Walmart in NYC
We were given the assignment in our planning and development class to do an analysis of 44th Drive in Long Island City and propose potential retail types for undeveloped sites. I decided to have a little fun with the assignment:
I want to bring a Wal-Mart to New York. I think that New York and Wal-Mart encompass two completely different understandings and movements of architecture. Wal-Mart is the antithesis of New York. Nonetheless, they are inextricably allied by both being on the vanguard of capitalism. For that reason I find myself impelled to conjoin them. Like the boy that lights a firework; he knows it might be dangerous, or it could be fun, but either way he can’t resist.
In order to accomodate a Wal-Mart Super Center on the site (average size: 187,000 square feet), it’s necessary innovate the traditional flat Wal-Mart plan. Shopping cart-capable escalators are used to ferry customers from floor to floor. Goods reception is on the ground floor in a minimal space, and is immediately ferried to the top floor for warehousing and distribution via a freight elevator. Two levels of underground parking (225 spaces) are provided for customers that prefer to arrive by vehicle.
I really tried to embrace the Walmart aesthetic. This building is six-stories, but I simply dressed it in a stretched version of Walmart’s standard 2-tone textured CMU-block and blue-metal facade. The entrance is completely unaware of the scale of the building or of it’s own importance.
