Low impact development for greening big box retail stores.

摘要

Most American and other major world cities have experienced a significant rise in the number of out-of-town large scale shopping "Big Box" retailers over the last three decades. Today retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Sam's Club, Lowe's, etc. hardly exist in any other format. They have multiplied as value-conscious and time-challenged shoppers try to get the best deals in the least amount of time possible. Most Big Box retailers have a prototype standard site plan and building design for every store, regardless of location. Whether they are built in tropical Florida or frigid Alaska, they look alike. These designs do not respond to local context or character. Particularly in a small community, the introduction of national chains often marks a fundamental shift in the local shopping experience and changes the character and feel of the community. Criticism of most Big Box stores is that they are designed to be accessible only by car. Therefore, they have acres of parking lots. From an environmental standpoint, parking lots are very harmful: they produce huge amounts of polluted runoff that is delivered into surface water bodies faster than it can infiltrate into the ground. Today, because of adverse publicity from ecological minded organizations, most retail businesses believe it is in their best interests to be more "ecologically sustainable" and energy efficient, and to play a larger part in addressing environmental issues. These massive, windowless single-story buildings, located on large parcels of land with large paved areas, can be greener and ecologically sustainable retail stores by using Low Impact Development (LID). LID is feasible and some Big Box retailers have successfully executed such programs. This thesis examines those plans and successes.