Featuring 3.8 miles of rooftop jogging trails.
via The Hills at Valco
This week, the developers of an aging Silicon Valley mall announced plans to transform the complex into a new neighborhood, complete with a sprawling 30-acre park that would sit atop its roof. That will make the roof of the Valco Shopping Mall the largest community park in Cupertino, California—and the largest green roof in the world.
The shopping mall, like many in America, has had a hard time keeping up with the changing face of retail, which has been reordered by the vast reach of the Internet. The mall’s lower level hasn’t hosted a store in decades, its Macy’s abandoned ship in March 2015, and its Sears will go dark this October.
via The Hills at Valco
So the rooftop park is an exciting second chance. As proposed, it will feature a 3.8-mile recreational jogging and walking trail, vineyards, organic gardens, orchards, an amphitheater, and children’s play areas. The mall’s developers say the roof would be planted with native, drought-tolerant plants. It would also be designed to capture and recycle rainwater, to reduce the complex’s overall water consumption.
The redevelopment wouldn’t come cheap. The property company estimates the whole shebang—including new office space, a skating rink, a movie theater, and a tech incubator designed for local students—would cost about $3 billion. Still, it’s an exciting potential facelift (and reinvention) for a suburban mainstay that temporarily lost its way.
via The Hills at Valco
(Via Fast Company)
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