Community Building: Roots on Whyte
Continuing the Jane Jacobs theme of my recent posts, another important contributor to the life of great cities is the diversity of their constituent districts or neighbourhoods. Jacobs contends (rightly in my case) that people will happily travel across town if there is something unique to experience, but will not travel at all to places that have nothing different to offer. Therefore, each district should have a primary use, or preferably two or more that will act as a draw for visitors from other parts of town - or even in some cases, from out of town. This constituency, which by definition includes a proportion of people whose time is their own, helps to spread street activity throughout the day and provides an additional source of revenue to service and retail businesses. Unfortunately, many of the market forces at work in our cities make it difficult for communities to develop their own identity: malls consolidate retail shops into characterless boxes, surrounded by parking; modern multiplexes have destroyed the viability of neighbourhood movie theatres and other entertainments; and supermarkets are simply the most visible manifestation of an international agribusiness model that has overwhelmed local systems of food production and distribution. The global franchising of so many retail enterprises means that the suburban shopping experience is much the same whether you travel to Calgary, Canberra or Cape Town. Recreating the street, with its critical components of authenticity and activity, is not something we can rely on most developers to do for us. There are exceptions of course, like the Jawl Investment Corporation’s Atrium project in Victoria BC. (See my previous post, entitled "Victoria’s Secret.") In this case, the retailers were energetic local start-ups hand picked for the project but, because they are few in number and the remainder of the building is speculative office space, they do not have the critical mass to draw a non-local crowd. The conventional wisdom seems to be that to attract visitors from another part of town, small retailers must position themselves close to a large "magnet" store. this leads almost inevitably to a mall or other development anchored by a major international retail chain. But it need not be so, as a newly opened retail and commercial building in Edmonton demonstrates.
Since its inception in 1997, Roots on Whyte has grown into an Edmonton institution. Beginning as an herbal supplement store, then expanding to include health foods, organic produce and a restaurant, the Roots on Whyte community now numbers 19 businesses that embrace various organic food offerings, a full range of health and wellness professionals, yoga and pilates studios, a conference centre and a drop in daycare. These diverse organizations have formed a business community and, by clearly articulating their shared concern for human health and the health of the planet, they have created a whole that is considerably greater than the sum of its parts. Not surprising then, that the group’s new premises at the corner of 102 Avenue and Whyte in the city’s historic Strathcona district, has become a magnet for other Edmontonians. While the Roots on Whyte community has grown incrementally over more than a decade, this bottom up approach to development has been formalized by at least one forward thinking company. Walas Concepts is based in the Netherlands, but has recently begun a project in Chilliwack BC. Simply put, its approach is to conduct an inventory of community assets: physical, social, economic and entrepreneurial, and from these authentic and homegrown assets, weave together a mixed use development that will bring maximum benefit to the community. The results in the Netherlands have shown themselves to be resilient and enduring, surviving that country’s deep retail recession of the last decade. They have done so of course, because they represent the broadest definition of "investment," that encompasses not simply financial involvement, but also the emotional commitment of the community. An additional advantage of the bottom up approach is that it becomes possible to embed community values into commercial developments. The Roots on Whyte community wanted a building that would reflect its own environmental concerns, so took the unusual step of building it in wood. The environmental advantages of wood construction are becoming more widely understood and accepted: carbon sequestration; low embodied energy; renewable and recyclable - as well as the physical and psychological health benefits accruing to building users. The building follows the tried and proven "brick and beam" construction method commonly used for commercial buildings in the late19th and early 20th Centuries, of which many examples still remain in the historic parts of most Canadian cities.
At the ground floor level, the brick facades are embellished with stone details and large wood framed windows complete the palette of natural materials. Inside, the post and beam frame is revealed in the common lobby and in some of the retail spaces. The traditional materials lend an air of permanence to the building, and the curved corner treatment is just enough to command a presence on the main street. Based on my own brief and completely unscientific survey of building users, Roots on Whyte has a diverse and devoted clientele and, while it is early days yet in this new location, the project may well have spin off benefits for other local retailers and for the community at large.
Photos:
1) General view of new Roots on Whyte Community Building 2) Facade detail, Roots on Whyte 3) View of reclaimed wood staircase, Roots on Whyte