Final thesis book_jbo

Indistinguishable Threshold

The Neglected Edge of the Suburban Strip Mall

JANAY BLANCARTE O’LEARY

Indistinguishable Threshold: The Neglected Edge of the Suburban Strip Mall

Thesis Proposal By:

Janay Blancarte O’Leary

Masters Project Preparation
ARC 6921.902
Dr. Antonio Petrov
The University of Texas at San Antonio
Spring 2020

CONTENTS

01: ABSTRACT
02: TIMELINE
03: ESSAY
04: PRECEDENTS, FACTS, AND LITERATURE
05: PROGRAM AND SITE
06: NOTES & BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABSTRACT

“Every beginning is cheerful; the threshold
is the place of expectation.”

—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe from
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship

The commercial strip mall is a ubiquitous construct of the American landscape
contributing to the development of the suburb. The primary goal of selling has
driven retail store design. This has diminished the built environment by fostering
a gimmick identity that is representative of consumer culture. Forces driving the
development of the strip mall often find inspiration from the utilitarian purpose of
maximizing profits. These pervasive commercial spaces manifest into machines
for buying, permeating in a broader scope in connections formed throughout the
surrounding neighborhood. In effect, this neglects the condition of the edge by
forming thresholds indistinguishable to the human experience.

This thesis examines the strip mall and identifies the components of its neglected
edge. I have defined the strip mall edge as a conglomeration of in-between
spaces that include the store, storefront, parking lot, and street — in connection
with the neighborhood. I assert that augmenting this neglected edge to represent
the true human condition rather than a debased consumer culture establishes a
more distinctive and sensitive threshold.

01

TIMELINE

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SHOPPING CENTER

02

800 BC Leonardo Da Vinci Late 1700’s-Early 1900s Innovations in public
designs his ideal city transportation from the
center with the street level track-based horse-car,
reserved for shopping cable car, and electric
and pedestrian traffic. streetcar.4
The vehicles would be
relegated to underground
passageways.2

In Ancient Greece, 1480S Industrial Revolution Mid 1800s-Early 1900s
people had developed Increase in
markets with merchants technological
selling their wares in innovations and
the Agora in the city manufacturing led
center.1 to an exodus from
the rural to urban
areas which in turn
led to overcrowding
and unhealthy living
conditions.3

03

Ebenezer Howard in Britain
published To-morrow: A
Peaceful Path to Real Reform
on garden cities movement
as a means to escape the
industry and crowding of
large urban centers, led to
the building of Letchworth.6

1880s-Early 1900s 1916

Karl Benz developed 1898 Market Square -Chicago, Illinois
the first production gas Arthur Aldis designed an
powered automobile integrated shopping complex of
in 1885. By 1913 The 28 stores, offices, and apartments,
Ford Model T became with parking for Lake Forest. It is
the first mass produced considered one of the first planned
automobile.5 automobile-centered shopping
developments.7

04

1918 Grandview Avenue Shopping 1938
Center Columbus, Ohio
Don M. Casto designed a strip of 30
stores (including four super-markets)
and off-street parking for 400 cars,
not associated with an exclusive
residential area. This general plan
became the prototype of shopping
centers for several decades.9

By the turn of the century, 1928 Silver Spring Shopping Center
Silver Spring, Maryland
miles of taxpayers were This example of an early super-
market anchored shopping
going up in cities across the center with 19 stores and off-
street parking was designed
country forming vast linear by John Eberson.10

commercial corridors,

or what may be called

taxpayer strips.8

05

Abraham Levitt’s Levittown 1954 The first Walmart store
on Long Island pioneered opens in a strip mall
the post-war era of in Rogers, Arkansas.13 1962
mass-produced low-cost
housing tracts located in
automobile suburbs and
satellite cities on the edge
of large urban centers.11

1946 Northland Shopping Center 1962 The Federal Aid
Southfield, Michigan Highway Act of
World’s largest when built. 1962 required
Designed by Victor Gruen, the integration of
with 110 stores on two levels highway planning
in a cluster layout, with a and metropolitan
department store anchor at planning.14
the center.12

06

Michael Aldrich invents 1994 Amazon and 2007
electronic shopping eBay launch.17
through the television
as a precursor to online
shopping.15

1979 Netscape Navigator 1995 Amazon Fresh launches
launches as a web in Seattle, marking the
browser.16 beginning of growing
trends in online grocery
sales, curbside pickup,
and delivery.18

07

ESSAY

“The health of the eye seems to demand
a horizon. We are never tired so long as
we see far enough.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson
from “Nature”

08

Ideal or Not Ideal

Many people throughout history have contemplated the concept of the ideal city.
Leonardo da Vinci developed his idea of an improved city plan that established the
framework of an early example of urban planning in the 14th century. Under the influence
of plague and famine, da Vinci sought to create a better plan in his ‘Ideal City’ by
separating the city into upper and lower layers. He reserved the above ground level
to accommodate leisurely walks by making them clean and open areas. He set aside
the layers below ground for the utilitarian uses of trade, commerce, transportation, and
industrial city infrastructure.1

In the same way, the futuristic dystopian Figure 1. Scene from the movie Metropolis
society depicted in the 1927 movie showing workers returning to their homes
Metropolis, shown in figure 1, portrayed a underground. (Metropolis, 1927)
society separated into upper and lower
sections. This system segregated those
who were lucky enough to spend their
days above ground living in leisure from the
labor class who afforded that easygoing
good life through their frenzied drudgery
relegated to the depths of the city out of
sight and mind.2

09

Position: The Homogenous Strip Mall

These notions of separation of uses and a want for the utopian ideal to embody the
aesthetic of our built environment have had legitimate intentions in their origins but
have often contributed to homogenized renditions of residential, commercial, and
everyday architecture. This is a pervasive issue throughout the world that has far-
reaching implications, including social inequality and environmental issues. However,
this investigation focuses on the uncultivated condition of the suburb as it is informed by
the mechanistic proliferation of commercial pursuits. I highlight the current condition of
the strip mall and its components of parking and street edge and contend that they are
significant in the latency of the suburban framework.

