Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/178323
PHOTOS COURTESY MORGUARD INVESTMENTS LTD. Uptown Shopping Centre – Phase 2 by Jessica Kirby ictoria's Uptown project is an urban mixed-use space with retail, of ice, and soon-to-beresidential buildings and Canada's irst retail development to be designed to meet LEED Neighbourhood Development Gold. The property replaces a single-use shopping centre constructed in 1959 with 1.3 million square feet of what Geoff Nagle, director of development, western Canada for Morguard Investments Ltd. says is a state-of-the-art neighbourhood and the new community hub for the District of Saanich. The project was phased over eight years to keep existing retail clients operating during construction, and Phase 2 is currently underway. Phasing eliminated some of the guesswork and helped the process low smoothly, says Nagle, which was important for a project priced during a global economic meltdown. "It is rare you get two cuts at the same project," says Nagle. "By the time we got to Phase 2 we were ready for it, knew what to expect and found it easier to circulate the public through the site." Phase 2 has a total of 310,636 square feet and is comprised of ive buildings, three of which are located at the south side of the project at Douglas Street and two others at Blanshard Street to the north. The new building's take on the Uptown esthetic merges lawlessly with two key criteria – authenticity and evolution, or "built over time," says Wallace V Uptown Shopping Centre – Phase 2 p.68-71Uptown.indd 69 Ewert, project architect with Chandler Associates Architecture Inc. The design team avoided a themed look, focusing instead on developing a series of store fronts, providing interest and movement at street level. "If you look at urban morphology, main streets, which are the heart of a town, aren't one big property from one intersection to the next," says Ewert. Similarly, the buildings on Uptown's main street – Uptown Boulevard – stretch 250 to 300 feet, but appear as a series of discrete facades. Distinct facade articulation helps break up the mass and creates esthetic diversity. Much like an historical downtown, the facades re lect a range of styles highlighted with the colours and textures inherent in the exterior cladding materials like brick, stone, granite, glass and metal panelling. Designers used reveal line, rustications and vertical detailing in the exterior insulation inishing system to render diverse architectural styles, and generate texture in the facades. Early in the design process, the team was met with the challenge of a 30-foot grade differential between the north and south sides of the site. "The elevation change could have resulted in a lot of sloped parking grading or disconnected levels," says Ewert, "and it wasn't until we made 'multi-level' an opportunity that we cracked the design nut." Uptown has two 'ground loor' levels – an upper level at Blanshard Street with vehicular and pedestrian access and buildings at grade equalling 120,000 square feet; and, the south side at Douglas Street, offering 310,000 square feet at grade along Uptown Boulevard. They are connected internally through a series of vehicular ramps. As a result, Phase 2's largest and only four-storey building has two ground loors – one facing south onto Uptown Boulevard with potential for twoAUGUST 2012 /69 7/13/12 10:28 AM