Regional and Urban Design Committee

Architecture of Convenience - A Polemic

  • 1.  Architecture of Convenience - A Polemic

    Posted 07-20-2014 12:06 PM

    Friday, July 18, 2014

    The Architecture of Convenience - An Architectural Critique

    Convenience ranks high in the "culture" of  retail chains. They first invaded cities with their suburban auto oriented design but adapted their approach recently. In response to a new trend towards urbanity one can find multi-story Walmarts without a single surface parking space or a McDonalds tucked into a mixed used building. However, sometimes trying hard to force the square peg of convenience into the round hole of urbanism leads to bizarre results. I wrote the below architectural critique  as regular contributor of the Baltimore Business Journal for their architectural column. It deals with a nuisance that rose recently under my nose near my office.

    With chip bags already littering the sidewalks, it is no surprise that another convenience store selling almost nothing that anybody should ever eat or drink (except the token fruit in the basket near the check-out) creates little excitement in the surrounding community. Since this isn't a food or health column but one about urban design and architecture, I will write about the wrapper in which this convenience store is cloaked. 
    Like tourists wearing sombreros in Mexico or lederhosen in Bavaria, retail buildings often masquerade in a garb inspired by local clichés - Mission Style, Colonial, or anything in between. What constitutes a mere laughable nuisance in suburban shopping centers, however, becomes architectural assault when located in an urban historic district.
    At first, seeing the barren, un-landscaped, bumpy asphalt surface parking lot being dug up


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    Klaus Philipsen FAIA
    Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
    Baltimore MD
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