I'm just here to vent, mostly about something aesthetic. I hate how commercial real estate is used in the US. I hate big box chain stores surrounded by parking lots the size of a small town. Malls are bad enough, but here's like a worse version of a Mall with even more parking and without even the courtesy of interior decor.
For those of y'all outside the US, imagine a giant parking lot and then like 10 stores all glued together and 1 giant one, usually something like a Best Buy or Kohls or whatever.
They're always the same thing too. I've been to 30 different states and they're everywhere. They're typically a very bland beige color. Maybe another color if you're lucky. They're ugly as hell. They're cluttered together randomly to ensure maximum parking space. They always look terrible and no regard is put into presentation at all. They're just the core features of American excess boiled down.
Drive car here, buy treats, leave.
They're such a waste of space and the only reason they exist is because malls were too slow at generating profit because too much walking is involved. I'm so mad at driving past a zillion of these no matter where in the country I go. I could be in Florida, California, South Carolina, Montana, doesn't matter. Same 10 things over and over. Kohls, Ross, Subway sammiches, gamestop, nail salon, Lens crafters, dentists (??), fucking emergency rooms sometimes (???). Yes let's put the emergency room right next to the Dick's Sporting Goods please
Can we please have architecture that either looks nice or performs better functions than just huge parking lots with consumer nonsense attached
Does anyone like these things
Yeah they really are everywhere. We have 'em here in Seattle. But I think the central problem is the roads. As long as everything's built around cars and roads and parking lots and urban sprawl those will continue to exist. Honestly I wonder if it would be best to embrace the Amazon-ification of retail and make most things online-only. Some stuff like shoe stores really do need to be in-person. And restaurants. But they obviously shouldn't exist as a rectangular monstrosity. I feel like the internet (and this may just be my terminally online self) has made so much physical stuff obsolete. I don't even know if communal recreational spaces are all that useful these days since you can actually meet people easier by at least organizing things online. Maybe urban areas should just be parks and restaurants? What do you do with 90% of the space? Maybe cities should get nature-fied. It would be interesting to make a 3d model or video game environment of an ideal city. Almost everything can be housing (with some mixed in office spaces) and green space and natural environments with the rest being secluded factories. 90% of the infrastructure in this country seems to exist just to exist. Seattle especially is insane because the space in between cities in the Greater Seattle Area is just spaghetti freeways. Tear it down and put in more light rail and special roads for shipping and call it a day. idk im not a city planner :shrug-outta-hecks:
If you look at any urban area in Google Maps from satellite, it looks like mold: fuzzy gray and white.
I was just looking at Moscow on Google Maps and it's so different. Moscow appears to be almost entirely apartments and green space.