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Tue
Nov 20
2012

New Brewerytown Supermarket is a Triumph and Disappointment All in One

Less than five months after breaking ground, the new Brewerytown Supermarket at 31st & Girard opened its doors last week. Years in the making, this new Bottom Dollar location will provide locals with easier access to groceries than they’ve had in decades, and at reasonable prices, to boot. And since it has been built due to the collaboration of community groups, politicians, and developers, this is a particularly proud moment for many people.

The market

We don’t claim to be design experts here, but we can say without hesitation that the design of the project is terribly disappointing. And we’re not even gonna get into the orange pig curiously stationed on the roof.

Anybody like Pink Floyd?

A few years back, Interface Studio Architects, and the Community Design Collaborative created plans for this site as a part of the Infill Challenge. That design was ultra-contemporary, using interesting materials and also featured a row of housing units onto the site as well. While the design we got fronts the parking lot onto Girard Avenue, the Infill design did its best to hide the parking on the western side of the development, next to the train tracks. Just check out these renderings of what might have been:

Pedestrian area and retail at Girard, market on the right side, next to parking, housing to the north of the lot

Looking south on the development

Now, we’re not suggesting that this proposal would have been financially feasible, nor would we have expected that this plan would have been followed to a tee. But couldn’t some of these design elements have been lifted, and inserted into the final design? Couldn’t the architects have opted for something a little less suburban, a little less cookie cutter, a little less awful?

People in the neighborhood should be ecstatic about their new market, and we believe that this amenity will make the area a friendlier place to live. But it’s going to be awhile before we’re done being caught up on the contrast between what we got and what might have been.

5
COMMENTS
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Posted in Brewerytown | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments
  • http://twitter.com/thisoldcity this old city

    The parking lot in the front is reason enough to dislike this project. These chain stores just want quick and easy. Neighborhood context? Beautiful design? Don’t bother applying. Chains only care about their bottom line.

  • WeBuiltThisCity

    Bottom Dollar’s headquarters are not located in a city. Their decision makers do not live in cities. Their real estate teams and market study teams do not care about urban design. They care about what they are paid to care about – open a profitable store. And being as this store is not located next to high density or a major transit line, and being as Bottom Dollar wants you to buy as much as possible in every trip, this is what we are going to get.

    Did the neighborhood push for a parking lot that does not front Girard? I don’t know. But when an underserved neighborhood wants a food store, they don’t necessarily have the best bargaining position.

    If you ask me, this is a terrible lot to build out for a use as formulaic as a grocery store. The turn onto 31st Street off Girard is awkward at best, and quite dangerous. It is narrowest at the front by Girard, and that narrow a space is way too inefficient for a traditional grocery store. The neighborhood wanted a grocery store, this site was available, and this was always what the neighborhood was going to get, short of a miracle donor of funding.

    All that being said. The pig is horrible. Really Bottom Dollar?

  • http://twitter.com/F1rstCitizen First Citizen

    The pig is bound to be shot, slashed, and/or stolen, so don’t worry too much about it.

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    [...] Philly is disappointed by the design of the recently opened Bottom Dollar Food market at 31st & Girard in Brewerytown, dee… About the authorStephen Currall recently received his BA in history from Arcadia University. [...]

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