In response to the modernist movement, architectural interventions relegated the
storefront to a “Machine for Selling”.3 David Smiley claimed that the shopping center
was as much intertwined with modernist design as it was with the development of
the suburb.4 The “Machine for Selling” model is still the motivating force behind the
development of the strip mall. Even more so, this evolvement adheres to the standard
as a machine for buying. Places offering goods and services are no longer designed to
entice shoppers by showcasing purchasing opportunities. Instead, they are designed
primarily to conform to the automobile and to support society’s overstated need for
materialistic consumption and convenience.

Hans Karsensenberg and Jeroen Laven in their urban study of plinths argue that the
ground floor is fundamental in the generation of an experiential relationship between
a building and its context and that a disconnection of the ground floor to the street
creates a negative experience with its surroundings.5 The lack of connection to context
allows for duplication and uniformity.6 This problem occurs in strip malls across the United
States in their ability to be interchangeable across cultures, climates, and regions.

10

My initial assessment of the strip mall was conducted under the lens of regionalism.
This discourse offered a starting point in my investigation. Research beyond context is
necessary to claim that the strip mall, as a machine for buying with no ground floor
connection to the street, is contributing to the overall appearance of a homogeneous
suburb. What exactly is the condition of that ground floor, and what is missing from this
ground floor that offers a counterpoint to the banal and homogeneous construct of the
strip mall?

Problem: The Indistinguishable Threshold

Karsensenberg and Laven outlined the relationship between the storefront, the street,
and the greater context of the suburb and suggested that a “boundary” or “zone”
creates that connection to the street.7 Smiley referenced a new “method of planning”
in 1921 that offered a solution to storefront design that acted as a “display vestibule” by
integrating a “recessed” form separating space from the street and the store.8 This new
design delineated a boundary zone that Smiley declared as a “commodified social
realm.”9 This early design of a boundary at the storefront created a connection to the
street that exemplified the expression of the store as a machine for buying.

What is different about a boundary that promotes a positive experience and is not just
another cog in the commercial machine? Till Boettger explains that boundaries act as
the construct in which the person experiences “transitions”, and a threshold is not only an
“interruption” in that boundary but is also part of the boundary itself.10 I see the threshold
taking on a dichotomous nature as part of that boundary and the interstitial space that
fosters human movement, sensation, and interaction. However, much of what is built is
more pragmatically mechanistic and is devoid of attention to the human experience.

11

The basic elements of code requirements and safety protocols serve as predominant
threshold markers in the existing condition of the strip mall. A threshold that offers qualities
outside of these utilitarian requirements only acts as an obstacle to the straightforward
actions of driving in, parking, walking in, making a transaction, walking out, and
repeating.11

This insufficiently developed condition of the strip mall creates an opportunity for
architectural intervention. Architectural responses can amend the current condition of
the indistinguishable threshold by reimagining the edge of the strip mall by addressing the
interconnected construct of the storefront, parking, sidewalk, street, and neighborhood.
The concept of the threshold is both straightforward and obscure. A doorway represents
a simple threshold, but a connection between a temporal and sacred realm offers a
more complex example of a threshold. The threshold is an “in-between” space that
enables a personal awareness of being and moving through space, transitions, and
boundaries.12 This experience of space allows a person to perceive space and place
as two ideas merged into an enhanced understanding of spatial quality.13 Within spatial
quality, there is a perceived tangibility of both the physical and “atmospheric”.14 Our
physical occupation of space coupled with movement in that space as perceived
through time makes up our experience of space.15

A person making a trip to the grocery store or café is not going to necessarily demand a
nuanced experiential spatial quality to their surroundings. As a component to the overall
built environment and as an organization of amenities that support the everyday needs
and operations of society, the development of an active threshold sensitive to human
needs beyond profit-driven consumerism offers an opportunity to facilitate better social
experiences. This provides an ameliorative alternative to the ubiquitous nature of the
suburb.

12

The Neglected Edge

The organization of this space that serves our purposes happens through the threshold.16
The globalization of our society and the homogenization of our undifferentiated spaces
in our environment populated by the forms and symbols of public (commercial) and
private (residential) spaces have clouded the boundaries of the in-between — the realm
of the threshold.17 These forms and symbols are a homage to the quintessential “Main
Street” and the massive parking lot that overpowers the storefront, which highlights the
primary goal of getting the consumer to the goods quickly and easily.18 The motives for
strip mall development still align with modernist ideals, and the prime initiators of any
design intent are the automobile and bottom-line profit generation for developers.

