibrant community. This development, which will inject millions of dollars into our economy, will highlight TELUS’ advanced communications technologies and environmental innovation in a way never before seen. TELUS Garden will be a breathtaking place to live and work, an architectural icon that will consume 30 per cent less energy thanks to its responsible, leading-edge design. It will be a celebrated urban oasis that is literally alive with plant life and showcases our great province’s arts and culture.”

The landmark development reinforces TELUS’ commitment to the City of Vancouver, and will make a significant contribution to the city’s goal of becoming the greenest city in the world. Once complete, TELUS’ new headquarters will be unique in North America, featuring 10,000 square feet of green roofs providing organic produce for local restaurants, two elevated roof forests, British Columbia artwork, LED lighting on the western façade projecting programmable coloured images on to fritted glass, and media walls where cultural events such as symphony concerts can be broadcast to the public.

“The fact that TELUS is choosing to build a new national headquarters in Vancouver is a great vote of confidence in our local economy,” said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. “Their proposal to build to LEED Platinum is extremely ambitious and sends a signal that in Vancouver, going green is good for business and the environment. I’m very excited that they are investing in Vancouver – we’ve worked hard to build a competitive climate for business, and when companies like TELUS choose to expand their presence it is great for creating new jobs and economic spin-offs in our city.”

TELUS has partnered with Westbank to lead the project, and has engaged Henriquez Partners as the architect that is designing the iconic development. TELUS will fund its share of the development predominantly through leveraging its existing real estate holdings in this block, coupled with the sale and lease of space in the new buildings. The investment is consistent with TELUS’ overall capital expenditure target for 2011 and longer term capital intensity goals. TELUS has just entered into an agreement to purchase the city-owned parkade at the corner of Georgia and Richards, consolidating the entire block, other than the Kingston Hotel, to create a unified development.

While I don’t envy guests of the Kingston Hotel during construction, when the dust settles the hotel will be better situated between two cutting edge and lively buildings instead of a pair of park aids. As an observer of the development landscape here in Canada I have been watching with interest to see what TELUS would decide to do after the company announced it was considering a new Headquarters. In Keeping with its previous property investments in Toronto, Ottawa and Quebec City, TELUS once again delivers an office building that looks forward and sees a city where “the future is friendly.”

Swedbank Selects 3XN for it Spiffy New Headquarters

In architectural news on of our favourite European architecture firms 3XN has been selected to design the new international Headquarters for Swedbank. In keeping with 3XN’s talents as a designer of modern and innovative office buildings, 3XN has based their design for the structure around Swedbank’s core values; openness, simplicity, care and durability.

“The building is conceived and designed from the inside out. We have literally translated Swedbank’s core values into the creation of a modern and groundbreaking head office. Swedbank has conveyed the importance it places on creating an open social environment, which happens to coincide with 3XNs design beliefs and ideology. It has been a very interesting process and we look forward to getting to work on the project”. 3XN Principal Kim Herforth Nielsen

The design further develops these core values with a structure that focuses on transparency, Scandinavian simplicity and dynamic social environments.

The site selected for the new head office is in Sundbyberg; a fast developing traffic centre approximately five kilometres outside downtown Stockholm. The company plans to move approximately 2.500 employees will move into the building before the end of 2013.

3XN explains “With its innovative and transparent expression formed in an unconventional triple-v structure the building will become a landmark among Swedish office buildings. The large volume is broken up to create spaces on a human scale. This makes the building inviting on the inside as well as on the outside.”

For more information on the project visit 3XN’s online portfolio.

When Architects Try for a Luxury Hotel, and build a Death Ray.

In news today, a first in building construction! quite by accident MGM resorts has created the worlds first functioning death ray!

Employees call it the “Vdara death ray,” although a spokesman for MGM Resorts preferred to call it a “solar convergence” S

Essentially what happens is similar to a solar camp stove, for those of you that remember your boy scout training ( I guess these architects  were too busy at math camp).  The sun beams bounce off of the concave facade of the Vdara Hotel at CityCenter and travel in a focused beam across the hotel’s pool area.  On a clear day this beam can singe hair and melt drinking cups as it travels poolside. Apparently designers predicted this problem and put a high-tech film on the building glass but it appears to be safe to say that the film was ineffective.

So let this be a lesson to all you Architects out there, the best way to avoid burning people with your buildings is to design smart, and not use a band-aid or ‘film’ to fix the problem.

