Studies for a Strip Mall

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Studies for a Strip Mall

Stamford, CT

This project began as a study for the redevelopment of a commercial strip in Stamford, Connecticut. The client has owned the property since the 1950s, over which time the city of Stamford has developed into a bustling commuter city. As properties around the site have evolved, this commercial strip has remained relatively undeveloped. The owner approached us to consider new visions for the property which would add interest and value to the site without interrupting the operations of the current retail tenants of the building. Taking cues from the cultural landscape around the site, the project was envisioned as a large billboard-like installation. Appropriating the vinyl wrap-a-round advertising tactics of the buses which frequently pass the site, the large surface is wrapped with a blurred image of Stamford as seen from a moving commuter train. During the day, as cars and buses wait frozen at the congested traffic light outside the building, they are greeted by an image of movement. At night a series of fluorescent tube lights illuminate the image from behind, accenting it with streaks of color, suggestive of the speeding taillights and headlights of the six-lane highway below. The installation – which is constructed of clear fiberglass panels mounted to a frame on the roof and face of the building – begins just above the doors of the retail storefronts below, and draws significant visibility and attention to the otherwise neglected site.

Recipient of an AIA Design Award (2008), and featured in Resonance (Princeton Architectural Press, 2010)