eltodesukane
New Member
Too bad the two malls are not directly linked!
Toronto Yorkdale Shopping Centre | ?m | ?s | Oxford Properties | MMC Architecture
- Thread starter Northern Light
- Start date
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
Let's face it, most people who shop here wouldn't dare walk that distance, they'd drive their car. My roommate does quip about it though when he wants to hit Future Shop on his lunch break, it's quite a hike to get there under the Dufferin bridge.
AHK
Senior Member
Information from an engineer at the site of the University Avenue lift - a crane could be obtained which would have had the lifting capacity - height and weight -to handle the lift. The two reasons a helicopter was used was that it would have taken two days to set up the crane, plus the time for the lift, and then to take down the crane, during which time both King Street and Avenue Road would have to be closed in the area. The major reason though was that the crane would have been positioned over the subway tunnel / St. Andrew Station, and portions of the tunnel and station would have to be reenforced to take the weight of the crane. All told, it was more practical to fly the helicopter in from Chicago to handle the lift.
Big Daddy
Senior Member
Too bad the two malls are not directly linked!
The purpose of a shopping "mall" is to avoid weather extremes (snow, rain, wind, too cold, too hot etc) a perfect solution for Canada.
The purpose of a "Power Centre" is to make scads of cash for the developer and the Retailer without the cost of building and maintaining a "mall". a poor choice for shoppers in Canada.
And, why walk the half kilometre from Yorkdale when I'm comfortable in the mall?
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W. K. Lis
Superstar
One big problem I find with the "Power Centre" is that most people drive from one store to another store, after dropping their purchases in the truck. A big waste of fuel. The other is that walk-in traffic or pedestrians are not accommodated.The Wilson Station is close to the Smart Centre, but very, very few would walk in from the station.
TrickyRicky
Senior Member
Isn't the expression "Don't feed the troll"?
I'm a big proponent of transit nodes and pedestrian access but Yorkdale mall and the power centre are not very related. While the presence of clothing stores in power centres is questionable in an urban setting, look at the actual retail occupants of the power centre in question. I don't think many people are going to walk over the 401 on a bridge, strap a toilet and a couple of sheets of drywall onto their backs and take transit home. That's not to say that improved connectivity and densification aren't to be encouraged in this area. It's just that when we talk about connectivity and densification we still need to be realistic about the primary uses in question
I'm a big proponent of transit nodes and pedestrian access but Yorkdale mall and the power centre are not very related. While the presence of clothing stores in power centres is questionable in an urban setting, look at the actual retail occupants of the power centre in question. I don't think many people are going to walk over the 401 on a bridge, strap a toilet and a couple of sheets of drywall onto their backs and take transit home. That's not to say that improved connectivity and densification aren't to be encouraged in this area. It's just that when we talk about connectivity and densification we still need to be realistic about the primary uses in question
unimaginative2
Senior Member
Going by the article in the MTCC thread, the expansion to Yorkdale was significantly oversubscribed. Maybe it's time for Oxford to look at a more serious expansion/reconstruction of the mall. Maybe replacing all the surface parking with decks/underground or even adding a second floor over some or all of the existing mall.
Uncle Teddy
Senior Member
You know traffic is bad in the area when the 401 gets backed up from people trying to get to Yorkdale. Enough is enough.
sixrings
Senior Member
and how exactly are you going to fix the traffic? Its going to keep getting worse with the lawrence heights redevelopment and now the condos going up at wilson station. Its a city and realistically unless people start taking transit more traffic will continue. Yorkdale is not going away and its expansion may not be the last. It is quite possible that they will expand again after. It is also possible that dufferin especially around yorkdale will see some redevelopment through condos.. What I could see happening is in 20 years will no longer be free at shopping malls. This will allow the malls to redevelop some of their land into condos. and will make things more pedestrian friendly.
vz64
Active Member
I think it makes sense to charge a modest fee ($3-6) to enter and park at the Yorkdale. I don't think it will affect sales--some shoppers will switch to subway and some will be glad to pay that fee to avoid the madness of fighting for an empty parking spot.
sixrings
Senior Member
I wonder if the new 800 spaces will be paid parking or valet parking... If everytime they add a addition they make the new parking paid then eventually it will all be paid. It also saves them spaces from people who use the lot as free parking to get downtown.
unimaginative2
Senior Member
Yorkdale is actually much less auto-oriented than most suburban malls. It has far fewer parking places than Square One or Scarborough Town.
sixrings
Senior Member
although that may be true. the lack of entrances and exits make it feel much worse.
wopchop
Building Toronto
No one walks to the Costco or Home Depot from Wilson Station because, realistically, most people that shop at those stores are going to be carrying far too many items to be able to take them on transit comfortably.
