In case you missed the headline’s wordplay on “Bad Pet Tricks,” let me hammer it home. Many shopping center developers are one-trick ponies. They know how to do one thing — plop a long, one-story building in the middle of a big parking lot — and they do it over and over. Sometimes, they seem so bored by it all that they don’t even do that one trick very well.
Waldo Jaquith has a great example in his critique (with photos) of a new shopping center going up off U.S. 29 north of Charlottesville. The shopping center has moved enormous quantities of dirt in order to elevate itself from the main drag. The interesting result is that, between the escarpment separating the road and shopping center, and the vast parking lot that pushes the buildings away from the road, it is nearly impossible for motorists to even see what’s in the shopping center! What merchant would want to locate a store there?
Was anybody in the developer’s office paying attention here?
Waldo also offers some sound observations on the importance of streetscapes and the decline of Albemarle County’s inner ring of suburban development. Go get ’em, Waldo!