Comments on: The Sameness of the American Commercial Landscape http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/the-sameness-of-the-american-commercial-landscape.html A Netzine About Ideas Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:20:02 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: liberalamerican http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/the-sameness-of-the-american-commercial-landscape.html/comment-page-1#comment-9881 liberalamerican Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:56:51 +0000 http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/?p=401#comment-9881 Good to see you back and sorry to take so long to respond. Give Minneapolis (and St. Paul) some credit, they have done a fairly good job of resisting the trend, but outside the cities you can't tell Burnsville form Woodbury. You bring up an interesting point that may be grist for a future post. Across the country, cities are reviving older areas and trying to preserve their uniqueness as well as attract businesses (and tourists). The problem has been that many of the chains will not compromise their "architecture" just for these efforts, so many of these "old towns" are mainly local or chains that have not become so attached to their big box architecture. As a member of my local planing commission we tried to design an innovative town center that would have avoided the strip mall look, but could not attract the name tenants because they did not want to comply with the architectural requirements. Curiously the one area of retailing that has somewhat resisted this is clothing. Maybe it's because if you are Nordstroms, the name is enough, but even retailers such a Kohls do not have a set "big box" architecture, although they do have a logo. The worst offenders, as well all know, are fast food and restaurants. I swear even the new ones draw up the architecture before the menu. Maybe we should have a contest for worst fast food architecture. Good to see you back and sorry to take so long to respond. Give Minneapolis (and St. Paul) some credit, they have done a fairly good job of resisting the trend, but outside the cities you can’t tell Burnsville form Woodbury.

You bring up an interesting point that may be grist for a future post. Across the country, cities are reviving older areas and trying to preserve their uniqueness as well as attract businesses (and tourists). The problem has been that many of the chains will not compromise their “architecture” just for these efforts, so many of these “old towns” are mainly local or chains that have not become so attached to their big box architecture.

As a member of my local planing commission we tried to design an innovative town center that would have avoided the strip mall look, but could not attract the name tenants because they did not want to comply with the architectural requirements.

Curiously the one area of retailing that has somewhat resisted this is clothing. Maybe it’s because if you are Nordstroms, the name is enough, but even retailers such a Kohls do not have a set “big box” architecture, although they do have a logo. The worst offenders, as well all know, are fast food and restaurants. I swear even the new ones draw up the architecture before the menu. Maybe we should have a contest for worst fast food architecture.

]]> By: tenacitus http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/the-sameness-of-the-american-commercial-landscape.html/comment-page-1#comment-9879 tenacitus Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:57:47 +0000 http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/?p=401#comment-9879 You ain't just whistlin' dixie Strange Death, i had to leave Minneapolis to help my folks from Montgomery to the old country. I thought that Montgomery would be a lovely town but instead its' a suburban hell with gated communties, strip malls, super wallmarts and McMansions. This is not like Minneapolis where I can walk. Panama City, FL is much better but we still have lots of chains that try and turn the beautiful place into a suburb. Being in these places is truly soul destroying. Word! You ain’t just whistlin’ dixie Strange Death, i had to leave Minneapolis to help my folks from Montgomery to the old country. I thought that Montgomery would be a lovely town but instead its’ a suburban hell with gated communties, strip malls, super wallmarts and McMansions. This is not like Minneapolis where I can walk.

Panama City, FL is much better but we still have lots of chains that try and turn the beautiful place into a suburb. Being in these places is truly soul destroying.

Word!

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