Charles St GRT terminal redevelopment

[danbrotherston]

In any case, Tom is right, that only supports the idea that retail should be located on the outside...which is absolutely a given--malls die downtown.

Not true in Europe, from what I understand, e.g.:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galeries_R...int-Hubert

I suspect, however, that the key is that the mall needs to be on the way to other places, not something one has to seek out. This would also explain why the sidewalks on King St., for example, are desireable retail locations: they’re on the way.

By contrast, the King Centre (or whatever it was called), was a dead-end off King St. if I remember correctly: if you went in the front door, you were coming back out the same door later on. The same layout would have had trouble attracting visitors if it had been a dead-end laneway off King St. rather than an enclosed mall. Or so I suppose.

At our train station, as you say most of the traffic will be outside, so it probably makes sense to design the retail more or less as if there wasn’t a train station. Quite different from a massive transit hub like Union Station which has immense traffic flows inside.

I mean, yes...I spoke over broadly. You don't even have to go to Europe to make the point, malls survive in downtown Toronto just fine.

I think you're partially right. I think the other factor is density of people. Toronto survives well with the PATH and the malls because it has so many people they can't help but fill all the retail spaces that are built. Same with European centres.

And you're right, malls won't pull people, they simply provide a place for people if they're there.

To me the biggest problem with malls like the ones in DTK are that they don't activate the street, they deaden the street, which means they actually drive people away.

I doubt the transit terminal would do that too much, but I think we all mostly agree retail should face out.

FWIW I do dream of a time when KW (or London, or any midsized Canadian city that isn't a tourist town) has an urban core attractive enough to people to expand beyond the streets.