A first part of reading a downtown is talking about it. When you get home to your family, what do you remember? What can you mention? The first things I hear when people talk to me about architecture - within seconds - is that strip malls are ugly and that Walmart has taken over. Yes, there are 4 Walmarts within 10 miles of my house, but if Walmart is the only building we remember in that 20 mile diameter, they're doing something that no other building has been able to do. Do we only remember the ugly? Why has our perspective become so dim? Or, is there something more insidious about Walmart than its landscape that causes us to remember it. In that case, we haven't remembered anything at all about the built environment within 10 miles from our home.
Can you name the nearest strip mall? Where is it? What is ugly about it? Is it a service to you? My guess is that our memories point to the 1965 modern shell with empty storefronts. Thankfully, this model appears to have failed and is being replaced. What is different about the replacements? More careful materials? Colors? Was the solution to the ugly problem of the strip mall that simple?
As an exercise for the class, we could try to have people list ten buildings they remember between their house and the church. Which of these would you like to talk about?
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