The Dirty Bird is Gone

[eschaton]

That Rite-Aid building is ugly as sin, but I agree it's a step up from a gas station at a busy, walkable intersection.

Sadly, there's no real good way to integrate gas stations into a walkable urban fabric. They work best on prominent street corners, both because road traffic is high and it allows for two different ways to get in/out. But that also kinda ruins an intersection from the perspective of offering a continual street wall of urban development.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by eschaton

That Rite-Aid building is ugly as sin, but I agree it's a step up from a gas station at a busy, walkable intersection.

The gas station at Forward and Murray really drives home that point. Too much traffic turning in and out make it dangerous to walk in that area.

[Devout Urbanist]

Originally Posted by selltheburgh

I'm hoping this is a CVS like the one at Forbes and Murray and not a 1 story piece of suburban crap like what it likely will be. That's an important corner.

FWIW, the drawings in the Oakland 2025 master plan envision the building at that corner as just that. Go here: http://www.opdc.org/wp-content/uploa...REEN-Sec-5.pdf and scroll down to the section on North Oakland and Centre Avenue. They show what the corner of Centre and Craig is supposed to look like. There is a multiple story building with entrances at Craig and Center where the CVS will be. Guess it's not going to look like that.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by eschaton

That Rite-Aid building is ugly as sin, but I agree it's a step up from a gas station at a busy, walkable intersection.

Sadly, there's no real good way to integrate gas stations into a walkable urban fabric. They work best on prominent street corners, both because road traffic is high and it allows for two different ways to get in/out. But that also kinda ruins an intersection from the perspective of offering a continual street wall of urban development.

It wasn't just "a gas station." It was part, a positive part, of the "urban development" of that corner. The reason the JCC is sited on its lot just the way it is has to do with its integrating with the lot the way it used to be. Nothing was "ruined" until the Rite-Aid building got there and destroyed "the continual street wall" by hiding the clock on the JCC. I will hate the Rite-Aid building until I die.

And I have no big thing for gas stations -- I don't even drive -- but that one Gulf station, in its mid-century low-slungness, could not have looked more right on that corner.

[SolitaryThrush]

This is getting off topic, but here's an old photo that shows the intersection, with the Gulf on the corner.

http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-b...800;view=image

Although Squirrel Hill seems to shun new construction, there's no guarantee the gas station today would look as it did 45 years ago. Just look down the road at Getgo and the traffic nightmare.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by SolitaryThrush

This is getting off topic, but here's an old photo that shows the intersection, with the Gulf on the corner.

http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-b...800;view=image

Although Squirrel Hill seems to shun new construction, there's no guarantee the gas station today would look as it did 45 years ago. Just look down the road at Getgo and the traffic nightmare.

You can't really see it. It looked the same as it always had until it was destroyed in the early '00s.

Thanks for the picture, though.

[SteelCityRising]

Oh wow. There used to be another church on the corner where the library and real estate firm now sit? Thanks for sharing that photo!

[trackstar13]

Originally Posted by eschaton

That Rite-Aid building is ugly as sin, but I agree it's a step up from a gas station at a busy, walkable intersection.

Sadly, there's no real good way to integrate gas stations into a walkable urban fabric. They work best on prominent street corners, both because road traffic is high and it allows for two different ways to get in/out. But that also kinda ruins an intersection from the perspective of offering a continual street wall of urban development.

Actually there is a way to have an urban gas station and not have it interfere with the traffic flow. The solution is similar to curbside charging stations and we used to have curbside gas pumps in the U.S. It makes sense to bring back the curbside pump and have the gas station or convenience store as a normal storefront with no parking. They still do this in Europe and I remember seeing curbside gas pumps in Paris. Here is what I am talking about: