Picture of the Day: The Living City

Oakridge will become a futuristic mini city in Vancouver

When I went back home for the holidays, the shopping mall Oakridge was not the same as before.

Large stores like Gap was closing its doors and everyone had already picked through most of the remaining clothes -- even the mannequins, tables and display shelves were for sale too. Eddie Bauer also closed around Christmas time and others had shuttered long ago.

What was really sad was on the 41st Avenue entrance, several trees were chopped down instead of moved. They had been there for a very long time.

Are Hong Kong people buying Oakridge?

They were being cleared because the mall will be torn down and redeveloped into a giant residential complex built by developer Westbank.

It has several other projects in Vancouver, particularly downtown and Chinatown and now Oakridge on 41st Avenue and Cambie Street.

Westbank has an office in Hong Kong and is actively selling its projects here. And just in case you weren't aware of this latest one, it has taken out a big billboard advertising space right at the Peak Tram.

That's pretty impressive and we wonder how much that cost, but we also wonder if the tagline couldn't be a bit more snappier. "Oakridge: The Living City" makes you wonder if most cities are dead? Of course you'd want to have a living city!

Or is that something that not everyone would know...