Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2015 | Page 27

Photo: Cederqvist &
Jäntti architects

for transportation. Louko comments that it
all starts with the strong identity of the stations and that particular neighbourhood.
“Solutions will be tailored for that specific community,” he outlines the plan.

Kivenlahti – Superhub 2030?
The year 2020 is still far away – and there’s
no guarantees that the extension stretch is
running by then – but we couldn’t resist
“test-driving” the newcomer. The new endof-the-line, Kivenlahti, seems like the place
to start – after all, it will draw in people from
all directions (and well outside city limits)
as they start their journey east in the morning. It will be convenient to drive to Kivenlahti Station with your own car and then hop
into the metro, since there will 1 000 parking spots available there. According to the
plans, the station will feature a bus terminal
and link with a brand new pedestrian seaside boulevard.
In the mind of Olavi Louko, Kivenlahti
could be something “really big” one day:
“The Länsiväylä freeway is right there, so
it could conceivably be covered with a deck
and an office/commercial centre could be
constructed in a very good location.” Arriving to the Helsinki Metropolitan Area from
the west and coming to Kivenlahti could be
a real experience: a “gateway to the metropolitan area”.

Project Director Kimmo Leivo from
the City of Espoo is thinking along the same
lines: “The connectivity at Kivenlahti is
already pretty good, and the metro will add
to that tremendously,” he says, pointing out
that on the residential side, there will be a
lot of new construction. In a perfect world,
the area could see a big increase in both the
number of jobs and residents.
“What we need to do here is to achieve
critical mass by having a player of considerable size in the area. This would attract,
for instance, branch offices to the place,”
Leivo says.

Enter: Espoonlahti
Moving east, there is the Espoonlahti station
which will be located below shopping centre
Lippulaiva. The shopping centre is already a
great commercial anchor for the neighbourhood – add metro to the equa ѥ