The interchangeability of the suburban strip mall highlights the failure of developers’
attempts to capture an identity, albeit contrived. Often these storefronts depict a
facsimile village and represent only a meager attempt to adhere to zoning requirements
or to aid in producing a passable slick advertisement to sell to investors and tenants. The
suburb is in conflict because it is populated by symbols from a bygone history. While
the history of a place and a people is important to identify and understand, it is so far
removed from the setting of the current society that it becomes only a meaningless label
when misused as a progenitor of design, inevitably serving as a prosaic backdrop to the
suburb. What is there within the context of the suburb that offers anything of substance
that could offer a valid basis on which to draw an identity of meaning and value?19
The benchmark for design then becomes achieving accessibility to the best streets and
highways.20 If we devalue the built environment of the suburb as a marketing tool or
what John Berger refers to as “publicity”, which is at its essence a gimmick to emulate
the real, then our society and a reflection of our culture is only a gimmick.21

13

The strip mall acts as an autonomous entity, but it has both explicit and inherent
connections to the community. The edge of the strip mall is a composition of the store,
storefront, parking lot, and street. This aggregative edge of the strip mall is a neglected
condition because it derives its identity from the automobile and market assumptions.
These drivers for design are not accurate representations of the authenticity of human
lives and relationships. We then can more befittingly draw identity from the inhabitants
themselves as a source for the acknowledgment of the human condition represented
in the need for social interaction and for fulfillment beyond base consumerism. This new
focus can better inform a distinctive and sensitive threshold.

14

15

PRECEDENTS

“It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of
ice!”

—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
from “Kubla Khan” lines 35-36

16

The following precedents are presented in successive order of
analysis, illustrating the process in which this thesis was developed.

STOREFRONT

This approach begins with a work that was an amalgamation of both art and construction manual
in “Storefront”1 shown in figure 2. This precedent represented an “architecture of persuasion”
set forth by Venturri, Scott Brown, and Izenour 2. In addition, the idea of anthropological place
and non place in this context theorized by Marc Augé reinforces the realm of the storefront by
stating that non-places are not for social interaction but are in fact a context which necessitates
the creation of “solitude and similitude”3 In terms of art, Berger further supported this idea that,
“publicity is the culture of the consumer society.”4

THE HIGH LINE & THE BLUR BUILDING

The High Line5and the Blur Building6 represented more of the “atmospheric” quality of a threshold
that was representative of the “in between–ness” that Boettger described as a connection
between the built storefronts and the creation of space beyond that of the physical geometry
of the buildings.7 Sensual City Studio goes on further to explain this “atmospheric” quality as
an opportunity for new thresholds to create social places sensitive to perception beyond the
intermediary that would normally be thought of as “non-place”8

BUMPER CROP

The design competition hosted by Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA)9 was
evidence that while the suburbs and the strip mall have been neglected as viable pursuits in
analysis and design, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that therein lies a condition that offers substantial
opportunities for development. Joel Garreau understood the suburb or “Edge City” to be more
than a societal ill of urban sprawl but that they are indeed cities in “progress”10 In the same
way, Jane Jacobs saw the suburb and city both as similar forces on a spectrum of process
and progress and that in different ways, the pitfalls from commercialism, the automobile, and
residential planning could and should be dealt with.11,12, 13

17

H-E-B MUELLER

The H-E-B Mueller 14 in Austin, Tx presented a built project in which a grocery store and its
components: storefront, parking, and street, reimagines the typical commercial strip anchored
by a large grocery store. The typical prominent facade of the anchor retail store highly visible
from the main thoroughfare is minimized in this project. H-E-B recedes to the background
allowing a mix of restaurants, public space, public and alternative transportation locales, and
tree lined pathways to create connections at the edges to the surrounding residential areas. 15

The spaces created in the in-between develop that “third realm” that Ray Oldenburg claimed
was missing from the suburb and that was necessary to a vibrant public life or the “good life”.16
In this project the parking is not the usual pervasive expanse of asphalt but becomes that “third
place”. Garreau pointed out, “In Edge City, about the closest thing you find to a public space—
where just about anybody can go—is the parking lot.”17 In the case of H-E-B Mueller, the parking
lot serves the needs of the automobile but takes a step back and allows for the threshold of the
parking as it relates to the store, street, and surrounding neighborhood to be the dominant state.
In this sense, it contradicts Augé’s claims of non-place and anthropological place because
what is normally considered a “non-place” now people can interact and attach meaning as a
social and experiential place.18

18

STOREFRONT PRECEDENTS: NOTE 1
1934, Art Illustration
Frederick J. Kiesler

artist, designer, writer and architect

Frederick Kiesler produced this image titled
“Storefront” in his book Contemporary Art
Applied to the Store and its Display as part of
an instructive manual to detail how storefronts
could be designed or should be designed to
draw the patron ever closer to the product.
The illustrations were less descriptive how-tos
and more works of art that, in Kiesler’s opinion,
were meant to evoke “tension and relaxation
that Kiesler felt was necessary in engaging the
passerby” 1

Figure 2. Frederick J. Kiesler, “Storefront,”

in Contemporary Art Applied to the Store

and Its Display. 1930, as cited in David

Smiley, Pedestrian Modern: Shopping and

American Architecture, 1925-1956.

