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Architects: Randy Brown Architects
- Year: 2005
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Photographs: Farshid Assassi
Text description provided by the architects. Village Pointe East is one of Randy Brown Architects’ many responses to the strip mall. Brown sees strip malls as inevitable consequences of the suburban landscape. Instead of taking a utopian stance against them, Brown wants to do the best with the reality we live in.
Project description and images after the break.
Location 302/304 N. 168th Circle, Omaha, Nebraska USA
Brown’s aspirations aside, strip mall developers are just about as keen on incorporating Brown’s design ideas as architects are about designing strip malls. Thus to realize his vision, Brown with his father, brother, and brother-in-law formed their own development and management company, Quantum Quality Real Estate. This union between developer and architect has not only led to architectural accolades, but it has also brought about financial success, after the first 5 years their malls were 100 percent full and they had not lost one tenant.
The L-shape design utilizes the sloping site to create a lower level “walk-out basement” used by a daycare center. This maximizes the square footage and Quantum’s rental income. The building also has a pedestrian entrance to connect to the adjacent neighborhood.
Benches create spaces for customers to pause and wait outside for their appointments at the nail salon, dentist, doctor, beauty salon and the other strip mall tenants. Native grasses, ivy on chain link and crushed limestone have been incorporated into the design to soften the building.
