Assignment 3: Wright

Strip shopping centers in America have an amazing talent of constantly reinventing themselves.

Whether through cosmetic changes, rebranding, or gutting and rebuilding, strip centers can often outlive the typical useful life of similar construction techniques. This tenacious sense of survival is frequently a result of cultural changes in a community.

The shopping center shown in these pictures is on LaVista Road near Northlake Mall in DeKalb County, Georgia. It is somewhat atypical in that it runs perpendicularly to the road. Photo 1 shows the building looking toward LaVista. What is not visible from this angle is the liquor store that sits at the front of this center where it has probably been located for many years. The window in the foreground at the right was the frontage for a shoe repair shop that moved from this location to historic downtown Tucker a couple of years ago. The space in between (with the door in the center of the picture) is now a hair salon.

The second photo shows the rear half of the structure. It houses an Indian grocery and banquet hall at the far end.

With the loss of the shoe shop, this shopping center is now comprised entirely of Indian-owned or operated businesses. Strangely, this area is not heavily populated by Indians, and in fact, they do not comprise much of the demographic makeup that frequents surrounding businesses in other strip centers or the mall. Nonetheless, they have still come together to breathe new life into the aging and dying center.

Finally, the third picture depicts a detail of the shopping center. Just within the past few months, the EIFS cornice and stone accents on the columns were added along with a fresh coat of paint. Previously, the structure had a colonial American appearance with a shingled, gable roof running the length of the building and dormer windows roughly in line with the bay windows still in existence. There was also a cupola atop the roof at the midpoint. The roof and adornments were in poor condition. Although the building is much cleaner in its appearance now, it has become a strange mixture of styles. But it still represents the common changes a shopping center undergoes, particularly when minority cultures begin to occupy the space.