Award

Manning Town Centre by Robin Brunet renderings courtesy cAMeron deVeLoPMent corPorAtion A rguably, there is no building struc- ture more coveted by the public and yet more architecturally disre- spected than a shopping mall. From the walkway labyrinths of classic indoor malls to the utilitarian horrors of strip malls, shopping centres in general have earned a love/hate relationship in every community they inhabit. Mall developers Cameron Develop- ment Corporation understand this, and as a result they try to make every proj- ect visually distinct. Certainly that is the case with their latest achievement, Man- ning Town Centre, located in the same- named district of northeast Edmonton. Cameron executive VP Cameron Naqvi says, "Manning is one of our larger projects, and because we're a family- owned firm that holds its assets for the long term, high-quality construction and pleasing visual esthetics are vital to us. Frankly, the Manning district is a hodge-podge of older retail components, so we worked especially hard to make our centre special." The 800,000-square-foot Manning Town Centre is host to several anchor tenants, including the home improve- ment retail giant Lowe's, Marshalls, HomeSense and a Cineplex. Due to the district being one of the fastest grow- ing areas in Canada, the centre is only a 10-minute drive away for 175,000 people, and an additional 24,500 resi- dents within a five-minute drive radius is expected by 2015. These rapidly evolving demographics, which are a key consideration for retail developers, are worth noting: in 2012 over 3.2-million square feet of retail was under construc- tion in Edmonton, nearly equal to all of the retail construction across Canada. From an economic viewpoint this activ- ity is desirable, but logistically it poses problems. "In the last couple of months we've started to see shortages of labour, and material costs have certainly gone up," says Naqvi. In fact, three well-known general contractors in Edmonton declined to bid on a sizable contract tendered by Cam- eron because they were over capacity. "We have to be a little more strategic about when we go to tender," Naqvi told the local press. Cameron had been eyeing the Man- ning district since 2007, and when it secured 75 acres of development space it promptly launched into a research and design process that has driven its many other shopping centre projects. "We have in-house design and construction teams, and several times a year we all go on tour in the U.S. to see what other kinds of venues are being built," says Chet Domanski, manager of design at Cameron. "For Manning we journeyed to California, Arizona and then Denver, the latter because we wanted to see how the best malls functioned in a place with severe winters." An integral part of the team was Architecture | Arndt Tkalcic Bengert ( ATB). "ATB had helped design Emerald Hills Centre in Sherwood Park for us and we were fortunate to retain them for this project," says Naqvi, adding that Cameron's reliance on in-house profes- sionals stems from "concept designers wanting to put their own vision into a mall, which often isn't practical and doesn't reflect retail trends. ATB, how- ever, provides practical as well as cre- ative design solutions; by bringing them along on our U.S. excursion, they could help us evolve a vision for Manning." ATB is widely credited for influencing the grocery shopping and commercial retail sectors; moreover, it is proficient in developing the urban village concept and achieving harmony between struc- tures and the surrounding environ- ments. The latter two attributes were especially important to Manning, as Naqvi and his team were adamant about eschewing chain store architecture and huge swaths of parking that typify out- door malls. "We set about creating a vil- lage atmosphere that would encourage people not just to shop but also enjoy their surroundings," he says. W hat this t ranslated into was five times the amount of landscaping required by the City of Edmonton – and a lot of sweat equity from landscaping specialist EIDOS Consultants Inc. Cam- eron and ATB also designed extra wide sidewalks, play areas, pockets of park- ing and a meandering main walkway leading to what was originally planned as an Empire Theatres complex. "At the end of this walkway would be a rock- play area with seating and an outdoor fire pit," says Domanski. ATB partner Joe Tkalcic remarks, "The design of the walkway would allow pedestrians glimpses of architectural elements on the buildings, for example: lantern elements on the corners of the buildings that would extend to the bol- lards. Another common element was that the tops of all of the buildings would glow, achieved by lighting underneath the overhangs or mounted on ledges. Additionally, the buildings would have masonry, brick and block components for tactile appeal. Walkway canopies were yet another unifying element that also provided a practical function." As pleasing as all this would be to shoppers, the village concept wasn't an easy sell. Naqvi explains, "The theme of our centre created a huge pushback from the big anchor tenants we were trying to attract. However, they appre- ciated our track record, and City Coun- cil endorsed our plans, so eventually we won everyone over." The cinema component of outdoor shopping centres are usually sur- rounded by acres of parking. But intent on making their cinema a social node, Cameron and ATB designed restau- rant sites to flank the complex, united them with a common public plaza, and arranged parking to the sides and in the rear of these structures. "You find this arrangement a lot in the U.S. but not in Canada," says Naqvi. "Here, cinema chains insist in massive parking zones and discourage close association with restaurants because they want food to be purchased only on their premises. Again, it was a tough sell, but we even- tually prevailed." Ground broke on Manning Town Centre in 2010, with Eton-West Con- struction (Alta) Inc. as Cameron's gen- eral contractor but anchor tenants Lowe's and Cabela's retaining different building teams (Norson Construction october 2014 /79 Manning town centre 12:55 PM 10:15 AM

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