Life at the top can be lonely and bleak…even more if one lives that life on the upper level of a seemingly completely empty parking deck, even while the businesses below it are abuzz. Take the example in this suburban shopping node: The node in question? Springfield, Virginia, which everyone in metro Washington DC knows
I know next to nothing about the food sold at Sunshine Spice Café and did not patronize it during my three-day stay in Boise earlier this year. So it would be entirely unfair to carp on petty considerations like operating hours. This brief post, therefore, isn’t a criticism; just an observation. Operating hours often are
Has anyone out there ever seen a big box store with an entryway like this? Following on the heels of my article about the Bozeman bank entrance, this one is comparatively small and humble: only two doors. In an era of mounting concern for loss prevention, these doors lack the visible security apparatus the customer
An intense month so far has kept me from the usual pace of blog articles, and a forthcoming 10-day period of travel will further impede me. But, at the end of the journey, I hope to have some amazing fodder in some states that have received little or no representation so far. Until then, I
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
Every little bit of construction counts! And, in smaller municipalities, what might pass as no big deal instantly seems momentous. Case in point: the multifamily development in the photos below would seem unremarkable and barely worthy of mention in a city the size of, say, Indianapolis. (Or even the suburb of Greenwood just to the
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
Several months ago, I stumbled into a restaurant cluster called The Block in Annandale, a somewhat distinctive suburban district in the overwhelmingly suburban Fairfax County, Virginia, just south of Washington DC. The unassuming exterior (which I’ll review shortly) betrayed a lively, hip interior that managed to generate at least medium buzz after 9pm in this
Not so long ago, near a prominent intersection in Arlington County, I stumbled across my first confirmed example of bike boulevards. The concept has existed for a while, and though I’ve been familiar with term for over a decade, frankly I’m a little behind-the-times in encountering one just now. Then again, if this is what
As if it weren’t obvious already, I’m fascinated by architectural oddities—aesthetic efforts that don’t quite come together as intended, or fail to mesh with their surroundings. Plenty of people feel much the same, as evidenced by the numerous blogging initiatives on the subject, though many bloggers are more vituperative than I intend to be. (Then
Life at the top can be lonely and bleak…even more if one lives that life on the upper level of a seemingly completely empty parking deck, even while the businesses below it are
I know next to nothing about the food sold at Sunshine Spice Café and did not patronize it during my three-day stay in Boise earlier this year. So it would be entirely unfair
Has anyone out there ever seen a big box store with an entryway like this? Following on the heels of my article about the Bozeman bank entrance, this one is comparatively small and
An intense month so far has kept me from the usual pace of blog articles, and a forthcoming 10-day period of travel will further impede me. But, at the end of the journey,
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?
Every little bit of construction counts! And, in smaller municipalities, what might pass as no big deal instantly seems momentous. Case in point: the multifamily development in the photos below would seem unremarkable
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
Several months ago, I stumbled into a restaurant cluster called The Block in Annandale, a somewhat distinctive suburban district in the overwhelmingly suburban Fairfax County, Virginia, just south of Washington DC. The unassuming
Not so long ago, near a prominent intersection in Arlington County, I stumbled across my first confirmed example of bike boulevards. The concept has existed for a while, and though I’ve been familiar
As if it weren’t obvious already, I’m fascinated by architectural oddities—aesthetic efforts that don’t quite come together as intended, or fail to mesh with their surroundings. Plenty of people feel much the same,