Assignment 4: Rosemary

An older Kroger, this building is located along Ponce de Leon Avenue adjacent to the Ford Factory Lofts. Affectionately known as the Murder Kroger ( a dead body was found in their parking lot in 2002, although the name has been around longer than that due to the shady characters milling about) the building has experienced the slow gentrification of the area from the 1980s onward. The lofts themselves were converted in 1982. Quite different in appearance from the newer Kroger (below), this Kroger has a peaked front facade, perhaps made to emulate the abundant bungalows and their rooflines located in the surrounding neighborhoods.The rest of the exterior looks like typical 1970s and 1980s commercial architecture--bland, beige, reliable, and undistinguished. The interior of the store has low drop-ceilings with tiles, florescent lighting, linoleum floors, narrower aisles, and a relatively small selection of goods. The store (and vicariously the food) appears a bit dirty and run down and its patrons tend to be more working class as yuppies and families congregate at the Publix up the street. (I can't take credit for the second photo--it is so much better than the one I took.) A large parking lot surrounds the store similar to the newer Kroger.

This Kroger is located at the Edgewood shopping district, a large commercial development built in 2005. The complex containing the Kroger is supposed to emulate an organically developed, streetscaped environment perhaps like Virginia Highlands with its mix of restaurants, boutiques, and other stores. Designed to incorporate the neighborhoods of Candler Park, Little 5, Edgewood, and Reynoldstown, the building boasts brick and a pseudo-Italianate cornice on the exterior. The large windows over the front facade seem to have been added to make the structure resemble an older factory, (a currently popular building type for lofts in Atlanta) although they are curved (a modern take?) at the tops instead of square. The interior of the store has sealed cement floors, high ceilings, and a huge layout. It seems very clean and inviting compared to the murder Kroger. This modern layout lends itself to the large number of shoppers and the socioeconomic variety of patrons--the area caters to yuppies, hipsters, the working poor, and everything in between. This variety of patrons is significant as Atlanta (and other urban areas) has experienced a resurgence of intown living by white, moderately well-off people. With the super-sized layout, the store can carry a large selection of organic cheeses and wine as well as Pabst, bread, and milk. As with the older Kroger, an abundance of parking surrounds the building, although it is often a risky proposition because of the insane number of people who visit the store.