Have you ever driven by a building and just thought…why? I definitely have! Here are three buildings that have caught my eye and some ways they could have been designed more successfully.
Disclaimer: This article is for entertainment purposes only. I encourage readers to go out and check these places for themselves. I also urge readers to separate the physical form of the building and other elements discussed from the business itself. Thank you!
- Conns HomePlus, Post Oak Mall
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When designing an addition to a structure, it can do one of three things:
– replicate the style of the existing, seamlessly blending new versus old.
– juxtapose the existing, providing a new style with hints of it.
-Or do whatever the new Conns store chose to do.
As an architecture student, I have a radar of what is being built in College Station. This one caught my attention, for it is stark white, while the existing Post Oak mall offers warm earthy tones with its brick façade. I hold low standards for big-box stores or chains, but this fell below that. I saved any judgments until it was fully built, waiting for some hint of the existing to appear. Alas, it remained without any trace of Post Oak, cr
- Connecting Point Church
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Before I begin, I would like to provide a short backstory on 410 Harvey Road. When I was in grade school, shopping for school supplies was my favorite activity. OfficeMax was premier, providing my younger self with the highest quality notebooks, pens, and whatever else I desired. OfficeMax closed at some point, merging with Office Depot. A new property had hit the market in 2011, with a lot size of just over two acres and square footage of almost thirty-one thousand! Personally, despite my love for office essentials, I have never walked into an office supply store and felt spiritual. Nevertheless, someone somewhere seized this opportunity to turn the former OfficeMax into a place of worship. This concept fills my mind with the idea of combining the features of a church and the blank canvas created by retail space. Imagine a stained glass addition to the shell of this simplistic structure or a steeple that creates a juxtaposition with the rectangular volume associated with these stores. While the function of this building changed, not much else did. This isn’t completely the issue, as I believe it is not where you worship that matters. Inside of the new church, the adjacent coffee house provides users with foldable chairs and banquet tables that serve as overflow seating into the main church space. Temporary partitions may separate the seating and the church, but the sounds of the teen church meetings and ping-pong games echo. You might even be asked to serve a ping-pong back over the partition if you’re lucky!
In no way am I opposed to the adaptive reuse of a large commercial big-box store to something that serves the community. As Stewart Brand points out in How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built, “[Big-Box Buildings are] designed not to adapt; also budgeted and financed not to, constructed not to, administered not to, maintained not to, regulated and taxed not to. But all buildings adapt anyway … because the usages in and around them change constantly.” So, in reality, this is by no means an easy transformation, and perhaps, it is one that evolves over time. I admire the fact that the owners decided to seize this opportunity instead of letting the building decay. As a business grows, more permanent furniture and adjustments to the exterior façade may be added.
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- Z Islander
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My first experience in this building was during a holiday party hosted by a friend living in one of these fantasy apartments. It felt like a cheesy Christmas in July, the apartment encompassed in palm trees and bright hues. My friend’s apartment was purchased as fully furnished; the indoor furniture was outdoor wicker seating, which I found odd. I firmly believe in place-based design; architecture should clearly respond to the surrounding environmental conditions. Z Islander is the exact opposite of this objective, with a tropical-inspired style located in a dry climate. In an ad on College Student Apartments, the listing boasts a design-oriented around a “Wabi-Sabi feeling.” According to a searching engine, this term refers to “the Japanese philosophy that encourages us to focus on the blessings hiding in our daily lives and celebrating the way things are rather than how they should be.” (Oppong, Thomas) Using this thought as a design goal for student-living could prove successful, but this particular application is not. From an architectural standpoint, the “Wabi-Sabi” concept is more successful in embracing natural materials and their imperfections, rather than the apartment building of make-believe.
There are several projects with similar aspirations, such as the Villa in Ibiza by Reutov Design and a similar project by Reutov Design: the Apartment New York. The goal is to take a break from everyday life, creating a more successful integration of escapism design. While these budgets far exceed what Z Islander most likely had, they show how to successfully implement a whimsical color palette tastefully. One would be surprised to see how paint can change a space.
In a town full of student-housing, I admire the ambition to change the stereotypical exterior and the aspiration to improve the user’s outlook on life. However, a few palm trees, a pool, and wicker couches aren’t quite the form of escapism students are looking for. Overall, I just wish Z Islander would have taken the concept further, fully committing to the fantasy.
As an aspiring architect, I must remind myself to do my research on a project before fully judging the exterior. Conn’s might be an exception, but the Connecting Point Church and Z Islander apartments had valid ambitions. While I do not think either’s ambitions have reached the pinnacle yet, I feel they still might! These somewhat-ordinary buildings, successful or not, allow architecture students to critically think and imagine the culmination point had the concept been implemented full-force. It is these buildings that become the stepping stone towards proficiency for young architects and designers.