The Surreal Strip Mall

University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-2005 The Surreal Strip Mall Myles N. Trudell University of Tennessee, Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Architecture Commons Recommended Citation Trudell, Myles N., "The Surreal Strip Mall. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2005. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/4592 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Myles N. Trudell entitled "The Surreal Strip Mall." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Architecture, with a major in Architecture. Mark Schimmenti, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: C. A. Debelius, George Dodds Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Myles N. Trudell entitled "The Surreal Strip Mall." I have examined the final paper copyof this thesis for form and content and recommendthat it beaccepted in partialfulfillment of the requirements for the degree ofMaster of Architecture, with a major in Architecture. /)14,tKJ'�� Major Professor Acceptance for the Council: · Graduate Studies .. .._. The Surreal Strip Mall A Thesis Presented for the Master of Architecture Degree University ofTe nnessee, Knoxville Myles N. Trudell May 2005 ii Copyright© 2005 by Myles N. Trudell All rights reserved. iii Dedication This thesis is dedicated to Peachey and my parents, and Luna and Gatsby. iv Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge Mark Schimmenti, George Dodds, and C.A. Debelius for their guidance and support in the development of this thesis project. V Abstract This thesis examines the surreal quality of sub-urban strip malls. Using the the theories set forthin Robert Venturi's Leaming from Las Vegas and Rem Koolhaas' Delirious New York, I present a proposal for the redevelopment of an underused strip mall in South Knoxville. The goal of this proposal is to use surreality as a tool to illuminate the absurdities inherent in many sub-urban developments, and to create a civic/commercial center to serve the community. vi Table of Contents Chapter 1 Proposition 1 Chapter 2 Site 23 Chapter 3 Program 32 Chapter 4 Performance Program 36 Chapter 5 Mashpee Commons 38 Chapters Loyola Law School 41 Chapter 7 Building Codes 43 Bibliography 45 Appendix 47 Vita 62 vii List of Tables Table 1: Museum p.34 Table 2: Museum Superstore p.34 Table 3: Library p.35 Table 4: Day Care Center p.35 viii List of Figures Figure 1: Knoxville Convention Center p.1 Figure 2: Las Vegas Strip p.3 Figure 3: The Modern Strip Mall p.3 Figure 4: The Decorated Shed p.4 Figure 5: Luna Park p. 6 Figure 6: "Strangers on a Train:" The Sinister and the Surreal p.6 Figure 7: The Downtown Athletic Club p.7 Figure 8: Neglect of Context p.8 Figure 9: ''The Door'' p.10 Figure 10: Electricity: the Architectural Duplicator p.11 Figure 11: Cadillac Ranch p.13 Figure 12: Absence of Cause p. 14 Figure 13: The Forest Building p. 15 Figure 14: BASCO p. 17 Figure 15: Inversion of Scale p.18 Figure 16: ''The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise:" Greed and p.19 Consumption Figure 17: Salvador Dali's ''The Discovery of America by Christopher p.21 Columbus" Figure 18: Salvador Dali's "House of Venus:" Surrealism in Built p.21 Form Figure 19: Chapman Ford Crossing: KGIS Map p.24 Figure 20: Chapman Ford Crossing Property Sheet p.2� ix Figure 21 : Food Lion, Abandoned p.26 Figure 22: Goody's, Still in use p.26 Figure 23: Wal-Mart, Abandoned p.26 Figure 24: Abandonment p.27 Figure 25: Site Entrance Diagram p.27 Figure 26: Existing Elevations p.28 Figure 27: Existing Site Plan p.29 Figure 28: Building Scale Plan p.30 Figure 29: Topography Plan p.31 Figure 30: The Museum Superstore p.32 Figure 31: Conceptual Diagram p.37 Figure 32: Mashpee Commons p.39 Figure 33: Loyola Law School p.42 Figure 34: Zoning Map p.43 Figure 35: Building Codes p.44 Figure 36: Location Plate p.48 Figure 37: Site Plate p.49 Figure 38: Collages Plate p.50 Figure 39: Design Development Plate p.51 Figure 40: Building Design Plate p.52 Figure 41: First Floor Plan p.53 Figure 42: Second Floor Plan p.54 Figure 43: South Elevation p.55 Figure 44: Section 1 p.56 Figure 45: Section2 p.57 X Figure 46: Section3 p.58 Figure 47: West Elevation p.59 Figure 48: Billboards p.60 Figure 49: Gallery Perspective p.61 Figure 50: Bridge Perspective p.61 1 1 Proposition Commercial box architecture of the sprawling metropolitan areas is beginning to devour civic and municipal building types. In Knoxville, DMVs and voter registration centers exist within