Grand Avenue would be a better place if the neighborhood organization was more concerned about good street frontage than petty parking minimums.
What was once a neighborhood coffee shop, high-end camera shop, kitschy nick-knack decor shop and Birkenstock storefront is now a high-end boutique. It appears as if the gentrifiers are being gentrified out. The clothing store Anthropologie recently renovated a corner of Grand Avenue's Milton Mall and has drastically changed the street scape of one of America's prettiest neighborhoods.
Grand Avenue has a great tradition of holding storefronts accountable and forcing businesses to address the sidewalk and the pedestrian. This is why I kept thinking that this project was still under construction. I was wrong. This is the finished project.
On the Milton Street side, large windows and bricked entryways have been covered up with a drab paneling and include glossy "windows that aren't windows".
On the Grand Avenue frontage, large windows have been covered up and a door has been closed off and glossed over in drab teal.
Along Milton Street the large windows have been covered up with blank walls (and one smaller window has been created).
The blank panels are large, these probably measure upwards to 10 to 12 feet tall. At such a busy pedestrian intersection it's hard to imagine that a store wouldn't want to use this space to at very least advertise their products.
The corner window does offer pedestrians a glimpse of whats inside. Yet, the teal green is off putting and doesn't comfortably mesh well with the historic brick facade. The whole renovation gives off a cold vibe.
