Maybe they should just let Concord run point on this whole mall/downtown core redevelopment deal.
Some of the concepts they're showing for their Concord Quantum Park project at the Molson Brewery site in the Armoury district in Downtown seem to address or at least intersect with some of the issues that people are pointing out here, while creating a vision for the sort of indoor/outdoor space that would work well as the artery for an open mall still allowing traffic through even while the rest of the mall retail units and components are closed after business hours, while also simultaneously providing some level of weather protection which is a big draw of the current mall.
Source :
https://www.urbanyvr.com/molson-brew...ncord-concept/
Of course, it's important to note that that's a project being conceived and built from scratch and from the ground up, and not a redevelopment of a (mostly) existing structure as this would be, while still allowing for some function to carry on throughout the development process.
They have infinitely more flexibility to do what they want there.
(Although, I'll bet you that glazed vortex roof structure will be value engineered to death by the time they actually get to break ground. See : The ever-changing and once 'swoopy' similar glazed grande entrance canopy gate structure of Quadreal's Oakridge mall redevelopment project)
Of course, it behooves mentioning that all this would necessitate Ivanhoe Cambridge and Concord Pacific playing nice, ....or at least nicer than they've done with each other so far and working together to get it done.
Also worth noting that outside of completely closing down the entire structure to the public at night or after business-hours (which would of course defeat the entire purpose of breaking up the mall that people are clamouring for), the homelessness worry/potential camping problem will still remain and possibly even be exacerbated by the introduction of such a structure.
I think it's more of a larger structural societal issue than can be readily addressed by any solution that Ivanhoe Cambridge or even the City (and they've been trying) can deal with through such a redevelopment.
I am curious though, as to how they do manage to keep a lot of homeless folks from setting up underneath that pass-through covered thoroughfare at Station Square between the Restaurant row to the north and Central Blvd.
You almost never see homeless people sleeping underneath there despite the rain cover it clearly provides (they more frequently and prevalently congregate underneath the Skytrain guideways).
Or at the Bus loop next door for that matter (Transit Security would be the guess for that one)
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