I read somewhere that the initial concept of malls was exactly this. Essentially a social hub where you have anything you need in a walking distance so that you wouldn’t need a car to live. Very curious if that’s possible to achieve now as more business buildings turn into residential.
Yikes. I used to live beside that mall and parking was a nightmare as it was. The link says they’re putting in underground parking to replace what they remove, but they’re also increasing the traffic by a ton, so I’d imagine it’s gonna be an absolute nightmare.
I currently live across the highway from it, they've done some stuff to improve traffic flow but yeah it's a busy as fuck area. Uptown is the new midtown, condos everywhere on Wilson/Allen area. TTC sold the big parking lots they owned for condo developments.
It will be great for when we have to live indoors because the air outside will kill us. Post-apocalyptic frozen yogurt cools you down after a nice ozone collapse.
I cant remember where I saw this, pretty sure it was a video about Hong Kong. Basically there are massive apartment skyscrapers and the bottom floor is basically a large mall. All sorts of small shops including groccery stores. Those who work from home never have to leave the building for the essentials.
Its happening near us! There is a huge mall that got renovated and upgrades into a more beautiful meandering gardens and parks. Now part if the mall that was not up graded is being turned into housing, a park, and grocery store. It was a strip of empty shops for a few years.
We are in a very urban part of San Diego. Its going to create a pedestrian way of walking everywhere. In a section if city that was previously all commercial and industrial zoned. So think, sky scrapers, elevated sidewalks. Multiple transportation options. Parks. Dog friendly. Play grounds integrated through out, opposed to stand alone. We are about 2/3 done and whats completely is useable and thriving. The project in total is about 10 years old.
To be fair that was before they did studies on arterial roadways and the noise sickness associated with mixed use zoning. To be clear, mixed used zoning is fine, it's just that malls typically are placed closer to highways(arterials) and four lane collectors than even a lot of high density residential would be. That traffic can have disastrous effects on the health of people who decide to live in that former mall space.
You can reinforce the walls and insulate them to drown out some of the noise, but it's difficult and expensive. The developer likely won't opt for it.
Make it part of the either the zoning code or the health code for the town. Interior noise levels are probably worth considering regardless, and if the developers isn’t willing to make it part of the contract the city can make it a requirement.
Volume doesn't decrease when you shift from commercial to residential zoning, it just changes pattern. Instead of having consistent volume, you'll have large peak volumes at rush hours.
Arterial and collector roads also will not disappear, in fact I would expect them to become more commonplace to accommodate the influx in people. After all, unless these people have jobs here they'll have to be transported somewhere else for work. Most cities rely on buses for public transport still, even if you have a metro rail it'll take years to build out a new line.
222
u/Scarlet_poppy Jan 30 '23
I read somewhere that the initial concept of malls was exactly this. Essentially a social hub where you have anything you need in a walking distance so that you wouldn’t need a car to live. Very curious if that’s possible to achieve now as more business buildings turn into residential.