Welcome to Alpha Dome City

Welcome to Alpha Dome City ‘알파ㆍ돔 시티(αㆍdom city)’! It is a mixed use commercial and residential project that at first glance looks like one massive building. Alpha Dome City a project with an opening 5 trillion won (4.5 million US/CAD) price tag is under construction in Kyung ki do – sung nam si bun dang gu pankyo dong,  near the intersection of the Pankyo Expressway and the Seoul Outer Ring Highway. The project is by commission of the Pangyo Mutal Fund Administration in partnership with Lotte Engineering and Construction Consortium who will be the project manager for the Alpha Dome. Korean news puts the total number of companies involved in the consortium at 16. The project will have a mixed media centre (read movie theatre) department stores, (no doubt Lotte Department Store will make an appearance) discount stores, a hotel, galleries and other facilities, along with approximately 946 residential units. The project team indicates that the development will take lessons from Germany’s Sony Centre, and Le Defence, France.

The Korean National Housing Corporation will have a number of units in the development, indicating that the project will have a number of low cost rental units and housing for sale pursuant to the Korean National Housing Corporation’s mandate to  provide affordable housing to low-income households and also to stabilize residential property prices through the large-size housing supply.

알파 돔

In korean news a member of the project team explains the significance of the name: Alpha (α) as the first letter of the Greek alphabet ‘to No. 1′, ‘first’, ‘the light of the strong astronomical constellation of stars’,’ The most important part ‘, is central to the vision for the site. S

The Most striking aspect of Alpha Dome City ‘알파ㆍ돔 시티(αㆍdom city)’ is, well the Dome. The project is a number of commercial and residential blocks spread over a couple city blocks, with the dome as a pedestrian accessible linking structure. The dome with plans for cultural exhibition facilities in this ‘sky gallery’. The Dome itself with have multiple cuts through the roof structure to allow light to penetrate into street scape within. Inside the development preference will be given to bicycle and pedestrain traffic as the part of the new naturalism movement in Korea.  Special thanks to Chung Eun Young for research assistance.

Downtown Oklahoma – a budding tale of uban renewal.

YES for MAPS | MySpace Video

The city of Oklahoma has had some great news recently, two differrent energy companies have decided to construct or revamp their headquarters in the core. Sandridge and Devon Energy Corporation have both announced plans to move their operations into the downtown.

Devon Energy broke ground on its 50-story tower in October for its tower and the building is among the tallest under construction in America.  The new headquarters building will also be the state’s tallest building when it opens in 2012. As part of their construction plans the company is also contributing to $140 million worth of upgrades in the downtown, including new sidewalks, bicycle lanes and two-way streets. The company is also pretty with the current construction climate.  “It’s a great time to build a building. We can get it done faster and cheaper than during the boom,” said Larry Nichols, Devon’s chief executive. “We’re ahead of schedule and under budget.”

Devon’s building, however, is not the only construction project in Oklahoma City. In December, city voters approved a $777 million tax package for a 70-acre central park, streetcar system, convention centre, boating facilities, aquatic centers, and trails that will be built over the next nine years.

“It’s the best possible example of how a populace must tax themselves if they want public works,” says Rogers Marvel principal Rob Rogers. “I just wish we would recognize that nationally.”

When the city of Oklahoma bottomed out in the 90s, voters approved the Metropolitan Area Projects Plan (MAPS) as a means to finance the reconstruction of downtown. The MAPS initiative was the first-of-its-kind one-cent sales tax, it had a strict time limit of five years. Though voters later agreed to extended it. MAPS raised $360 million through taxation and was assisted by more than a billion dollars in private investment which went towards building a new central library, a minor-league ballpark, the Bricktown entertainment district, and other public works. Later a second “MAPS for Kids,” was implemented for city schools, and a third MAPS initiative, the previously mentioned $777 million package, was passed by voters in December. This one for the “Core to Shore” plan, which will rerouting the I-40 elevated expressway that cuts through town and expand the downtown toward the Oklahoma River.

The other booked to the downtown renewal came through the unveiling of Sandridge’s plans for a $100 million expansion of its downtown headquarters across three city blocks. What is different about the Sandridge plan however is that their plans include a renovated 1960s Pietro Belluschi tower, and a renovated Braniff Building–built in 1923 by the brothers who started the airline that the building was named after.

Sandridge’s plan goes against local practice by reusing existing buildings, rather then heading for a corporate campus out in the suburbs. The CEO of Sandridge, Tom Ward was a major reson the company stayed downtown when most of its employees wanted to head for the hills. Ward found the suburban campus plans were both too expensive and too inflexible for his growth plans and his desire to take the company from 600 to 1,500 employees.