East Towne Mall. Another OMV is located in a strip mall just beyond the town limits. Many of our public buildings findhomes within the private realms of commercial sprawl. Those buildings that do not inhabit private commercial realms, imitate them. Libraries with extensive street front parking lots exist along Kingston Pike. The new Knoxville Convention Center, located in the city's center, bears a striking resemblance to a shopping mall, refusing to engage the street by employing setbacks and a lack of entrance from Henley Street [Figure 1 ]. Parking lots surround even west Knoxville churches, the central gathering place for many communities, distancing them fromthe streets and the buildings around them. I will examine the transformation of a (partially) physically abandoned site (a strip mall, Chapman Ford Crossing) into a new civic/commercial center. The project Figure 1 : Knoxville Convention Center [author] 2 will focus on the use of the surreal through the development of the sprawling urban landscape and how in many cases surrealhas become real. The goal of the project will be to use the design theories set forth in Learning from Las Vegas while addressing the surreal disconnect of Delirious New Yorkto create a successful sub-urban building design. In Learning from Las Vegas Robert Venturi embraces the automobile-landscape, developing an urban architectural theory from the autoscape of ''The Strip." Venturi's intent is to learn from the paradigm of autoscape architecture, good or bad: 'We look backward at history and tradition to go forward; we can also look downward to go upward. And withholding judgement may be used as a tool 1 to make later judgment more sensitive. " Looking "downward to upward" is a hierarchical viewpoint- to learn from commonplace or undesirable elements to create something desirable. The resulting analysis of the Las Vegas Strip gives way to theories of an architecture of "communication" over "space" [Figure 2]. The modernstrip mall is a similar example: the architecture and merchandise are disconnected from the road. It is the sign that connects the driver to the store [Figure 3]. Venturi explains, "because spatial relationships are made by symbols more than by forms, architecture in this landscape becomes symbol in space 2 rather than form in space. " Venturi calls this building type the "decorated shed," 1Robert Venturi, Denise Scott-Brown, and Steve lzenour, Leaming from Las Ve gas (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1977). 2Robert Venturi, Denise Scott-Brown, and Steve lzenour, Leaming from Las Ve gas (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1977). 3 Figure 2: Las Vegas Strip Figure 3: The Modem Strip Mall [author]. 4 in which the building structure and spatial systems serve the program in a direct manner, and the sign or ornamentation is applied either to the structure or away from it. The sign and building exist independent of one another [Figure 4]. In many sprawling metropolitan areas, strip malls are expected. Removed from the city's denser areas, giant plazas and shopping centers occupy the main roads of more sub-urban, residential areas, dwarfing the quieter neighborhoods surrounding them. These are decorated sheds in their least sensitive form, enormous structures with glowing signs glued to the facade. Once inside the central stores, many times with more square footage, higher ceilings, and a bigger signs than their adjacent siblings, the context in which the building rests all but vanishes. The disconnectionbetween the inside of a large strip mall grocer or retailer and the outside is so strong that the inhabitant may lose all sense of place and time. In fact, Venturi acknowledges the surreal component of casino design: "[Las Vegas] suggests that essential to the imagery of pleasure-zone EB r·· f..u J .IJ co ATC=D SHED Figure 4: The Decorated Shed [Learning from Las Vegas, page 89] 5 architecture are lightness, the quality of being an oasis in a perhaps hostile 3 context, heightened symbolism, and the ability to engulf the visitor in a new role. " Delirious New York gives further attention to the seductive qualities of "pleasure zone architecture,"in which Rem Koolhaas speaks to the condition Venturi 4 identifies in casinos in the context of Coney Island- "a fetal Manhattan" • Coney Island's amusement parks create escapist experiences by building architecture that simulates such experiences as being underwateror in outer space [Figure 5].

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