Walhattan

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Written By H. Pike Oliver

In his Daily Dose of Architecture posting for May 25, 2010 (http://archidose.blogspot.com/2010/05/walhattan.html), John Hill included a graphic from Jesse LeCavalier's essay "All Those Numbers" at Places: Design Observer (http://places.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=13598 .)  The graphic compares the size of the floor area of Wal-Mart (and affiliated) stores to the area of Manhattan and is copied below. 

While a dramatic graphic, the footprint of the stores  is only part of the story.  For a true comparison of the built area of Wal-Mart stores, you would need to include the parking lots.  This would result in a Wal-Mart footprint that is four to five times larger than what is show above.  It would look something like what is shown below.

H. Pike Oliver

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, H. Pike Oliver has worked on real estate development strategies and master-planned communities since the early 1970s, including nearly eight years at the Irvine Company. He resided in the City of Irvine for five years in the 1980s and nine years in the 1990s.

As the founder and sole proprietor of URBANEXUS, Oliver works on advancing equitable and sustainable real estate development and natural lands management. He is also an affiliate instructor at the Runstad Department of Real Estate at the University of Washington.

Early in his career, Oliver worked for public agencies, including the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research where he was a principal contributor to An Urban Strategy for California. Prior to relocating to Seattle in 2013, Oliver taught real estate development at Cornell University and directed the undergraduate program in urban and regional studies. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute, the American Planning Association and a founder and emeritus member of the California Planning Roundtable.

Oliver is a graduate of the urban studies and planning program at San Francisco State University and earned a master’s degree in urban planning at UCLA.

https://urbanexus.com
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Cornell Real Estate Council - Boston Regional Meeting – June 3, 2010