Describing the new Oakridge

A bus-shelter ad for Oakridge's big new development seemed a little strange, so I looked closer. The ad was behind plastic, but somebody found a way to edit it anyway.

A micro-city inspired by a hill-top medieval town in Italy? A “skin-and-bones” construction with a “fine light fabric that wraps the buildings in a unifying veil”? A development with the architecturally modernistic flair of Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong?

Those are some of the descriptions floating around the Internet about the single largest redevelopment in Vancouver’s history, the 28.5-acre redo of the Oakridge Centre Mall at 41^st and Cambie. It will include 10 towers of varying heights up to 44 storeys, with condos costing $800,000 to $5.7 million, along with an immensity of other facilities.

Clearly, not everybody is impressed. An odd look to a bus-stop poster advertising the development drew my eye the other day. Somebody had scratched out key phrases and added others: They did not include any reference to hill-top towns, unifying veils or modernistic flair.

The new version: "The overcrowded city. An urban hell celebrating the unbreakable bond between developers and greed."

Nothing was scratched out in this part, but "Urban Distopia (sic)" was added.

So, how would you describe it? The buildings look like lurching dinosaurs caught in glass nets to me, but that's just my opinion.