Just over a month ago, the City of Indianapolis eagerly heralded the opening of a new Marsh grocery store downtown—the second within the Mile Square, which has in recent years exploded in apartment construction. The other, older store still loosely refers to itself under the name of O’Malia’s, a smaller Indianapolis shain bought out long
While the interplay between the built and natural environments occupies the bulk of my ruminations, every now and then I can’t help but indulge myself. And I step fully into the world of pure imagination. The aisles of a Meijer discount hypermarket store might not be exactly what Roald Dahl had in mind through his
Some businesses just fail to quit, though it’s not necessarily from lack of trying. And if all the negatives in that sentence dilute the denotation, that might be the whole point…at least when the businesses in question are former retail leviathans like Kmart and Sears. I’ve written about both chains many times in the past
Pop-up retail can live up to its hyphenated name just about anywhere. It’s almost like a whack-a-mole (to use another hyphenate). More often than not, it comes in the form of a good or service that meets a demand over a truncated time frame, such as Christmas tree sales, fireworks stands around the Fourth of
With scores of urban advocacy blogs out there, I find it hard to imagine that I have much to add to the conversation on the defining characteristics of Mackinac Island, Michigan. Even if the northerly island in Lake Huron—a former Jesuit mission, Ojibwa sacred site, and strategic military encampment—elicits little more than a head-scratching among
Forgive the hiatus. I just relocated to the city featured in this article. Set in metro Detroit (the first, no doubt, among many), it’s straightforward enough that it doesn’t really demand a long introduction or exposition. From the outside, this unusual shopping center looks like it’s on the fritz: No signs above any of
My latest post is up at Urban Indy, focusing on what we can do with a huge vacant piece of real estate in the heart of Indianapolis’ downtown: the Nordstrom space to CIrcle Centre Mall, which vacated in summer of 2011. Still no plans for this space have materialized. A recent post from the Indianapolis
It’s a topic I can rarely avoid for long: the ups and downs of the American retail landscape. Originally, I had planned to combine this essay with the previous one, on the aged Venture department store in a tired community not far from East Saint Louis. Then I realized that, while not a meaty topic
In the world’s most overbuilt nation for retail space, any outside influence can induce an infinitesimal change that nonetheless completely transforms the landscape for commerce. The retailers who continue to succeed in this economy—particularly impressive given the growing portent of online shopping’s eventual dominance—help shed light on what type of structures/milieus they are seeking to
My most recent post just went up on Urban Indy. It is essentially an assessment of the Mass Ave retail corridor near downtown Indianapolis. By most respects, it’s a lively, active urban corridor, attracting yuppies, guppies, buppies, empty nesters, DINKs, you name it–a contemporary spontaneous street ballet of conspicuous consumption. It has great old architecture,
Just over a month ago, the City of Indianapolis eagerly heralded the opening of a new Marsh grocery store downtown—the second within the Mile Square, which has in recent years exploded in apartment
While the interplay between the built and natural environments occupies the bulk of my ruminations, every now and then I can’t help but indulge myself. And I step fully into the world of
Some businesses just fail to quit, though it’s not necessarily from lack of trying. And if all the negatives in that sentence dilute the denotation, that might be the whole point…at least when
Pop-up retail can live up to its hyphenated name just about anywhere. It’s almost like a whack-a-mole (to use another hyphenate). More often than not, it comes in the form of a good
With scores of urban advocacy blogs out there, I find it hard to imagine that I have much to add to the conversation on the defining characteristics of Mackinac Island, Michigan. Even if
Forgive the hiatus. I just relocated to the city featured in this article. Set in metro Detroit (the first, no doubt, among many), it’s straightforward enough that it doesn’t really demand a long
My latest post is up at Urban Indy, focusing on what we can do with a huge vacant piece of real estate in the heart of Indianapolis’ downtown: the Nordstrom space to CIrcle
It’s a topic I can rarely avoid for long: the ups and downs of the American retail landscape. Originally, I had planned to combine this essay with the previous one, on the aged
In the world’s most overbuilt nation for retail space, any outside influence can induce an infinitesimal change that nonetheless completely transforms the landscape for commerce. The retailers who continue to succeed in this
My most recent post just went up on Urban Indy. It is essentially an assessment of the Mass Ave retail corridor near downtown Indianapolis. By most respects, it’s a lively, active urban corridor,