Thursday, July 24, 2014

Time to Hold National Chains to a higher architectural standard when they demo.

This is not your typical CVS store. It attempts to make an architectural statement and could easily looks more like an old art deco theatre, than an chain pharmacy store. Yet CVS and Walgreens routinely tear down irreplaceable architecture and build their boring bland suburban stores in historic districts upsetting the streetscape and forever changing the architecture.

What is really interesting about this CVS is that nothing was even demoed to build it. It was built in new development called Villages of West Clay and was part of their West Clay "Uptown development".

West Clay is one of those "New Urbanism " communities trying to create a small town in the cornfields of suburbia. This building looks the way it does because the ONLY way they could build in this community was to make it look old.

If the big chains can do it when they have too, why can't historic neighborhoods demand the same treatment?

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