While in Birmingham recently, this building housing a Chick-fil-A caught my attention — one, because it's a rather attractive building (and a masterpiece compared to most of the freestanding buildings accommodating fast food businesses) and, two, because the site previously was pockmarked by a horrendous looking fast food building (I don't recall if it were a Chick-fil-A but I sure remember it looked goofball surrounded by lots of cool buildings). Given the site is only one block south of the epicenter of the Ham's happening Five Points (a mixed-use urban district with lots of old-school, pedestrian-oriented structures and their attendant charm), the previous building was disturbingly out of context. This new building represents a vast improvement and shows that fast food buildings don't have to be as bad for the built environment as the food served from them is for our health.
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Not all of the newly-built, or renovated, fast food restaurants are 'bad for the built environment". While I would never term them a "masterpiece", many of the new McDonalds are much better than the one's they've replaced, with clean, modern design, nice landscaping and smaller signage. Even Chick-fil-A stores look decent with brick and well maintained exteriors. If only one could avoid the religious praise Muzak inside and the employees constantly saying "my pleasure".
ReplyDeleteA-Mous,
ReplyDeleteYes, many of the new-look McDonald's buildings look fairly attractive. There is move away from the "cartoonish" and "garish" themes these buildings long displayed and toward a more streamlined and contemporary aesthetic. And that is good.
WW