Merit Award Winner

The Genetically Modified Strip, 2008
Avery Architecture & Design
Chicago

Site: Phoenix: 17236 N. 28th Street (faces Bell Road)
Design team: Richard Avery, Wendy Avery in partnership with the design firm giffin'termeer [Jess Giffin, Jim TerMeer] (www.averyarch.com and www.giffintermeer.com)
Estimated construction cost: $2.65 million
Features: co-op ownership, locally owned small businesses, expansion and live/work potential

The Genetically Modified Strip harnesses the strip mall's much-valued flexibility in a new way: it primarily serves the needs of the tenants, rather than the developer. The design team restructures the strip mall with the small-business owner in mind, architecturally and economically, to shape a new model for sustainable growth. The proposal also nurtures the energy, ambitions and the palpable neighborhood spirit that already exist around Bell Road Center. The designers opted to harness the special character it found in place: "The guys on Sunday afternoon in the back with the garage doors open, hanging out working or just cleaning the truck." They asked: "What if the center had the additional ability to grow and evolve?"

This project structurally reinforces the buildings and creates a modular infrastructure so that individual units can expand or contract as needed with shifting occupants or phases of a business. The size and configuration of the square footage can fluctuate with a business over time. Second stories could be built onto the units, to provide possibilities for live/work space, showrooms, production facilities or even rental income.

By making renters into owner-occupants, The Genetically Modified Strip Mall strengthens the standard economic model by incentivizing the entry-level sole proprietor and offering the benefits of equity ownership to a lower to mid-income level business owner. The traditional lease structure of the strip mall, while flexible for developers, typically allows limited long-term advantages for entrepreneurial tenants. However, by ensuring that the future monthly payments for owner-occupants (mortgage, taxes and assessments) would be equal to the expense of current leases, this proposal encourages small entrepreneurs to stay and build on their investments. Financially, it is a win-win for everyone involved: even the landowner who sells the mall can make a reasonable profit.

The design team asks us each to imagine and re-imagine what this strip mall might become over time. After all, despite the efforts of urban planners, architects and developers, cities are organic and ultimately are shaped by the can-do will of their inhabitants. This presentation of The Genetically Modified Strip is likewise an open system, with movable components that audiences are invited to recombine and explore. Please participate: arrange the magnetic parts (cars, trees, storefronts, signage, fountain, windmill, even a blimp) to create your own story for this strip mall.