Baltimore Developer to Stack Walmart on Top of Lowe’s

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that Kann Partners, a development firm is planning a $65 million housing and retail development anchored by Walmart and Lowe’s, which they plan on stacking. This is interesting for a few reasons:

1. From the article:

   It will be the first to open in this area since [Walmart] executives launched a campaign to retool stores with new graphics and merchandise as well as eco-friendly construction and operating practices.

2. On top of the Lowe’s and Walmart will be a green roof that covers an acre.

3. The Lowe’s store will be mostly underground.

4. The Walmart will be about half the size of typical supercenters, but still contain a grocery store.

5. The site for development is an urban part of Baltimore, not out in the suburbs.

I can’t help but wonder if Lowe’s and Walmart are being so flexible because they are running out of easy suburban opportunities. This project runs counter to the typical pattern of a big-box retail development and is much more suited to an urban locale. The stacking, shrinking, and greening of the building is a positive response to an urban context, but we’ll have to see if big-box stores can replicate their suburban financial successes in cities.

Barrier Streets and Community Streets

I’ve been thinking about the role of streets in defining neighborhoods. A lot of people define their neighborhood by the streets that create their boundaries. When I was living in Appleton, WI, my neighborhood was the square between Mason, Wisconsin, Richmond, and College Avenues. All of these streets have more traffic than the streets within the neighborhood (three of them with four lanes of traffic total). All of them have shopping that is car oriented. The neighborhood was very peaceful and nice when you stayed in it, but if you weren’t in a car, it was kind of a pain to leave it.

I also lived in a neighborhood in Portland that I always referred to as “Belmont” because that was the major street I was closest to. I considered my neighborhood to be Belmont and the area around it. Belmont used to have a streetcar running down it in the old days, and it much of it is still friendly to pedestrians and bikes. A lot of streets in Portland are like this. In fact, I’d say that most people there use the largest street as the name of their neighborhood.

I think this highlights the opportunity there for improving streets. We can see streets as car-only and create barriers between neighborhoods, or we can create more complete streets and use them to bring people together. If you get a street right, it can go on to become a reference point for the entire city and a source of pride for the immediate community.