“Their first response was that it was going to be a longer commute, and the idea was not one they embraced originally,” Ward says. “And then the Thunder came to town and a lot of things started changing.” (Ward incidentally owns a minority stake in the Oklahoma City Thunder).

If there is one thing that can be learned from downtown Oklahoma it is that resident iniatives like the MAPS program supported by private investment can make a difference in the vitality of our cities.

“If you’re an urbanist, vacancy of any kind is super tough,” said Rogers. “So the decision to go downtown and be a part of the city, to redevelop and reuse, is fundamentally about reinvigorating downtown. Everybody talks about being green, but one of the greenest things you can do is simply reuse things.”

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Facebook Headquarters

The new Facebook headquarters is a former Agilent Technologies property that has been retrofitted and restored as a lab to measure intangible things like creativity and social interaction. Facebook requested that O+A build a headquarters that would express freedom of expression, individuality, and creativity. Just like on Facebook employees are encouraged to write on the walls.

Before moving into to the new location the 850 employees that work for Facebook were in ten different offices. The new headquarters building located in Palo Alto brings them all to the same office but maintains the sense of identity unique to each division. Each of the ten separate offices had each cultivated their own aesthetic and culture, studio O+A’s design sought to preserve these aesthetics by creating a number of  ‘neighbourhoods’ in the new office. The redesign uses partitions and strategic spatial mapping to the neighbourhoods that make up Facebook’s city of workers.

The Facebook headquarters is the first commercial project in Palo Alto that was completed under the 2008 Green Building Ordinance. O+A restored millwork from the original lab and re-purposed industrial pieces for office use.

Saxo Bank and its new digs

How to make a glass office block the right way.

Visible from the lively cafes across the water, the new corporate headquarters for a Danish Investment Bank, Saxo Bank has been turning heads since its opening earlier this year.  This striking building, with its playful patterns of white and glass facades, reflects the colors of the surrounding sky and water.

In the months before it was completed, the new headquarters for Danish Investment Bank – Saxo Bank – began attracting stares and attention from passersby in Tuborg Harbour, north of Copenhagen Denmark.  Now it has attracted the attention of the renowned RIBA International Award, recognizing excellence conceived by its members from around the world.

With its shimmering façade of diagonal white aluminum and blue glass patterns, the building reflects the sea and sky just as it does Saxo Bank’s profile as a solid, dynamic and modern bank.  Inside, a transparent and inspiring environment enhances the sense of team spirit amongst employees.  The open plan layout of each floor surrounds a softly shaped, top-lit atrium; with a winding main staircase functioning as the building’s spine.  The openness allows for interaction, sharing of knowledge and an environment of learning amongst this highly driven and international team of professionals.

Kim Herforth Nielsen, Principal Architect of 3XN comments on the design saying, ‘The building is designed in such a way that it challenges the surroundings and yet contributes to a unified setting.  The interior has been designed in close collaboration with Saxo Bank to create an environment of learning; encouraging interaction and sharing of knowledge.  Commenting on the award, Kim Herforth Nielsen says, ‘The RIBA International Award isn’t just any prize.  There is a very thorough evaluation process from the committee’s side, and they have visited all of the projects.  It is very important for us to create architecture with meaning, and not just a signature piece.  I think this is why we have won.’

Canal City: The Anatomy of a Japanese Mega Mall

Major Attractions At Canal City

Canal City Hakata in the Japanese City of Fukuoka is not the largest shopping center in world but it is one of the most memorable.  When walking through the central corridor of Canal City, it is like walking through a land form. While there is a waterway running through the central corridor it is the shape of the walls as they undulate in and out like a canyon that have the greatest impact on the pedestrian experience. One thing I found ironic about the complex is that while it’s named Canal City the project has very little interaction with the canal it actually borders.

The development is one of the largest private developments in the history of Japan with a total cost of $1.4 billion. S

The development was built partially as a response to the city’s situation in the late 1980s when Fukuoka was trying to deal with a massive influx of people, the shopping district was floundering, and reports say that the city as a whole was suffering from a lack of community. Canal City has turned out to be a great success in terms of both commercial traffic and its effect on the surrounding area.  Records indicate that in its first year more than 16 million people visited the complex and sales exceeded $500 million.S The development has also spurred regeneration in the adjoining historic shopping arcade due to increased foot traffic.