19

THE HIGH LINE PRECEDENTS: NOTE 5

Opened to the public 2009, Architecture

James Corner Field Operations (Project Lead), Diller Scofidio+Renfro, and Piet Oudolf

“So when you say, “What’s your favorite part?”
it’s not that there’s a favorite part, but it’s that
there’s a favorite experience – it is the experience
in the duration of time that it takes to walk from
Gansevoort to 20th Street. You go through an
amazing succession of episodes, and for me, it‘s this
choreography and experience of this that is really
the most exciting and original part of this project.”
James Corner, inhabitat.com/interview-architect-
james-corner-on-the-design-of-high-line/ 5

Figure 3. An aerial shot looking down on the Washington Figure 4. Aerial view in 2011 looks south
Grasslands section of the High Line along the High Line
Photo by Rick Darke Photo by Iwan Baan
Source: https://www.thehighline.org/photos/
Source: https://www.thehighline.org/photos/at-a-glance/ at-a-glance/best-of/?pages_loaded=3

best-of/?pages_loaded=3
20

THE BLUR BUILDING PRECEDENTS: NOTE 6

Commissioned in 1998 Opened: May 14,2002 -Closed: October 20, 2002, Architecture

Scofidio + Renfro

“The Blur Building is an architecture of Figure 5. Plan view
atmosphere—a fog mass resulting from natural Source: https://dsrny.com/project/blur-building
and manmade forces... Upon entering Blur, Photography by Beat Widmer and Dirk Hebel
visual and acoustic references are erased. There
is only an optical “white-out” and the “white-
noise” of pulsing nozzles. Contrary to immersive
environments that strive for visual fidelity in
high-definition with ever-greater technical
virtuosity, Blur is decidedly low-definition. In this
exposition pavilion there is nothing to see but our
dependence on vision itself. It is an experiment
in de-emphasis on an environmental scale.
Movement within is unregulated.”
https://dsrny.com/project/blur-building 6

Figure 6. Aerial view
Photography by Beat Widmer and Dirk Hebel
Source: https://dsrny.com/project/blur-building

21

BUMPER CROP PRECEDENTS: NOTE 9

2007, Architecture Competition Entry - Flip-A-Strip: From Refuse to Reuse

Miller Hull Partnership

“During years spent living in Los Angeles and
southeast Seattle, most of my favorite restaurants
and shops have been in strip malls,” (Mike Jobes,
principal at Miller Hull Partnership in Seattle)
https://kontaktmag.com/architecture/flip-a-strip-
from-refuse-to-reuse/ 9

Figure 7. Strip mall project site
Source: https://kontaktmag.com/
architecture/flip-a-strip-from-refuse-to-
reuse/

Figure 8. Rendered views
Source: https://kontaktmag.com/architecture/flip-a-strip-from-refuse-to-reuse/
22

H-E-B MUELLER PRECEDENTS: NOTE 14
2013, Architecture NOTE 15
Lake Flato Architects

“Program includes a variety of spaces at various
scales: retail and circulation spaces, administrative
offices, dining areas and outdoor plaza. An iconic entry
feature is identifiable with this innovative neighborhood,
Shaded trellises allow customers to dine outdoors and
facilitate small community events such as music and
performances.”
https://issuu.com/lakeflato/docs/development_
hospitality 15

Figure 9. View of front parking
Source: https://www.lakeflato.com/

developmentcommerical/h-e-b-mueller14

Figure 10. Plan view of interior Figure 11. Plan view of parking Figure 12. View of outdoor spaces
layout and outdoor spaces Source: https://www.lakeflato.com/
developmentcommerical/h-e-b-mueller14
Source: https://www.lakeflato. Source: https://www.lakeflato.
com/developmentcommerical/ com/developmentcommerical/ 23
h-e-b-mueller14
h-e-b-mueller14

FACTS

“When one’s home has a really excellent
computer capable of reaching other
computers anywhere in the Galaxy, one
scarcely needs to budge, you know.”
― Isaac Asimov, from Foundation's Edge

24

An initial assessment of 25
the ubiquitous strip mall.
The same aesthetic
found in every region
of the United States
makes for an impossible
guessing game of
where these buildings
belong.

Figure 13. Graphic depiction of the ubiquitous strip mall
(Graphic illustration by author)

WHAT DEFINES A THRESHOLD?

Otto Paans and Ralf Pasel Figure 14. Diagram of the relationship between anthropological
presented the diagram shown place and non-place (Graphic illustration by author)Sources: Data
in figure 14 to illustrate the adapted from: Charts, Graphs, & Diagrams: Diagram illustrating the
relationship between non- relationship between non-place and anthropological place Note 1
place and anthropological
place first described by Marc STREET
Augé.1 This diagram was used NEIGHBORHOOD
to develop the basis for my PARKING
study of the nuances of the STORE
threshold and defining factors FRONT
of human experience and
activity. Figure 15. Diagram of the relationship between storefront,
parking, neighborhood, and street (Graphic illustration by author)
A typical spatial and

connective relationship

between storefront, parking,

neighborhood, and street

was diagrammed in figure 15.

Comparisons in scale provided

a framework in which to apply

concepts of the threshold and

initial determinations were

made based off of these

linkages.

26

THE RELATIONSHIP TO THE THRESHOLD

The initial schema, that uses the
concept of non-place and place or
anthropological place, identified areas
where the threshold concept is neglected
or underdeveloped. Figure 16 illustrates
a diagram I developed to visualize my
understanding of the organization of the
store, storefront, parking, sidewalk, street
and the relationship to the neighborhood
and city. I saw these components as
having a connectedness where thresholds
existed or could exist to exemplify the
idea of place and non-place.

I postulated that an identity derived from Figure 16. Diagram of the relationship between
a human experience of space and place storefront,parking, neighborhood, and street (Graphic
could better inform the construct of the illustration by author)
strip mall and, by a relative association,
better inform the suburban landscape Figure 17. Diagram of the strip mall and its connection
as a whole. This relation to experienced to the suburban landscape as a larger descriptor of the
space could be garnered through the identity of the suburb (Graphic illustration by author)
redevelopment of the threshold of
the strip mall—its storefront, parking, 27
connection to the street and community.

