I haven’t indulged in this subject for a little while, but from time to time it’s hard for me to resist: the strategy (or lack thereof) of seasonal and holiday displays at various businesses. Many businesses make it a point of greeting customers with both products that are relevant for the season, holiday, or even
Just spitting distance from the municipal boundary of the independent city of Richmond, Virginia is a small, inconspicuous shopping center called Triangle Park. Truth be told, all of the photos in this article depict properties just outside the commercial property called Triangle Park. However, these photos still sit within the same triangle shaped superblock where
Most chain restaurants focus their branding on a few key visual elements: logo, font, colors. Take Starbucks, for example. It started in old-school, urban commercial storefronts like Seattle’s Pike Place Market, expanded to other big-city milieus, then went suburban into freestanding structures with parking lots and drive-thru windows. It adapted the interior model to shopping
For being a licensed city planner, I’ve avoided using one particular term in this blog common within my profession’s jargon: urban sprawl. Applying the search tool, it has only appeared as content within 72 articles—pretty rare considering that at this point in September 2025, I have produced 956 blog posts. Keep in mind, many of
My previous visit to the Peace Garden State lasted no more than five hours, yet it yielded two separate blog articles, both in Bowman (the only town of any size where I stepped out of my car). I didn’t visit Bowman this time around, but I lingered in a different region, gathering some interesting finds
In this nation of abundant strip malls, it should come as no surprise that quite a few of them look pretty drab, underinvested, and plagued with low occupancy. Why expect anything else? As I’ve noted countless times before, America grapples with a glut of retail-oriented real estate: a supply that accommodates the demand almost
Though my articles rarely reflect a hot-off-the-presses event, here’s another exception to that rule, which I feel compelled to publish now (instead of three months from now) because, I fear, waiting that long will cause its significance to fade from collective memory. The event to which I refer is obvious from the title: the demise
The building featured in this final elegy has probably served as the thumbnail photo more than any other structure, in my nearly sixteen years of writing for this blog. I’m talking about none other than Sanctuary on Penn, FKA First Lutheran Church, FKA Mount Pisgah. The late Gothic building, on the National Register of Historic
Wake Forest, North Carolina isn’t exactly obscure. But it’s better known as the name for a university than for the town that (formerly) called the school home. This might not be the case much longer. It’s the suburb immediately north of the capital to the Tarheel State, and while Raleigh itself has enjoyed tremendous growth
Hot on the heels of the previous article, in which I explored how an Iraqi bakery (temporarily) replaced an old Quiznos, this time I touch on internationalism with a much, much larger retail footprint—an entire mall. The mall in question is Security Square, a few miles to the west of Baltimore city limits, at a
I haven’t indulged in this subject for a little while, but from time to time it’s hard for me to resist: the strategy (or lack thereof) of seasonal and holiday displays at various
Just spitting distance from the municipal boundary of the independent city of Richmond, Virginia is a small, inconspicuous shopping center called Triangle Park. Truth be told, all of the photos in this article
Most chain restaurants focus their branding on a few key visual elements: logo, font, colors. Take Starbucks, for example. It started in old-school, urban commercial storefronts like Seattle’s Pike Place Market, expanded to
For being a licensed city planner, I’ve avoided using one particular term in this blog common within my profession’s jargon: urban sprawl. Applying the search tool, it has only appeared as content within
My previous visit to the Peace Garden State lasted no more than five hours, yet it yielded two separate blog articles, both in Bowman (the only town of any size where I stepped
In this nation of abundant strip malls, it should come as no surprise that quite a few of them look pretty drab, underinvested, and plagued with low occupancy. Why expect anything else?
Though my articles rarely reflect a hot-off-the-presses event, here’s another exception to that rule, which I feel compelled to publish now (instead of three months from now) because, I fear, waiting that long
The building featured in this final elegy has probably served as the thumbnail photo more than any other structure, in my nearly sixteen years of writing for this blog. I’m talking about none
Wake Forest, North Carolina isn’t exactly obscure. But it’s better known as the name for a university than for the town that (formerly) called the school home. This might not be the case
Hot on the heels of the previous article, in which I explored how an Iraqi bakery (temporarily) replaced an old Quiznos, this time I touch on internationalism with a much, much larger retail