The Strip Rehabilitated

To the typical American the strip is just that, a collection of conjoined buildings that house everything from a drug store to an ethnic grocery store and in many instances a grocery store. After further reading, one learns that the strip also includes gas stations, auto showrooms, drive-in theaters, and the many forms abandoned strip malls take when they are rehabilitated. The strip is essentially anything associated with the car culture that developed in the first half of the 20th century. Below are photos of several features of “the strip” as described by Liebs, Venturi, and Davis.

This picture shows a 1930s era strip on North Highland Avenue in the Virginia Highlands neighborhood. This is somewhat typical of the strips that developed along Main Street or major thoroughfares. There are large display windows and the entrances are recessed, this would have made for easy viewing in times when cars drove slower and many people still walked places; this works well in the Virginia Highlands area because you do see many people walking around, that is however after they drive into town and park their car along one of the many residential streets. At the end of the strip is a 1980s post office, which obviously took the place of a business long gone.
The next two pictures are of gas stations, one of which still serves its original function and the other that lost its original use and has been transformed for a use that is more fitting of the neighborhood. The first gas station (on left) is on Peidmont Road across from the Lindbergh MARTA station. It not only has the gas pumps, but it also has a service station. This is one of the transformations that Liebs mentioned took place when people began to travel more and gas companies were attempting to cater to the masses. It looks as though there is only one of the original four services bays is open now, which seems to suggest that people are no longer going for the “one-stop-shop” when it comes to car maintenance and four bays are no longer necessary. The gas pumping area also seems to have been updated, with newer machines that accept credit cards and a larger, lighted overhang to shield customers from the weather.
The second photo (on right) is an example of what happened to gas stations that fell out of use. This was once a Pure gas station and is now the chic “Diesel” restaurant. In the Leibs article, he mentioned how gas stations were often reused for automobile-friendly services, such as car detailing shops or car washes. This does not seem to fit that description, but the activities that take place here do somewhat relate to the original use of the building. Cars come and go out of the parking lot, but patrons can no longer buy gas or the various sundries that littered the convenience store portion of the gas station. The patio area to the right, which may have previously been the location of gas pumps and where cars were fueled up, is now where people eat and get “fueled up”. This was a very creative recycling of a building within the strip that no longer provided what the car culture needed.