U.S. PARKING

I observed the substantial role that parking
played in the development of the threshold,
and demonstrated in figure 18 the impact of
parking and the capacity in which it affects the
condition of the suburb and the strip mall.

Figure 18. Total area of U.S. parking spaces
(Graphic illustration by author)
Sources: Data adapted from: Charts,Graphs, &
Diagrams: U.S. Parking Infograph Notes 1-9

THIS AMOUNT OF SPACE IS THE SAME AS:

AN AREA EQUAL OR AN AREA EQUAL IF HALF OF THIS AREA WAS THIS AMOUNT IF HALF OF THIS AREA
TO THE AREA OF TO THE AREA OF 10 COVERED WITH SOLAR OF ELECTRICITY HAD TREES, THE
2 1/2 GRAND SAN ANTONIOS PANELS IT WOULD GENERATE COULD POWER AMOUNT OF CO2
CANYONS AN AMOUNT OF ELECTRICITY 3.5 MILLION CAPTURED WOULD BE
EQUAL TO THE AMOUNT OF HOMES FOR A EQUAL TO THE AMOUNT
ELECTRICITY GENERATED BY YEAR OF CO2 EMITTED BY
27 HOOVER DAMS 720,000 CARS PER YEAR

28 =100,000 =10,000

Vacancy Rates Among Shopping Center Types in the U.S. 2016-2017

GROSS LEASABLE AREA (million square feet)

Figure 19. Chart showing amount of available leasable square footage of retail space (Chart by
author) Source: Data adapted from Brown, Garrick. “Disruption: US Retail in the Age of Amazon-Over-Retailed,
But Not All Retail is Suffering.” Cushman & Wakefield, 2018. Charts, Graphs, Diagrams: Vacancy Rates Among

Shopping Center Types in the U.S. 2016-2017 Note 1

The data shown in figure 19 revealed that strip malls were doing better than any other shopping

center type by having the largest decrease in the vacancy rate between the years 2016

and 2017. This rate had been on a decreasing trend since 2013 but by 2018, had started to

uptick. The global pandemic caused by Covid-19 will most assuredly cause a major increase in

vacancy rates for the year 2020 and well into the future. Previous year’s decreasing vacancy

rates for strip malls offers possible prospects for scaled down interventions. 29

eCommerce Acceleration

Figure 20. Chart showing an increase in e-commerce online sales (Chart by author)
Source: Data adapted from Brown, Garrick. “Disruption: US Retail in the Age of Amazon-Over-eCommerce
Acceleration.” Cushman & Wakefield, 2018. Charts, Graphs, & Diagrams: eCommerce Acceleration Note1
The data in figures 20 and 21 shows the strength of increasing online sales, but figure 21 also
illustrates the selling power of the physical store as a result from the physical store’s ability to
foster and bolster brand awareness as well as its ability to establish and ensure consumer trust in
a brand’s online offering when tied with a physical store presence.
This indicates that while the brick and mortar store may be in jeopardy of losing market share
to an increasing prevalence in online usage, the physical presence of a store is still viable and
warranted.
30

Percent of Shoppers Who Spend the Most Money
by Retailer Format and Product Category

online & physical
presence
only online
physical
store only

Figure 21. Chart illustrating the percent of shoppers buying specific types of products through online or
physical retailer format only or a combination of both (Graphic illustration by author)
Source: Data adapted from International Council of Shopping Centers, “The Importance of Physical Stores’
“Halo Effect” Brand Awareness and Sales Boosted Through Store Locations.” May 30, 2017. https://www.icsc.org/
uploads/t07-subpage/Halo-Effect.pdf Charts, Graphs, & Diagrams: Percent of Shoppers Who Spend the Most
Money by Retailer Format and Product Category Note 1

31

LITERATURE

"We went to the New York World's Fair, saw
what the past had been like, according
to the Ford Motor Car Company and
Walt Disney, saw what the future would
be like, according to General Motors.
And I asked myself about the present:
how wide it was, how deep it was, how
much was mine to keep."

- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

32

Figure 22. Diagram listing the common
keywords found in literature pertinent to the
problem of the indistinguishable threshold

(Graphic illustration by author)
In developing a credible and informative base of literature to support my thesis, a collection
of writings was analyzed in order to best choose those that would offer relevant insight into the
problem of the indistinguishable threshold at the edge of the strip mall . From these writings,
similar keywords or concepts were highlighted. The writings were then grouped according to
these keywords and concepts. Figure 22 diagrams the development of my thesis based upon
the relationship of these groupings and each interrelated concept.

33

Pedestrian Modern KEYWORDS
Shopping and American Architecture In-Between
David Smiley- Professor at Columbia University Commercial
Boundary
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press 2013 Publicity

“This expansion of architectural history breaks down the culture barrier that brackets off commerce

and consumption from the consideration of architectural practice. It also shows that the shopping

center was as connected to modernist design tenets as it was to the processes of suburbanization
Literature Note 4
to which it is usually wedded.” [p.15]

“Architectural debates about stores evidenced the tensions between commerce and culture,
and there soon emerged a formal device that satisfied both, in part, and expanded the relevance
of the store as part of the ebb and flow of the city. Architect and writer John Taylor Boyd noted
in 1921 that the tension between the use of the all-glass front and small panes could be resolved
through a new “method of planning” in which the ground-floor street wall would be recessed....the
distinctive “modern” design was praised for making the architecture its “own advertisement”—
for being straightforward, historic, and “functional”—instead of a substructure for garish signage
or unnecessary detail. In business terms, the author praised the “display vestibule” for addressing
sidewalk congestion and the weather so that goods and store would be visible.” [p.25]

