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A tectonic and architectural appraisal


1. The steps leading to the Town Centre Link bridge


It is estimated that 70 per cent of visitors to the Olympic and Paralympic Games will pass through Westfield Stratford City and, as such, the new development is an integral part of the 2012 Olympic experience. Unlike the Games, the legacy of this component of the Stratford and Lea Valley regeneration programme will be a permanent site for the largest in-town shopping centre in Europe, comprising 300 stores, a 17-screen cinema, a ten-pin bowling alley and licensed casino, serviced guest suites, Holiday and Premier Inns and more than 80 food and drink outlets. Developed by Westfield, the Australian shopping mall experts, and now part-owned by a pension fund, Westfield Stratford City is one of a new breed of multiple retailing to the UK – the branded regional mall. Westfield Stratford City occupies a 13-hectare site to the east side of the regeneration area. It is tied into adjacent redevelopment (including the Olympic Park and Village), which will remain incomplete until after the completion of the Games. Although retail-led regeneration projects have previously embraced urban design concepts – notably Liverpool One – Westfield Stratford City is of interest because of the scale of intervention on a brownfield site. A difficult site on which to promote permeability,


its northern edge is constrained by the new Stratford International railway line, while to the east, the new development is severed from Stratford proper by both road and railway. To the south and west, the site gives directly onto the Olympic Park. Given that the development is a virtual island in the midst of pre-existing transport infrastructure, the urban design strategy has been to create a commercial core, connected at strategic intervals to the wider area via pedestrian-oriented routes. At present, the main connection is to the east but, eventually, a north–south route will extend up to the reconfigured Olympic Village housing development and Stratford City will act as neighbourhood shopping centre for a new E20 postcode population. Since their early evolution at the hands of Victor Gruen, shopping centres have adhered to basic


2. Views onto the Aquatic Centre, Olympic Stadium and ArcelorMittal Orbit


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