Modern Arcades

It is really fascinating to read about the evolution of shopping and the buildings we shop in. When reading about arcades, I immediately thought of this picture I took inside of an "arcade" in Brussels, Belgium. It is simply a picture of the glass roof, a trait described by Ford in Ch. 3. The stores are on both sides with glass windows. It intersected a street of restaurants, and the arched openings could not be closed, leaving the atrium open to the outside at all times.

I bet this building was really old, but I can't recall seeing a date marker when I was there. Contrast this to a modern American arcade: Wal-Mart! This seems to be a perfect example of a supermarket and store all-in-one. Jesus, you can buy anything there! This picture displays the kind of shopping environment Wal-Mart provides, with easily accessed goods in self-service aisles with clearly marked fixed prices. Try to get someone's help there, I dare you.

It is also interesting to read about the glass roofs and their importance of letting in natural light. Now that we have electricity, the use of lighting is cheaper than making an entire ceiling out of glass, especially considering how large our stores have grown to be. Another evolving aspect is the surveillance of modern stores. I couldn't help but take a picture of one of Wal-Mart's cameras hidden inside some ominous, black orb. This really shows how much things have changed in the construction of our shopping venues. Wal-Mart can offer you cheap prices by making your environment inconsequential. This is remarkable considering how hard other places, like malls, try to entice you with ambiance.

Decatur's Decks

Below are examples of three parking decks in Decatur, Georgia that provide convenient parking for neighboring office buildings. In all three cases, the parking decks take up more land than their associated office buildings, serving as great examples of how cities like Decatur had to "eat themselves" in order to remain relevant in the automobile age.

This first pic of the DeKalb County Courthouse parking deck (built with urban renewal funds in the mid-1960s) sits behind the courthouse but along two major streets, Trinity and Commerce Drive. Construction of both the deck and the parking lot in the foreground required the demolition of many small commercial buildings to accommodate them.




The second and third pics are of decks that front city's main road, Ponce de Leon.

To deal with the problem of ugly decks creating gaps in the urban landscape, the city has done what it can to mitigate the effect. With the second example, which was probably built a bit later (1980s?) than the other examples since it has a lovely brick facade, the city has planted large trees in front of it to hide it.




The third deck does a better job of blending into the Ponce streetscape because it sports ground-level retail. Quite an accomplishment considering what an eyesore the deck is from the rear.

The Many Parking Lots of Edgewood

Above are four examples of parking available in one shopping center. They were all taken in the Edgewood Shopping District, the “live-work-play” development on Edgewood Avenue, just past Little Five Points. The first picture is a view of the basic parking lot commonly found outside big box retailers. There are rows and rows of parking spaces for people to leave their car and travel into one of the many stores that surround the parking lot. There are the customary cart corrals that take up a few spaces here and there, but as you can see there is ample parking for anyone coming to shop on a weekend afternoon. Also, if you look closely to the upper left hand corner, you can see an arch (several of which appear throughout the larger lot) that was meant to deter large vehicles and tractor-trailers from entering the parking lot.
The second picture is of an above-ground parking deck that sits between two of the larger stores in the shopping center. It was designed to blend in with the buildings around it, making it less obtrusive and unpleasant looking. It has the same brick façade and stucco accents that the stores in the shopping center sport, but one can clearly tell it is a parking deck. The stairs can be seen in the tower-like structure in the middle and there is a large sign (partially visible on the right-hand side) that says “PARKING”.
The third picture is of below-ground parking. There were approximately 15 cars in this lot at the time of the picture, all of which could have been easily accommodated in the large parking lot or parking deck pictured above. This is likely just a cooler (temperature wise) place to park your car on a hot day. It may also come in handy Black Friday, the most feared day for any retailer, when thousands of angry men and women swarm into stores at 6am and begin to cross things off their Christmas list.
The final picture is of off-street parking found near the boutique-style shops that sit between the two nodes of big box retailers in the Edgewood shopping center. This harkens back to the days when you would drive to Main Street, park your car right outside the store and go talk with your neighbors in the general store. There a far fewer of these spots than can be found in any of the parking lots/decks in the rest of the shopping center.

"... safe, clean, aesthetically appealing ..."

Calhoun, Georgia, has provided spaces of play since the inception of the town. A park managed by the Women's Club stretched parallel to Wall Street (main street) in the 1800's. Spectators gathered at the fairgrounds and wild-ish gardens of Salacoa. One of these early spaces, Amakanata, is still intact. And strikingly, both the Calhoun Recreation Department (the "Rec") and a new downtown park mimic this older space's design. These three spaces of play all rest on architectures and arrangements which privilege nostalgia while simultaneously providing gathering spaces in which that nostalgia can be challenged.

The first picture, from Amakanata, shows the remnants of a once-lively park. A quaint stone bridge leads from one area of the lake to another; earthen berms line the lake and provide (prescribe) walkways among marshy grounds. Groves of trees and staircases attest to bathers and waders. In the foreground is a square fountain which was probably added at a later date when the lake functioned as a fish hatchery. The cracked sign on the right reads, "Amakanata: Danger in Swimming," a remnant which reveals one of the uses to which this space was put. Picnickers, daytrippers, and families traveled to Amakanata to relax from their jobs as professionals, cotton mill workers, orchard workers, and laborers.

The second picture is of the newest recreational space in Calhoun, the downtown park and bandstand. Finished within the last five years, this landscaped space includes colorful and vivid sculpture, a fountain, a bandstand, open spaces for play, and benches for resting. While the downtown park is full and overflowing during Friday nights when musical groups give concerts, the park is empty most of the time. The elements of Amakanta show clearly: fountain, prescribed places for walking and playing, and a pavilion/bandstand. One reading of this space is similar to that Weinstein gives for Disneyland, a recreation of an earlier, romanticized space. Marling would add that the tension between the 'real' uses of the downtown and the 'almost-real', managed experience of this park is what gives it some of its public power for townspeople.