Canal City is a mixed use development with a primarily commercial focus  and a number of cultural and entertainment functions as well.  The project was designed by Jerde and covers 9 acres with a total building area of 240,000 square meters.  There’s a 400 room luxury hotel,  and a 420 room business hotel.  There is a 13 screen  movie theater complex, a business center, gallery, the Fukuoka City Theater, and a number of large commercial stores tucked  into the complex. S

3D shot taken from google earth

What struck me most about Canal City during my visit, was that while the development has a number of big stores they do not monopolize the experience.  When walking through your standard North American shopping mall in the major stores are used as anchors at either end of the main shopping street and thus they tend to define the mall being both its beginning and end. This is done on purpose as a way to increase traffic between the anchors so that people will pass and by extension patronise the smaller stores located between along the mall’s main routes.  In the case of canal city most of the anchor stores are tucked away in a single Mega Store building at one end of the complex and are removed from the sight lines of the main street. Instead the complex is framed by things like that Fukuoka City theater, the water way running through the middle, the outdoor theater, and the two hotels. What generates foot traffic in Canal City is the architecture itself, the building is so interesting that you are compelled to experience all of it. In my case I happily spent about two hours walking around, not buying anything, (well I did stop at Wendy’s but I hadn’t had a real burger living in Korea for the previous six months) just experiencing.

The development brings its massive size down to a human scale through the creation of neighbourhoods, or unique districts within the project.  The waterway with its winding path through the middle of the development, and the curving walls of the structures that border the waterway create visual interest.  In some ways it appears that Jerde took a couple lessons from Alan Jacobs’ book ‘Great Streets,’ the central corridor has pleasant proportions that fit within the Japanese context, with upper story setbacks that allow sunlight to permeate, and open public square areas like ‘the sun stage’ that allow for places to linger and watch either your fellow pedestrians or the performances offered.

Canal City offers an example of how large mall complexes can be incorporated into a dense urban fabric and bring about positive results. Plus it offers a view of how much better a mall can look without acres of parking surrounding it. To experience Canal City for yourself find a Place to stay in Fukuoka.

The Standard’s Lap Dance for The High Line

Its been a while since we did an architectural feature, lately we’ve been focusing more on public projects, and sustainable initiatives but this project re-piqued my interest as its connected to an urban regeneration project (The High Line) that I have been following for almost a year and a half now.  For any of you who are unaware The High Line is an urban renewal project in New York City that has taken the old elevated freight rail line that runs down the lower west side between 34th street and Gansevoort Street in the West Village, and at the moment most significantly through the meat packing district (MePa) that is sandwiched between the West Village and Chelsae.  The project will turn this former freight line that has been unused since 1980 into an elevated parkway in the style of the Promenade Plantee’ in Paris.

Hotelier Andre Balazs, owner of the Chateau Marmont and The Standard chain of hotels will soon be officially opening The Standard New York on a lot that would have been considered ‘problematic’ before The High Line conversion, but is now considered plum due to its immediate proximity. Which could be understating it a little, The High Line cuts across Balazs’ lot diagonally.

“For the first time I had a hard time imagining what the hotel should look like,” Balazssays. “I usually renovate older buildings, and this was ground-up construction. Add to that the matter of the High Line and it was a unique challenge.” S

As such the Hotel is suspended above The High Line on concrete pilotis, which suspend the hotel 56 feet above ground level and 30 feet above the track. This caused one real estate blogto mention that the Hotel is in a ‘perpetual lapdance’ with The High Line. The design is a bit of a progression through time periods. Overall the building looks a lot like a Le Corbusier, built in the International style. The building is two concrete framed glass walls bushed together at a slight angle. It evokes an open book standing on its end.

“If you had to look at this project from an urban-planning perspective,” says Balazs, “it gets more modern, in terms of building type and décor, the higher you get. The ground floor relates to early in the last century, the time of the High Line. The hotel floors, in the tower, are midcentury—I was looking at Eero Saarinen, Mies van der Rohe, and Arne Jacobsen, who had designed an amazing hotel in Stockholm in the 50s.” S

While many of us plebes would be unable to stay in the hotel once it has had its grand opening the hotel is currently open(ish) as the website states. Some of the rooms are open even though the construction isn’t finished a a pretty affordable rate. Check out the the hotel chain’s website for rates.

One of the things that I find most exciting about these developments is that they prove that things that once were considered eyesores and only worthy of being torn down can be re-purposedinto serious assets.  The park is considered one of the most innovative and influential urban-renewal projects of our time. With an imaginativeapproach to city planning, and some creative reuse of existing infrastructure,  we can come up with some truly stellar results.