Literature Note 8

“The new relation of store to street, the new scale of the work, the reduction of “obstacles”
preventing a customer from entering, and the additional display space created a unique urban
experience, a new semipublic, if slightly commodified, social realm.”[p. 29] Literature Note 9

“In mid-1944, the company started using the slogan “Machines for Selling” in its ads, and in July

1945 the company announced its “Machines for Selling” campaign, with storefront designs by

Ketchum. In early 1946, the company issued a hefty eighteen-by-twenty-four-inch hardcover, full

color, indexed catalog titled Machines for Selling.” [p. 80] Literature Note 3

34 modernism, consumer architecture

The City at Eye Level KEYWORDS
Lessons for Street Plinths Boundary
Hans Karssenberg & Jeroen Laven - strategists for urban planning Experience
Plinth
Publisher: Eburon 2012 Connection
Semi-public

“A building may be ugly, but with a vibrant plinth, the experience can be positive. The other

way around is possible as well: a building can be very beautiful, but if the ground floor is a blind

wall the experience on the street level is hardly positive.... The knowledge and experience

economy requires spaces with character, a good atmosphere, a place to meet and interact”

[pp.11,12] Literature Note 5

“Another way of making the connection between building and street is adding elements to the

(semi) public space, most common as terraces. By creating a semi-public zone the boundary

between building and street is softened” [p.198] Literature Note 7

urban planning, ground floor 35

Six Canonical Projects by Rem Koolhas KEYWORDS
Essays on the History of Ideas Space
Ingrid Bock- project assistant at the Institute for Architectural Movement
Suburb
Theory, Art and Cultural Studies at the Graz University of Technology In-between
Publisher: Jovis 2015 Identity
History

“In historic cities the periphery is subjected to the power of the center, whereas “the generic city is
the city liberated from the captivity of centre, from the straightjacket of identity.” But instead of this
captivity, the generic city does not maintain the distinction between core and periphery; simply
because it has no history, its identity can be produced and reproduced on demand. Drawing on
Mies van der Rohe’s comment on inventing new styles, Koolhaas states that “it can produce a
new identity every Monday morning.”[p. 249]

“Their emphasis on the bodily experience of space encourages the notion of architecture as
event, as activity and sensory, kinesthetic process. According to Tschumi in Architecture and
Disjunction (1966), “the very heterogeneity of the definition of architecture – space, action,
and movement – makes it into that event, that place of shock, or that place of the invention of
ourselves.” He considers cinematographic techniques essentially architectural ones because they
deal with the relationship between the program (which he terms events), architectural space,
and movement: “how an ‘in-between’ space is activated by the motion of bodies in that space
… how architecture is about identifying, and ultimately, releasing potentialities hidden in a site, a
program, or their social context.” [p. 222]

“Zero-degree architecture represents “the plan without qualities” because it has, like the
male protagonist in Robert Musil’s novel The Man Without Qualities, no unique qualities. Equally,
Koolhaas’s expression of “the generic city” means “the city without (unique) qualities.”[p. 241]

“In contrast to the Old World with its historic substance, the New World does not rely on architectural
history and “the hysterical fetishization of the atypical plan.”[p. 242]
36 city planning, experience

Six Canonical Projects by Rem Koolhas KEYWORDS
Essays on the History of Ideas Space
Ingrid Bock- project assistant at the Institute for Architectural Movement
Suburb
Theory, Art and Cultural Studies at the Graz University of Technology In-between
Publisher: Jovis 2015 Identity
History

“The distance between the skin and the core, the depth of the building and its contact with

the surroundings, is no longer a criterion for the value and attraction of spaces. In terms of

construction, the typical and the generic work with the repetition of a simple structural module

in the form of a column grid, facade modules, prefabricated partitions, furniture, and air-

conditioning... In a broader sense, he observes a general process of homogenization, in which

the individual parts of a system reduce their difference in favor of an increasing similarity with

each other. His concepts for the “typical plan” and the “generic city,” which are the essence

of the modern life, lack identity, determinacy, and stability.”[p. 242] Literature Note 6

“Junkspace engenders disorientation, disarray, and disordered movement in the circulation
area to blur the boundaries of the building.”[p. 246]

“Junkspace hence functions as sealed regimes, concentrations of shopping, gambling, movies,
culture, holidays, and transportation, from subway to airspace.”[p. 247]

“Continuity is the essence of Junkspace” so that the infrastructural means join the separated

kinds of functional elements and programs together into an intricate organization along a

seamless surface. [158] The pathway of the Dutch Embassy reflects the key features of what

Koolhaas characterizes as Junkspace (or “what remains after modernization”) after the

post-war development of Berlin. Its unique, unpredictable choreography seems to blur the

(extraterritorial) boundaries between the interior space (of the Netherlands) and the city

environment (of Berlin).”[p. 247]

city planning, experience 37

Threshold Spaces: KEYWORDS
Transitions in Architecture Analysis and Design Tools Movement
Till Boettger-Assistant Professor in the Department of Design and Space
Symbol
Spatial Design at the Bauhaus University Weimar In-Between

Publisher: Basel/Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH 2014

“Joedicke incorporates the dimension of time in architecture into his Commercial Strip
considerations and highlights the importance of perceiving succession. In Movement
other words, the perceptual process is dependent on movement in the Experience

space within a particular period of time. “ [p.18 ] Boundary

“In summary it can be said that transitions, and thus traverses of thresholds, Atmosphere
are particularly associated with intermediate states. First of all, percipient
humans find themselves in spatial between-ness. Moreover, the intermediate Geometry
Time

state between two spatial areas, for example inside and outside, also plays a role. One could
Literature Note 12
even speak of a double intermediate state.”[p. 20]

