This is a sad take.
We shouldn't just build shit to bring more people downtown. This building in 10 years is going to ghettoize downtown rather then improve it.
Even when malls do major renovations like Londonderry did it still doesn't seem to help.
Development into something compelling would be the best option.
I mean that looks semi promising, but malls in general I think are in palliative care. There is some exceptions as always.
I think something like a Ala Moana mall would work (obviously not open air) but a multistorey mall with residential on top.
That's why we need to reinvent ourselves and doing that with Whyte Ave in my mind is a easy path forward.
Jamming another 30k people into these areas, sure will help to some degree but jamming in 30k low effort projects doesn't solve anything.
I mean realistically, most of it is true. The Calgary skyrise cities isn't full of 6 story wood framed buildings with the only distinction being different coloured cheap siding slapped onto the front.
If we keep doing the same and hope for different results we will just keep getting the same.
I think have a really decentralized workforce doesn't help either. Edmonton needs to redefine itself, I was in Nashville and I think turning Whyte Ave into something like Broadway would attract people.
It's okay to want better for the city you live in, then accept the let's be honest with ourselves shitty status quo that we have now. I'm focused on the new buildings going up in Edmonton, most of them are budget architecture at best and will serve only to ghettoize more areas in the city in 5...
To be fair both Vancouver and Calgary are arguably better ran cities in general. Edmonton goes from one 4 year term of mismanagement to the next, this also contributes to the race to the bottom for architecture and infrastructure.
It looks like it belongs in a place and time that if I criticized its design my entire family would be chipping rocks in a gulag for the next 20 years.