1+3+9 redux

1. Architecture must address the abounding issue of Surban Decay – the aging supermarket – left sitting in the center of town in lieu of the mega-market down the interstate.

+3 As suburbia aged, it has outgrown its original plans, pushing people into new neighborhoods surrounding larger and more modern developments on the outskirts of what is generally known as the Old-Town. The residents of the old town are forced to endure dropping housing rates, as well as commute to newer business sectors, for work as well as food and living supplies. In many of these examples, groceries have been outpaced by a Supercenter with both a shopping area and market.

+9 The indoor organic farming plan would be ideal for such a location because of the way these original towns are built. Often, the old building will stand vacant because there is simply no other tenant who will want to take over Walmart’s “smaller” old store because the Superwalmart down the block will still put them out of business. These building’s locations, generally agreed-upon with urban planners of the cities and towns they inhabit so that they will stimulate and add to a community, proceed to do the exact opposite when the lights go out. A community use, however, could be ideal, as the building already has presence and memory in the comunity, as well as little probable objection to modification; these structures are not sacred. Using the main area of the shopping center for cultivation, there would be community programing on site as well, whether sustanative in nature – a food bank – or perhaps simply a community work project, first teaching then paying community members to tend the crops, could be both economically viable, and beneficial to the local community, especially if a farmers market, or other local processes, could add to the process.