“Examinations of the term “arcade” contribute to an understanding of transitions. Geist lists terms

that are often substituted in everyday language for arcade—street, lane, driveway, passageway,

thoroughfare, transit—and elaborates, “Inherent in all the meanings, whether they manifest

themselves in terms of space or time, is the common element of a transition, a threshold, a process,

a measured route or something that passes. Something happens—the movement becomes an
Literature Note 15
experience.” [p.30]

Precedent Note 8

“Originally, an arcade was defined as a glass connection between two street spaces, which was

enhanced with additional functions such as shops. It becomes living space with its own atmosphere
Literature Note 15
of between-ness. The space is neither inside nor outside. ” [p.30]
Precedent Note 8

“Openings in boundaries make transitions in space possible. Thresholds interrupt boundaries for

the transition from one zone to another. That is, they are both a part of the boundary and a gap

in it. A threshold is understood as a linear interruption in the boundary, so it naturally runs in the

same direction as the boundary.” [p.47] Literature Note 10

38 space and place

A History of Thresholds KEYWORDS
Life, Death & Rebirth: A Visual Narrative Threshold
Sensual City Studio: Jacques Ferrier and Pauline Marchetti- Place
Space
architectural firm that acts as a laboratory of ideas, creation and urban Link
foresight Globalization
Publisher: Jovis 2018 Movement
Experience
“Thresholds serve to delineate one place from another, as well as to Atmosphere
connect them-places that have a mutual relationship of discontinuity, Geometry
opposition or complementarity-and to constitute a transition from one to
the other.” [p.7]

“The threshold between the public and private spheres does not connect two spaces of
different natures-or which are deemed to be such-but instead links two spaces with different
statuses that the threshold ranks in terms of superiority.” [p.31]

“Thresholds do not seem to have disappeared, and yet they are in fact dead. In the early 20th
century, a profound transformation was underway that would cause thresholds to lose their
raison d’ être. Increasingly specialized spaces proliferated, but there was no longer any need
to interconnect them as spaces offering distinct experiences.” [p.57]

“Today, there is no need to interconnect spaces. The reason is simple: knowing and

understanding how we fit into space has become obsolete. Thresholds have also been dented

by the unprecedented growth and intensification of mobility, whether residential, professional

or touristic...“Day-to-day city life within the modern metropolis now appears to be nothing

more than the juxtaposition of never-ending transitions between specialized and exclusive

environments on the one hand and a space of hypermobility that is neither delineated nor

defined on the other.” [pp.70, 71] Literature Note 17

urban planning 39

A History of Thresholds KEYWORDS
Life, Death & Rebirth: A Visual Narrative Threshold
Sensual City Studio: Jacques Ferrier and Pauline Marchetti- Place
Space
architectural firm that acts as a laboratory of ideas, creation and Link
urban foresight Globalization
Publisher: Jovis 2018 Movement
Experience
“Thresholds have become impediments to a hypermobile society that Atmosphere
Geometry
lurches between accelerating and shuffling along. This is why, today,

thresholds subsist solely in forms relating to safety and security: gates,

queues, and security checks.” [p.83] Literature Note 11

“The inspiration is no longer to be found in the spatial arts, but instead must be sought elsewhere,
It can be found in music, in particular, where space exists only through the deployment of sound
in time.” [p.102]

“This space is heard and felt, rather than seen. Here, the threshold may only be the duration of
a single vibration, but is capable of linking two musical sequences with quite different emotional
tones.” [p.103]

“These new thresholds go hand in hand with the transition from urban planning based on geometry
to urban planning based on atmospheres. It is no longer about joining together spaces of different
types or statuses, but rather a question of connecting ambiences.” [p.111] Precedent Note 9

“The recognition of these new thresholds opens up exciting avenues for architectural and urban

design, the implementation of which now takes place within the vast spaces of contemporary

developments: shopping malls, university and office campuses, leisure complexes, airports,

stations...For these new thresholds, it is no longer enough to simply embody the transitions between

the outside and the inside.” [p.125] Precedent Note 9

“Instead, these new thresholds must be thought of as sequences of ambiences to be revealed-
and of opportunities to be seized- with a view to tending to users’ needs and accompanying
them at every step of their trajectory, They must create a sense of surprise, rhythm and playfulness,
enabling users to rediscover a human dimension in disembodied worlds.”[p.127]

40 urban planning

Space and Place KEYWORDS
The Perspective of Experience Experience
Yi-Fu Tuan- geographer / human geographer and professor Space and Place
Sensation
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press 1977 Thought
Geometry
“The relations of space and place. In experience, the meaning of space Intimacy/
often merges with the of place. “Space” is more abstract than “place”, Exposure
What begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to Meaning
know it better and endow it with value Architects talk about the spatial Movement
qualities of place they can equally well speak of the locational place Body
qualities of space. The ideas of space and place require each other for
definition” [p.6] Literature Note 13

“Space is experienced directly as having room in which to move” [p.12]

“Human beings not only discern geometric patterns in nature and create abstract spaces in
the mind they also try to embody their feeling images and thoughts in tangible material.” [p.17]

Literature Note 14

“Place is a type of object. places and objects define space, giving it a geometric personality.”

