Oakridge - A City Of The Future

A forward-looking Vancouver project peels life back to the core

- Sophie Kalkreuth

At property launches, real estate professionals typically flip though building brochures while quaffing complimentary wine. If there’s a perfunctory speech by a suited developer, it’s usually about price per square foot and largely forgettable. Mr. Ian Gillespie, founder and CEO of Canandian real estate development company Westbank, does things a little differently. He paces on a catwalk in designer sneakers and a fluttering white shirt, and his spiel is part TED Talk, part Silicon Valley "reveal" pitch.

“We are calling it The Living City for a reason,” he tells the crowd, referring to Oakridge, his latest Vancouver project. Oakridge will transform a tired suburban mall into a 4.5 million-sq-ft sustainable community with nine residential towers and a range of retail, office and civic components, including the city’s second largest library, a performing arts academy and a leafy nine-acre park.

“The reality is…I don’t know where the future is headed,” Mr. Gillespie continues. “What is the future of the automobile?” He pauses for effect, and then turns and crisscrosses the catwalk. “The truth is not many of us living today know what that is…so we have to carve out enough flexibility into the whole project so that as things evolve, we evolve with them.”

Though Mr. Gillespie’s lifelong love of design began with a red 1963 Jaguar convertible, by his estimate, the future will be less about car culture and more about mobility. “My kids aren’t nearly as interested in owning a car as I was,” he says.