Quote:
Originally Posted by MolsonExport
1) try not to have every building the exact same design (i know it is more efficient, etc., but for every chain outlet to look the exact same is soul sucking)
2) if at all possible, try to work the building into the fabric of the city. No fake ranch-style or stucco yukko in Ontario and Quebec, please.
3) Human scale. Gigantic parking lots along 8 lane boulevards, with buildings spread out over miles instead of meters....is not human scale.
4) Do the signs need to be so big and obnoxious? Take Shoppers Dog Fart and Canadian Tire. Their signs are so huge, and the logos, so ugly.
5) there are other colours in the rainbow than grey. In fact grey is not in the rainbow, so why does everything need to be cobalt grey, which when the weather sucks for 8 months of the year, exacerbates the soul suckingness.
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Here are some other simple fixes that don't even ask RioCan or SmartCentres or whatever to do anything radical:
6) If you're building a large format store, consider having large windows along the wall that faces the road so that you can peer into the store from the outside. This used to be standard in most suburban grocery stores.
7) If these kinds of wraps obscure a working window, take that shit down immediately. What purpose does this serve? It's not even advertising.
8) If you have chain restaurants in a big box mall, locate them all in the same area so that you have some semblance of a "restaurant row". Then make sure the patios are next to each other, and that the main entrance is from some pedestrianized accessway, leading off from the parking lot rather than the parking lot itself. Hide the service/garbage entrance so that it isn't visible to the public.