[p.17] Literature Note 14

“Man, out of his intimate experience with his body and with other people, organizes space so
that it conforms with and caters to his biological needs and social relations.” [p.34]

Literature Note 16
“The human being, by his mere presence, imposes a schema on space.” [p.36]
“The arrow represents directional time but also movement in space to a goal.” [p.179]

space & place 41

Learning From Las Vegas KEYWORDS
The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form Publicity
Robert Venturi- architect, Denise Scott Brown architect/planner, Symbol
Steven Izenour architect, urbanist and theorist Similarity
Commercial Strip
Publisher: MIT Press 1977 Parking Lot

“In the bazaar, communication works through proximity. Along its narrow aisles, buyers feel and

smell the merchandise and the merchant applies explicit oral persuasion...On Main Street, shop-

window displays for pedestrians along the sidewalks and exterior signs perpendicular to the street

for motorists, dominate the scene almost equally” [p.9] Literature Note 18

Literature Note 21

“On the commercial strip the supermarket windows contain no merchandise. There may be signs

announcing the day’s bargains, but they are to be read by pedestrians approaching from the

parking lot, The building itself is set back from the highway and half hidden, as is most of the urban

environment, by parked cars, The vast parking lot is in front, not at the rear, since it is a symbol as

well as a convenience… its architecture is neutral because it can hardly be seen from the road”

[p.9] Precedent Note 2

Literature Note 21

Literature Note 18

“To move through a piazza is to move between high enclosing forms. To move through this
landscape is to move over vast expansive texture: the megatexture of the commercial landscape.
The parking lot is the parterre of the asphalt landscape.” [p.17]

“Service stations, motels ,and other simpler types of buildings conform in general to this system of

inflection toward the highway through the position and form of their elements, Regardless of the

front, the back of the building is styleless, because the whole is turned toward the front and no

one sees the back, The gasoline stations parade their universality the aim is to demonstrate their

similarity to one at home-your friendly gasoline station,” [p.35] Literature Note 20

42 symbolism in architecture

The Generic City KEYWORDS

Rem Koolhas- architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Identity

Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the History

Graduate School of Design at Harvard University Context

Publisher: Monacelli Press, 1995 Homogenization

Globalization

Similarity

“What are the disadvantages of identity, and conversely, what are the Symbol

advantages of blankness? What if this seemingly accidental – and usually

regretted – homogenization were an intentional process, a conscious movement away from

difference toward similarity? What if we are witnessing a global liberation movement: “down

with character!” What is left after identity is stripped? The Generic? “ ...To the extent that

identity is derived from physical substance, from the historical, from context, from the real,

we somehow cannot imagine that anything contemporary– made by us – contributes to

it.”[p.1248] Literature Note 19

“The definitive move away from the countryside, from agriculture, to the city is not a move

to the city as we knew it: it is a move to the Generic City, the city so pervasive that it has

come to the country.” [p.1250] Literature Note 19

“Instead of concentration – simultaneous presence – in the Generic City individual “moments”
are spaced far apart to create a trance of almost unnoticeable aesthetic experiences: the
color variations in the fluorescent lighting of an office building just before sunset, the subtleties
of the slightly different whites of an illuminated sign at night.” [p.1251]

city planning, urban theory 43

Situational Urbanism KEYWORDS
Directing Postwar Urbanity: History
An Adaptive Methodology for Urban Transformation Globalization
In-Between
Otto Paans & Ralf Pasel- urban design researcher- professor for Similarity
Solitude
architecture at the Berlin Technical University and principal of Pasel. Kuenzel

Architects

Publisher: Jovis 2014

“With the globalization, the presence of those places became more and more visible. The
amount of time you spend in those ‘in-between’ locations is significant....The same logic applies
to places life office corridors, parking garages, shopping malls, and hotels, All these places are
‘in-between’, and bear the stamp of temporality.” [p.37]

“Augé noticed that there is a third way of defining place: traditional societies define a dense
network of history, relations, and identity, that ties them to the place where they are living...

The idea that place can be described as a network of history, relations and identity is
anthropological in approach. It has more to do with the meaning people attach to the physical
location, than the characteristics of the place itself, Augé termed this definition ‘anthropological
place’...

Non-places are not made to actually develop a social life in. You can move through them

(highway, corridor) you can stay a short time (hotel room, loungebar) and you are able to

consume (supermarket, shopping mall).I n the case of post-war neighborhoods, the public space

has characteristics of an utilitarian non-place, while life of people develops inside their house or

elsewhere. In the non-place Augé describes (airports, hotels..) people are complete strangers to

each other.“[p.38] Precedent Note 18

“Augé describes this characteristic vividly: ‘The space of non-place creates neither singular
identity nor relations only solitude and similitude.... It could be argued that the low involvement of
people with their neighbourhood is an indirect consequence of this similitude.” [p.39]

Precedent Note 3

44 spatial theory, urban planning

Ways of Seeing KEYWORDS
John Berger-art critic, novelist, painter and poet Real
Place
Publisher: BBC and Penguin Books- 1990 Space
Experience

“What distinguishes oil painting from any other form of painting is its special ability to render the
tangibility, the texture, the lustre, the solidity of what is depicts. It defines the real as that which
you can put your hands on.” [p.88]

“Publicity is effective precisely because it feeds upon the real....But it cannot offer the real
object of pleasure and there is no convincing....Publicity is always about the future buyer....
The image makes him envious of himself as he might be....Its promise is not of pleasure, but of
happiness: happiness as judged from the outside by others.” [p.132]

“Being envied is a solitary form of reassurance.” [p.133]

“Publicity is the culture of the consumer society. It propagates through images that society’s

belief in itself.” [p.139] Precedent Note 4

art, perception 45