Gruen and Smith successfully describe the conglomeration that is designing a shopping center. Every step of the way it chalk full of analysis by various groups all trying to achieve a common goal at that step in the design process.
There are developers trying to find a piece of land. There are groups analyzing the accessibility and potential value of this piece of land. There are architects designing the buildings for this piece of land. There are legislators checking zoning requirements and laws regarding this area of land. There are community activists assessing the project to assure their townspeople that the project is beneficial. So much goes into planning a shopping center it is a surprise they keep popping up in every town across the US every year.
The shopping center has changed the suburban context forever. Now instead of having to shop in the downtown shopping district, you have a choice. Due to this choice, the shopping center has created unavoidable competition between companies as well as other shopping centers. This is all due to the impeccable planning and analysis that goes into a shopping center. Thorough evaluations of every detail of a shopping center must be put together by various groups in order to implement the perfect plan. The shopping center is just one more example of the powers of interdisciplinary cooperation. When multiple organizations are working together the product seems to always be of such higher quality. Any one group could attempt to plan something of this magnitude on their own, but the product would be simply insufficient.
Being able to have a network of resources from so many levels of unbiased analysis is a tool that is necessary in the planning of any large scale development, especially a commercial shopping center.
No comments:
Post a Comment