Meijer Coming to Detroit

[animatedmartian]

Why can't they have entrances on both sides? I've been into urban big box stores with multiple entrances.

Yes, the school was on an excessively large lot, but it was also built to be easily accessible by pedestrians coming from Grand River or McNichols, as well as those coming from the residential areas abutting the property. It's not really a huge deal considering the location, but I wish they would pay more attention to it.

Schools and retail are zoned differently into a neighborhood. Schools needs access for kids walking, buses, and parents dropping off their kids. Retail needs access for product shipments and shoppers. Residential roads aren't designed for heavy traffic flow or semi-trucks.

A few examples:

Retail:
http://g.co/maps/tj38w

http://g.co/maps/2x2e7

School:
http://g.co/maps/5fe7m

http://g.co/maps/g3hk3

Something interesting about the Home Depot layout is that there is a sidewalk from 7 Mile, but no direct access from Meyers [[pedestrians would have to walk on the yellow striped zone). There are no pedestrian walkways leading to the street behind HD [[Monte-Vista) and that outlot for the drive-thru restaurant has no proper flow and forces people to drive up and around in order to get in and to leave. ALSO, the traffic flowing from 7 Mile goes directly through a parking aisle. Statistically, this is how and where most car accidents happen in a parking lot. This is a particular example of what a horrible big-box urban layout would look like.

[iheartthed]

Schools and retail are zoned differently into a neighborhood. Schools needs access for kids walking, buses, and parents dropping off their kids. Retail needs access for product shipments and shoppers. Residential roads aren't designed for heavy traffic flow or semi-trucks.

A few examples:

Retail:
http://g.co/maps/tj38w

http://g.co/maps/2x2e7

School:
http://g.co/maps/5fe7m

http://g.co/maps/g3hk3

What you say makes sense. So I just looked at the layout again that Parkguy posted and it appears that the only thing preventing the store from being built against the street is the gas station. You could build the store along the street and still have ample room for entrances and exits to the parking lots that would keep traffic off of the side streets... if it weren't for the gas station.

[animatedmartian]

What you say makes sense. So I just looked at the layout again that Parkguy posted and it appears that the only thing preventing the store from being built against the street is the gas station. You could build the store along the street and still have ample room for entrances and exits to the parking lots that would keep traffic off of the side streets... if it weren't for the gas station.

Well, IMO, they don't need the gas station to begin with. That's just something that Meijers will use to get extra revenue rather than having extra retail space that may or may not sit empty.

They could replace the gas station with another retail block but either way the main building will be in the back away from the street. It has to stay in a similar physical shape as most other big box stores for design and interior layout reasons.

Had this been a design for Corktown or Downtown or somewhere closer to the inner-city where space is limited and valuable, then yes you'd be right about them putting the store up against the street. But since this is primarily residential area with low capacity streets with only one or two major roads, the current design makes the most sense.

[iheartthed]

Well, IMO, they don't need the gas station to begin with. That's just something that Meijers will use to get extra revenue rather than having extra retail space that may or may not sit empty.

Agreed.

They could replace the gas station with another retail block but either way the main building will be in the back away from the street. It has to stay in a similar physical shape as most other big box stores for design and interior layout reasons.

If they didn't have the gas station then the building wouldn't need to be set back from the main road[[s), that's my point.

Had this been a design for Corktown or Downtown or somewhere closer to the inner-city where space is limited and valuable, then yes you'd be right about them putting the store up against the street. But since this is primarily residential area with low capacity streets with only one or two major roads, the current design makes the most sense.

Other than the larger lot sizes, the layout of this area is really not that different than the layout of Corktown: major arterial roads with major side streets feeding into them. Also, Grand River from Greenfield through Telegraph is probably one of the few remaining commercial thoroughfares in the city that hasn't completely deteriorated [[outside of downtown and midtown). Probably 80 - 90% of the buildings in that area directly abut the street. Meijer will be the standout for having such a large set back from the street.

[animatedmartian]

If they didn't have the gas station then the building wouldn't need to be set back from the main road[[s), that's my point. Other than the larger lot sizes, the layout of this area is really not that different than the layout of Corktown: major arterial roads with major side streets feeding into them. Also, Grand River from Greenfield through Telegraph is probably one of the few remaining commercial thoroughfares in the city that hasn't completely deteriorated [[outside of downtown and midtown). Probably 80 - 90% of the buildings in that area directly abut the street. Meijer will be the standout for having such a large set back from the street.

What do you consider on the street?

Along almost all of Detroit's major roads there are commercial thoroughfares and pretty much all of the have buildings that are built away from the road dating back to the 60s. Mejiers would be the stand out in being farthest from the road, but demolishing wall to wall to street buildings in favor of ones that are either surrounded by a lane of parking or with parking covering the neighboring lots is not something new. That Grandland Shopping Center by Southfield was built in 1965.

Also, the high school itself is not to the street line, at least not to Grand River or McNichols. In any case, it doesn't seem more urban than if it was still outside the city limits. I'm not sure that having Meijers put on the street line would make it any more urban just because of more pedestrian traffic. There's still a lot of other factors that make something truly "urban", like readily available mass transit.

[iheartthed]

What do you consider on the street?

For the purposes of this discussion, I am considering the location of the current school building as "on the street". There is a set back but it's less than 100 feet and the only barrier between building and street is the green space.

Nearly all of the buildings along Grand River now are far closer to the street than even the high school building, so the Meijer setback absolutely will stick out. I'll concede that this ain't the best place in the city to make the stand on maintaining urbanity, but even still this will be a stark divergence from the type of building that exists in the area now.