The Lost Tower

C Caleb Long

The Bank Of Oklahoma tower located in downtown Tulsa would come as a surprise to anyone previously unaware of it.  The tower looks startlingly like the towers that stood at the world trade center site in New York City until their destruction in 2001, but of course that was the whole point.  The Bank of Oklahoma Tower was built in 1975 by Minoru Yamasaki, the same architect who designed the twin towers in New York City.  The tower was built by commission of John Williams the CEO of Williams Companies to be a scale replica half the size of the original towers.  However there are a few design features that are not quite the same, for example the arches of the lobby level are big and round unlike the Venetian Gothic ogees, in the original design that flow directly into the columns which made up exterior of the towers.  Coming in at 203 m in height the Bank Of Oklahoma tower and its 52 stories is currently the tallest building in the upper midwest plains.

Currently the towers are undergoing about $16 million worth of renovation work with $6 million earmarked for pedestrian bridges and a granite coating for the base, along with windows, lots of windows.  The Williams company plans to replace every window on the eighth through forty-ninth floors.

The original design for The Bank Of Oklahoma Tower  was actually just a small set of towers each coming in at 25 stories, a pair of quarter scale replicas.  However John Williams is said to have altered the design by taking Minoru Yamasaki’s pair of towers and putting one on top of the other.  Some information suggests that part of the reason for this was that due to the amount of space required for the service core vs. the total floor area of each floor was not cost effective.  Due to this change that the Bank Of Oklahoma tower lacks the defining characteristic of the original world trade center site, its twin.

It’s interesting that not many people seem to recognize this tower as a remaining descendant of the original world trade center, but as a standalone with a different base the tower becomes less distinguishable from other office buildings.  It’s likely that if the building had been built in a manner more faithful to the original world trade center design, the Bank of Oklahoma Tower would have captured more attention.

For more Info: Wiki, The Believer, Tulsa World.

Meet the New Shanghai Super Tower by Gensler Design

Concept Drawing, The Tiers are visible through the facade

The New Shanghai Super Tower contract has been awarded to Gensler Architects. The firm has won the international competition to build the Shanghai Center. The site is a small 30,370 square meters, plot Z32 in Lujiazui, on Shanghai’s Pudong Peninsula. Once finished the massive building, will be a steel structure that rises to 632m with a 565.6 meter tall central core made of concrete. The building will be 127 stories tall with an internal area of 558,803 square meters and feature office, and retail space. It will also feature a luxury hotel. When the tower is finished it will line up with the Jin Mao Building and Shanghai World Financial Centre.

The building will feature a double skin that encloses an interior “bioclimatic” atrium. The Artriums will be planted with trees as high as ten meters tall that the firm suggests will turn the Atriums into a “bioclimatic” tower, the trees will help regulate the cooling of the building. The atrium is designed to twist around the building’s core. According to Gensler this, “[reinforces] the impression of movement and dynamism that symbolizes Shanghai’s success as a world city and the emergence of modern China.”

The design is composed of 8 major levels that are tiered, to enable the building to have the large vertical Atriums behind, using floor-plates, approximately the shape of triangles. This design allows each of the eight levels to have a front, with an outer glass façade wrapped around it and creating the large vertical Atrium spaces behind. The top will have a viewing platform and observation areas. These areas will have a large open space inside of the tower open to the elements, this design element is to pay homage to the void located near the top of the Shanghai World Finance Centre.

Internal View of an Atrium.

Concept Drawing Showing the turn of the Building

Gensler

Article – 1693 – Gensler Design 632m Shanghai Super Tower

The Fairy Fountain Hotel

Few hotel fountains make a statement like this one

It isn’t often that you walk into a hotel lobby and are truely amazed, sometimes it’s the opulence, sometimes it’s the design, and sometimes it’s the fountain. I came across this gem as I was on my way to meet some friends for rooftop sangria.

Do you know this hotel?

(more…)

The Birth of the Shopping Mall, Welcome to Southdale Centre

The Interior of Southdale at its birth

The shopping mall is a controversial topic in urban centers; most people generally view them as being a major contributor to the rise of suburbs and sprawl. As part of our Historical Discourse series here at Urban Neighbourhood, we are going to look at the trajectory of this truly American institution through the urban landscape, both here in North America and abroad. An interesting factoid about shopping malls here in North America is that they are on the decline here and in the country that gave birth to them but still on the rise in other countries.

