Today's New York Times (January 8, 2012) features a story by writer Sabrina Tavernise about 'the 530 Shop'. It seems that Art Oehlke, of Lorain, Ohio (near Cleveland) - is doing something that hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) wishes that more people had the courage to do. He's standing up to urban blight and flight, by opening up a shop in Lorain, where all of the other storefronts are empty. Mr. Oehlke's shop, and Mr. Oehlke himself, are taking a stand to maintain and retain an original American town's central shopping district, in defiance to the local malls, which emptied out the town.
The 530 Shop in Lorain, Ohio photo: Michael McElroy for The New York Times
This same issue of the NY Times featured a very intelligent story by Michael Kimmelman, 'Paved But Still Alive', which deals with issues that stem from the same kit of parts: communities where poor to no planning and / or vision result in deserted strip malls. In Mr. Kimmelman's piece, he looks more closely at an 'abandoned' mall, and finds life in several alternative uses and tenants who have taken over what appeared as an abandoned mall, but which in fact is fostering life, albeit with a very different vision, and set of users than the original developers had planned to support.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand/Altitude (re-posted from Nytimes.com)
hMa believes that the pathologies that lead to deserted towns and abandoned strip malls, come out from a culture with little to no foresight or planning. hMa believes in Green design, and we promote and support Green Roofs, Green Streets, and the LEED certification process.
hMa is an architectural practice that has produced several successful master planning projects, including Battery Park City's North Neighborhood, one of the most far-sighted Green communities in the world, where all of the buildings and Parks are LEED certified, as well as the Won Buddhist Retreat in upstate New York, where the construction used 100% FSC Woods, and the 550-acre wooded site was designed with five buildings, which had 'Zero-Carbon' footprint on the site.
Won Dharma Center by hanrahan Meyers architects click here to see more photos of the project on hanrahanMeyers.com
To read more about the two articles noted above, please go to the following links: 'A Dimly Flickering Light In a Darkened Downtown: ; 'Paved But Still Alive': .
To read more about hanrahan Meyers architects and their works, visit our website: www.hanrahanMeyers.com.
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