Our society is moving towards urbanization and creating denser micro-urban lifestyle centers. These sites are typically planned out with a simple road and pedestrian path system, with density and diversity of program. Big box stores are beginning to push their way into these environments, and their designs will have to adapt. When a site forces you to build on a grid block, you have to pay attention to all sides of the store, not just the front facade.
My site sits in a place called Fairfax Corner in Northern Virginia that is a planned out development around a central pedestrian plaza, with sidewalks and roads in a grid pattern around the central plaza, and buildings with retail and restaurants around the outermost ring. There are surface parking lots around the perimeter of the site, and garages both beneath buildings and above grade. There are also commercial offices, hotels, apartments, and a movie theater sitting on the site. I chose a grid block between the movie theatre, apartments, and a hotel to place my building. It has a large road behind it (parallel to Interstate 66), and the road in front of the site leads to the central pedestrian plaza.
Planned pathways
My site in the development