To start our history of the mall one can only start at its birthplace, Southdale Centre. Southdale center opened in Edina, Minnesota in 1956. The complex was the first climate controlled shopping complex, fully enclosed and featuring rival department stores. Minneapolis has an interesting relationship with the mall being the first city to house one, and the home to the largest mall in America, the aptly named Mall of America, which is just four miles away from its progenitor.

The exterior at its opening

The Southdale mall was the brain child of Victor Gruen. He was a refugee from Vienna during world war two and got his start designing shops for other immigrants in New York City. He quickly became known and decried for his shop design utilizing eye displays, and arcades to pull customers into the stores he designed. It is reported that one critic complained that his stores were like mousetraps, once you got in, rarely did you leave without buying something. It was a comparison that would later be used on his shopping malls. It was partially the climate of Minnesota that gave Gruen his masterpiece. A number of what would later be termed strip malls had been built in California in the 1940s but none of these outdoor strips were really all that great for the Minnesotan climate. Gruen’s solution was to put in two rows of shops that faced each other and throw a roof on top, add in an air conditioning system that kept the whole thing at a comfortable 24C (75F) and the shopping mall was born.

Interestingly enough Gruen’s original plan for the shopping mall was a lot more community centered then malls have become today. He proposed that the center would become a central gathering place for the surrounding community. He also designed the plan in a manner similar to the type of infill developments that are being suggested to ‘fix’ these developments. The original plan called for the shopping center to be the centre piece of a 463 acre development that included houses, schools, medical facilities, parks and even a lake. However the original plan was never completed and the mall sits currently like so many other malls isolated in acres of parking lot. When the mall first opened it was designed to be complementary to downtown and most of the shops inside were satellite stores of downtown merchants. He envisioned the mall as a complement for downtown business to reach customers outside the city center.

Southdale today

In light of his original plan it is also interesting to note how many of Gruen’s original design idea’s he got right the first time. The mall is on a sloped site so people who enter on one side of the structure enter on a lower floor that those who enter on the other, thus ensuring better circulation, plus the balconies within the mall were all built low so that shoppers could easily see the stores on other levels. Gruen also detested cars, if you can believe it which is why he left them outside. He sought to recreate the feel of a European Town center which is why he added an Atrium where he envisioned that shoppers would stop and discuss issues over their coffees like they do in European Piazzas.

Stay tuned for our next chapter when we discuss mall culture. Its like ohmigod!

Ithaa, The World's First Undersea Restaurant.

The view from inside Ithaa

There are few experiences in dinning that could be considered more unique then this one. Ithaa is the first undersea restaurant in the world. The construction of the restaurant is primarily a T-Cast acrylic roof, which offers a 270 degree panoramic view to its customers The Restaurant has a capacity of fourteen guests, so needless to say it is pretty exclusive. Meals in this fish tank range from 120$ US for hotel guests on a full meal plan, to $250 US for guests who are on a Bed & Breakfast meal plan, whatever that is.

While some may ask what a resort restaurant like this is doing in an urban blog, for me it comes down to the likelihood that another fancy coastal city is going to want one of these soon too. Seattle, Vancouver, LA, Sydney, New York is unlikely as the Hudson is still a little too dark, but my guess is that it is only a matter of time before some other city decides to commission one of these.

The restaurant was conceived by the Crown Company in the Maldives who wanted to make an undersea restaurant which was both unique and the first of its kind. The first vision for the restaurant was of a more rectangular shaped box with glass windows but later came to favor a tunnel design that was originally conceived for the Kuala Lumpur National Science Center.

The restaurant was constructed in Singapore in 2004 and then later transported by barge to the Maldives. After its arrival it was lowered onto four steel piles and secured to them with concrete. The lifespan of the structure is estimated at 20 years.

One has to wonder what the fish who swim by may think. I would however definitely advise resisting the urge to tap on the glass, after all if the dome goes it would make you the main course.

Surreal Estate

I came across one of the most interesting property videos today. While looking for video’s on YouTube came across a number of video’s by Squint/Opera showing the work of architecture firms. This particular video was produced for Alsop architects in London of a property  they renovated. The Victoria House property is a mixing together of traditional and modern styles. The video is a surrealists trip through the property starting with the more traditional aspects of its architecture an moving to the more modern elements as the footage progresses.

16mm film of a redeveloped 1930s building in Bloomsbury, London.

Shot on 16mm, the film narrates the character of this redeveloped 1930s building in Bloomsbury, Victoria House. The architecture was designed by Alsop Architects and developed by Garbe.