Big upgrades will soon be coming to Oakridge-41st Avenue Station’s street-level entrance as part of the adjacent Oakridge Park shopping centre redevelopment.
TransLink has indicated that construction will begin in September 2024 on a complete rebuild of SkyTrain Canada Line’s existing street-level pavilion entrance building at the southwest corner of the intersection of West 41st Avenue and Cambie Street.
This will provide two new escalators to improve the subway station’s accessibility from street level, including both up and down escalators — a big improvement from the existing sole up escalator.
An artistic rendering of the finalized design approved by TransLink shows the station entrance pavilion building will be considerably larger to accommodate the increased ingress and egress capacity between the street and underground ticketing concourse levels.
It also shows that the existing street-level elevator fronting Cambie Street will be replaced with a new elevator located next to the bank of escalators fronting West 41st Avenue, closer to the new transit plaza.
Existing street-level entrance condition:
The existing street-level entrance for SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station. (Dialog)
The existing street-level entrance for SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station. (Dialog)
The existing street-level entrance for SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station. (Dialog)
Future street-level entrance condition:
Finalized 2024 design of the new expanded street-level entrance for SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station. (TransLink)
The brand new roof of the station entrance pavilion building will also be considerably larger than the existing roof, with a new honeycomb-like wooden frame supporting skylights that enable daylight to flood into the station. The wider edges of the roof canopy also provide better weather protection.
Other than the eight-storey Cambie Star residential building that was built over and integrated into King Edward Station’s street-level entrance pavilion building in 2017, this upgrade of Oakridge-41st Avenue is the first major overhaul of any of the 2009-built Canada Line station entrances.
The overhauled street-level entrance is also in addition to the Oakridge Park project’s construction of a second entrance into Oakridge-41st Avenue Station from an underground level.
In June 2024, Chrystal Burns, the executive vice president of Canadian retail for Quadreal Property Group, told Daily Hive Urbanized this underground retail-lined corridor between the new indoor mall and the underground ticketing concourse is expected to open on or near the mall’s opening day in Spring 2025.
The existing street-level entrance for SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station, reaching the underground ticketing concourse level. (Dialog)
April 2022 diagram showing the underground transit concourse corridor between Oakridge Park (Oakridge Centre) and SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Quadreal Property Group/Westbank)
April 2022 diagram showing the underground transit concourse corridor between Oakridge Park (Oakridge Centre) and SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Quadreal Property Group/Westbank)
Diagram of the underground transit concourse corridor between Oakridge Park (Oakridge Centre) and SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Quadreal Property Group/Westbank)
Diagram of the underground transit concourse corridor between Oakridge Park (Oakridge Centre) and SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Quadreal Property Group/Westbank)
According to TransLink, these upgrades are a partnership between the public transit authority, the City of Vancouver, local developer Westbank, and mall owner Quadreal Property Group. The upgrades are funded by the mall redevelopment.
The public transit authority has indicated that construction beginning next month is expected to last about one year. Passengers may experience temporary changes to station access and slight delays due to construction, and there will be intermittent elevator closures.
Construction is beginning just as the Canada Line’s much-delayed new Capstan Station construction project comes to a close, which is expected to open before the end of 2024. Construction is expected to begin soon within Broadway-City Hall Station’s Canada Line platforms to establish new direct underground connections between the Canada Line platforms and the future Millennium Line platforms.
May 2024 construction progress on Oakridge Park mall. (Westbank)
2022 artistic rendering of the revised design of the Oakridge Park (Oakridge Centre) redevelopment. (Westbank/Quadreal Property Group)
Potential concept for Oakridge Municipal Town Centre. (City of Vancouver)
The upgrades at Oakridge-41st Avenue Station are necessary to enable the station to better handle the expected passenger demand growth that can be expected from Oakridge Park, which will have 1.2 million sq ft of retail/restaurant uses (double the previous mall), 3,000 homes (condominiums, rentals, and social housing) for over 6,000 residents, 700,000 sq ft of office space for about 3,000 workers, a one-of-a-kind nine-acre urban public park on the indoor mall’s rooftop, and a 100,000 sq ft community centre with a new Vancouver Public Library branch. The redevelopment will have a relatively low capacity of 2,000 free vehicle parking stalls for its wide range of significant public uses.
The station will also see added volumes from high-density developments in the surrounding area within the municipal government’s designated Oakridge Town Centre district and growing ridership on the R4 41st Avenue RapidBus service. Moreover, overall ridership on the Canada Line is expected to grow significantly in 2027, when the Millennium Line’s Broadway Extension opens and turns Broadway-City Hall Station into a major regional interchange.
According to TransLink statistics, Oakridge-41st Avenue Station was the 24th busiest station out of 53 stations on the SkyTrain network, with 2.31 million boardings recorded in 2023. It saw averages of 7,000 boardings per weekday, 5,600 per Saturday, and 4,500 per Sunday/holiday. Ridership at the station is considerably down compared to before the pandemic due in large part to the previous mall’s closure and demolition.
The design of the expanded street-level entrance for the station to better enable long-term ridership growth has considerably changed over the years, based on Daily Hive Urbanized’s past coverage of Oakridge Park’s design evolution.
Varying early concepts in 2019 and prior envisioned a very large canopy structure spanning not only the transit plaza but over the intersection of Cambie and West 41st Avenue streets.
Another revised concept, as recent as 2022, featured a continuous weather protection canopy that extended along West 41st Avenue between the upgraded station entrance, the R4 41st Avenue eastbound bus stop, and the entrances into the indoor mall and rooftop park.
Circa. 2018 design: Artistic rendering of the upgraded SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station as part of the Oakridge Park project. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Quadreal Property Group/Westbank)
Circa. 2018 design: Model of the upgraded SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station as part of the Oakridge Park project. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Quadreal Property Group/Westbank)
Circa. 2018 design: Model of the upgraded SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station as part of the Oakridge Park project. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Quadreal Property Group/Westbank)
Circa. 2018 design: Artistic rendering of the upgraded SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station as part of the Oakridge Park project. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Quadreal Property Group/Westbank)
Circa. 2018 design: Artistic rendering of the upgraded SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station as part of the Oakridge Park project. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Quadreal Property Group/Westbank)
Circa. 2019 design: Artistic rendering of the upgraded SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station as part of the Oakridge Park project. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Quadreal Property Group/Westbank)
Circa. 2022 design: Artistic rendering of the upgraded SkyTrain Oakridge-41st Avenue Station as part of the Oakridge Park project. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Quadreal Property Group/Westbank)