This famous Bread Company is located on a major roadway in St. Petersburg, Florida. It’s close to mid-day. Can you tell if it’s open for business?
This structure meets most of the parameters for situation according to Form Based Codes:
- It addresses the street with the front of the building pushed as close as possible to roadway, still allowing for a sidewalk in front;
- Parking is located at the rear and is accessed by an alley on the corner and by a small drive/roadway along the rear.
- The building façade includes windows along the front, so there is no bare wall.
But it looks
lifeless.
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| At the driveway / alley looking across the front. | At the driveway /alley, looking the other way. |
It looks forced and pretentious. Notice the backflow preventers out front.
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| At the front… | At the front…apparently no signs allowed. Not even way-finding. |
Below is a view across the street, with more of the same...
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| Sunken Gardens (across the street) |
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| Sunken Gardens (across the street) |
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Realizing what they were trying to do, I told my wife I was sure there would be parking at the rear. After a circuitous drive, we found a way in, through a City Park; but it was as barren as the front, with the smell of grease traps near the rear entry door.
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| Building Rear Parking Area | Building Rear Parking Area. A sea of asphalt. |
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| View up the Alley from Rear Parking Area. | Front again from alley, looking right. What’s wrong with this? |
This application lacks appeal, and gives the impression of a caricature; a
Potemkin.
For you Planners who are interested in Form Based Codes, pedestrian friendly streets, lively and attractive urban areas, leave some suggestions in the comments section here….
More photos:
Some of your issues are valid, but 1) you led the piece with photos of Sunken Gardens, which is an entirely different building on the other side of 4th Street, and 2) you apparently missed the driveway from 4th Street into the parking lot that serves Panera Bread. There was no need to go around the block through Crescent Lake Park. Also, that Panera Bread has been there for years, and seems to be doing just fine business-wise.
ReplyDeleteThank you. You're right about the photo lead. That IS sunken Gardens (an unintentional error I'll correct.)you're also right about the driveway, but that's my point. i did mention that the business was thriving I don't know if it was primarily local traffic or not. You are more familiar with the area than I, but also to the point, especially for those like myself as first time visitor.
DeleteThanks again for the heads up on the photo. Changing that as soon as I can get to my computer. Too hard on this smart phone
OK. Got the photos straight. Thanks again for pointing that out.
DeleteThe site only superficially addresses the street. The doors that open to the street look like back doors. That is particularly true of the Outback Steakhouse next door. The sidewalk isn't particularly pedestrian friendly. There is no on street parking, no street trees, no street furniture, no benches nor much else to encourage walking. With all of the parking in back and no pedestrian links to the street, they have just moved the back alley out front and called it a sidewalk. The functional relationships of the site are completely designed for cars, and not well designed at that. The driveways are difficult to find from the street and the alley on the north side creates a dismal entrance for the complex. The only pedestrian friendly space on the site is the courtyard entrance to the bakery off the back parking lot.
ReplyDeleteIn fairness to the designer however, when you look at the neighboring streetscape, there isn't much to work with. Few of the neighboring properties address the street any better. The entire corridor is designed for cars first. It seems absurd to impose a code mandating pedestrian friendly development when there is no existing pedestrian environment. There needs to be some effort to redesign the public space to enable some truly pedestrian friendly retail spaces. Someone does not understand how pedestrian friendly commercial districts work and how form based codes can guide development. Whether the fault is with the designer, the code, the plan reviewer or all of the above is difficult to say.
The pictures do make it look grim. I don't know the larger context, but I suppose that has something to do with the lack of people in the photo. The road looks wide. Speeds over 30 mph discourage walking and seating especially without on street parking. At first glance the building doesn't look like it meets the 50%-70% transparency ratio at ground floor I see in most FBC. The knee wall is too high. The shopfront awnings too shallow. The street needs trees. Absent burying utilities you'll need to use short ones. The sidewalk is wide and could support street furniture/seating. The front facade is too wide without a vertical break. 50 feet is a good upper limit. I prefer 30. I've seen worse! Still the best looking commercial building in the world won't work if it's built in the wrong spot...
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like some folks assume both buildings are new. I believe both are actually both quite old and were built in the current locations before 4th St became as wide as it currently is. That said, we do have other newer buildings in that area which were required to be built close to and facing the street. Moreover, I agree that this is not a perfect example of a pedestrian friendly streetscape. To really get there, you'd need to reduce the overall width of the street and calm the traffic. That would encourage the businesses to truly activate the street sides of their establishments. Maybe that will be possible in the long-run, but if we stayed with the suburban model of having all parking out in front, we'll be stuck with more of the same stuff the community has already said they don't like.
ReplyDeleteThe streetscape next to the parking lot for the Sunken Gardens is actually nicer than that for this building (See photo above). This emphasizes one of the problems that have to be solved with pushing the buildings close to the street. I'm posting additional views above (thanks to Google Earth). Notice the power lines above the utility strip, in front of the building. Many communities will not allow trees to be planted that could interfere with utility lines. While it's not obvious, gas lines may be below ground in that strip as well. Secondly, plantings and furniture in a public right-of-way are hard for government agencies to accept, simply because they must be maintained. The question is alway "Who is going to pay for this?" And that's not a petty question.
ReplyDeleteThe building does indeed look like an old building that has been converted to the existing restaurant / retail center. Rear parking was improved around 2002 (from aerial photos).
Retrofitting is more difficult in these situations, and the decision about how it's done is important. I don't know if the structure was an Historcal Asset or not. If so, even more problems exist with remodeling / retrofitting that meet Department of State (Florida) standards. If modifications were allowed that affected the front facade, more could have been done with fenestration to allow more visibility into the building while not destroying the overall historical feel of the structure.
4th Street North a 4 lane divided highway, and it looks like an effort was made (ca. 2010) to make it more accessible and attractive for pedestrians with a signaled (wig-way) mid-block crossing just north of the alley / driveway.
It should also be pointed out that any street trees planted, or any parking installed at the roadway would need to be situated so that the clear sight zone to both the north and the south would not be obstructed. This is an issue, because the roadway at this location has a center turn lane (suicide lane) instead of a divider with gaps. The divider starts just before one could make a left turn into the driveway (not impossible because of the configuration of the divider containing the mid-block crossing.
So, making the best of a bad situation? Making just enough improvements to make the building financially viable? Lack of cooperation / coordination by permit authorities to achieve an aesthetically pleasing result? Probably a bit of all.