The third picture is of the "Rec," a space which includes ballfields, playgrounds, picnic facilities, basketball and tennis courts, and a swimming pool tucked into a bend of the Oothcalooga Creek, in which visitors fish and play. This image shows the large pavilion which hosts family reunions, casual lunches, Girl Scout meetings, and corporate employee appreciation days. The gray memorial in the center of the image discusses a community member who was key in establishing the Rec (the pavilion was destroyed in a tornado in 2003, and the memorial put up when it was rebuilt). Also visible are old oaks and walking paths. All of these elements hearken back to Amakanata's design and purpose. The sign at the foreground, however, reveals the ways in which the uses of the space are in conflict with a nostalgic ideology of the space. The sign indicating that no soccer should be played in the large open spaces at the Rec (which have hosted such play as frisbee, football, catch, horseshoes, and many others) directly points to the recent emergence of a Latino/a population in the town which is in conflict with the traditional definitions of use for this space.

All three of these spaces of play shift the conception of "play" from child to adult (or at least child and adult). Yet, like Disneyland, they draw on turn-of-the-century nostalgia for "safe, clean, aesthetically appealing" places (Weinstein 132)--which is currently being challenged by a cultural demographic with a different conception of "play."

Orchard Beach Amusements

For my GOLD STAR:

These are photos I took in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.  The pier arcade is one of their staple tourist features.  While there I read varying accounts of fires and storms that destroyed the pier and how it was built back to different lengths.  The current pier is about 500 ft shorter than the longest pier built.  Below is a photo of an on-the-beach amusement park.  We visited here between their two main tourist seasons (summer and full-on fall...for the fall foliage tourists.)  The town was pretty empty and the pier and amusement park were not open.  Nothing is eerier than a space where one would expect crowds of people but is devoid in that respect.  Noir in its own right I suppose.  These were taken with a black and white disposable camera, and perhaps is in keeping with the whole noir theme.

Athens Diners and Burger Joints

Since someone posted a picture of the Varsity in Atlanta last week, I decided to respond with a picture of the Varsity in Athens. The Athens Varsity is truly a glorified hamburger stand, but on a grand scale. The modern awning and glass entry way make it unique, but this cannot hide the fact that inside a small army of servers and cooks are waiting to holler "What'll you have, what'll you have, what'll you have?" and plop a tray full of customized hamburgers and hotdogs in front of you.
Inside, the owners have tried to give the Varsity the feel of a diner with lots of stainless steel and chrome accents, and clean white tiles on the wall. To the front of the building, four or five separate dining rooms are partitioned off to give diners the close-knit feeling of an actual diner. Whether these ideas work or not is left to be decided, however, it remains that The Varsity has a distinct feel and atmosphere that is all its own. Interestingly its clientele is quite diverse, from businessmen on a lunch break to college students and blue collar workers which may testify to the success of the model created by the management.
Athens does have examples of true food stands, such as the OK Coffee stand pictured above. This small building can only hold about two people inside it to tend the single window. Like the modest stands located near factories, the OK is situated on a side street conveniently by a parking deck and a mere block from the entrance to UGAs historic old quad. Because of its location, it caters largely to college students on the go who cannot afford to sit in a coffe shop, especially when they are late for that 8am class. But, like most coffee shops, the OK serves a small sampling of fruits, muffins, etcetera. The sign is also reminiscent of earlier signs which used symbols rather than words to announce their services, much like a picture of a chicken on a KFC sign. Simple, and unassuming, the sign tells passersby all they need to know about the services of the OK, namely that they have coffee, and its not bad...its ok.

Restaurants

All these photos were taken along Buford Highway which is not only full of a diverse styles of food but also seems to have a restaurant every twenty feet.  The first picture is of an Asian restaurant (not sure of style because only sign in English was the one that read "Open").  When passing it the building immediately jumped out for its odd shape as well as it's many arched roofs.  It's also hard to tell if the building was originally designed as a restaurant or converted later on into one.  Another reason this picture was taken was it reminded me of the old dinners of the 50s in California as described in the readings.

Next is a photo another Asian restaurant along Buford Highway.  This one was located within a parking lot

 for a number of different stores.  What struck me as odd for this one (and difficult to encompass this in a single photo) is just how small this building is.  It originally looked as though it was a tiny drive thru restaurant.  Also, the drive thru is still in operation for this establishment.  But even t

hough it is still extremely small, the added a patio onto the front to increase the already miniscule amount of space.  Even with the add-on the building is still very much in the box style.

The final picture is one familiar to anyone who has travelled five miles in a car in the South.  We have a Waffle House.  Now although the building is very generic and very much in the style of a box restaurant, this particular one stood out for the sign.  Just as many Waffle Houses have very tall and recognizable signs, this one is no different.  The sign is easily noticed amongst all the cluttered signs of Buford Highway even from a ways off.  And inside, it was designed just like every other Waffle House with the open kitchen and the bar in which patrons can eat 

at.  It definitely also had an older feel and not that of the newer "updated" Waffle Houses.

There were many pictures of very unique restaurants to be had on Buford Highway.  It appeared as though any type of building could be converted into a restaurant.  There was one which obviously was an old bank (drive thru tellers) as well as restaurants that could hold no more than ten people, all of which sat outside and no parking to speak of in their parking lot.  Driving down this road, a hungry patron will definitely have their pick of a variety of different restaurants as well as an immediate recognition of the various buildings in which they inhabit.