Christy's
is a 1,400 square foot retail donut shop built as part of a city redevelopment
project to transform a blighted residential and retail corridor into
a parkway and transit spine. The design sought to reconcile the often
contradictory requirements of roadside strip architecture attuned
to the scale and demands of the automobile and the desire to create
a pedestrian oriented urban space to serve as a focus for the adjacent
residential neighborhoods. A large architectural frame with integral
signage addresses visibility from a passing automobile while a high
parapet wall is scaled to define the space of the arterial roadway,
in much the same way as commercial buildings of the 19th century American
West. Palm trees and seating planters define the public pedestrian
plaza along the street and parkway.