A Toast To The Corner Store

Design Trekking friend Dave and I adventured aimlessly through an old downtown Sacramento residential neighborhood Friday, and marveled at the capital's proliferation of small "corner" stores. It reminds us of life before the massive modern proliferation of drive-to "convenience" stores.
Sam's Market, not far from the state Capitol building, is one of those corner stores. By all appearances this building is original "mixed use," long before the concept became newly popular in architectural and planning circles. The store is downstairs, the owner lives upstairs.

Bonus: There's a California-theme mural painted on the side wall:

Big Box: Target steps it up a notch

Of all the architectural designs to see on this earth why do we bother here to check out Target? Maybe it's because this is what we see day in and out in most cities. In 21st Century America, there aren't many Eiffel Towers, Chicago Water Towers or evocative Flatiron commercial buildings to marvel over. We count our blessings when a big-box department store does incrementally better than usual.

Consider this "big box" retailer in Davis, California. Davis, population about 64,000, is a University of California town, where even having a Target was a huge political divide. Many true believers didn't want it. They believed Target was an corporate abomination that would shred their cohesive little downtown district. Eventually, when Target won a popular vote to open up shop in town, it went the extra mile to design something less offensive than standard suburban strip.

I may be a pushover, but I like the lone palm tree and red brick facade below. It says to me: California.


I like the tower here, too, and the glass-fronted entrance. It looks like walking into a multiplex movie theater. Not architectural genius here. But for department store shopping it's not bad. (Note the glass corporate logo in the tower).

Bridges to Nowhere

Millions ask, "Design Trekker, where do you go to get away from spanning the globe, viewing the world's architectural treasures and felonies?" The answer is Cosumnes River Preserve in Northern California. It's a huge wild place south of Sacramento where millions of birds spend the winter and humans walk pedestrian footpaths and bridges into the middle of nowhere. I live 10 minutes north of the parking lot, where all urban cares fall quickly silent.

The place is designed for humans viewing birds. So the bridges are built to pedestrian scale, a gift to those who like to slow down and stroll. These small, lovely feats of iron and wood below span marshes, creeks and wetlands.

Through the cottonwoods:


Across the sea of reeds:



(Back from the hunt. I met this enjoyable gent from San Jose, out shooting with his son-in-law's Nikon):