How do you like the look of the new Trader Joe's?
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Robert Michie: "I think it's different and it's modern and it's good for the area."Hook staff -
Vaughn Tan: "It looks like Palo Alto."Hook staff -
Amy Snead: "It looks a bit New Age for Charlottesville's architecture."Hook staff
Click here for image of Trader Joe's.
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20 comments
They should do the opposite of what Whole Foods did with its new property. What a nightmare....
I'd like to be taken their and buried. Id does look like a mausoleum. It does look awful. It looks every bit as awful as everything built during David Neuman's tenure as University Architect. South Lawn is terrible, Ruffin Hall is a disaster, Bavaro is the cutest piece of JUNK stinking up the campus, the new Band Building used copper like it's plentiful, and the new Alderman dorms cap off some of the worst buildings in town. I wish they would all go away but we're the ones left to live with them. I'd like to punch David Neuman in the face as much as I'd like to punch the developers of Stonefield. If these guys had any sense they would apologize for screwing up, hit the road, and move to Disney World where junk is junk.
Nice clean look.
It's sad that we are going to be left to live with this disappointing project. Given the great amount of negative oppostion this project has received, I think we should hear from the folks who approved it. If the appoval was to include housing and now no housing exists, shouldn't that invalidate the original approval. This project is going to be terrible and the people who approved it should explain how this one got pulled over on us. This project reflects their incompetency to make decisions about how this town should move forward.
Perhaps they should make it look like Trader Vic's............................would that make you happy?
How about you build there and show us what you would build?
Instead of another snobby overpriced store, why dont they have someting fun, like a dave and Busters or a over 30 club for the locals. We went bowling the other night it was 50.00 for 2 games and shoes and 27.00 for 5 beers. This isnt Palm Springs......
i once saw a warewolf drinking a pina colada at trader vic's......his hair was perfect
Marco it's "werewolf" but I love that line as well
Uh, no Trader Joe's isn't a snobby, overpriced store. They sell organic goods much cheaper than Whole Foods. You're gonna like 3 buck Chuck and cheap good cheese. High prices and "hipper than thou" servers? It's C'ville
It's just another grocery store, whatever.
I agree with non-aesthetic shopper's comments from the other Trader Joe's thread. This sums it up perfectly:
"The building aint exactly one to get your loins throbbing, but then what building along 29 is, or even should be expected to be? Lining the Trader Joe's Tomb up in a beauty pageant with the half-vacated wasteland of Circuit City, the defunct Western Sizzlin' ghost lot, the Kmart parking sargasso, any of the choke-and-puke buffet troughs, the car lots, the Stellar One Defoliated Zone, the gas stations, fast food joints, and all the cars, Cars, CARS!!!, it's kinda hard to decide which one is in most need of getting a paper bag shoved over its head."
Seriously, why are people freaking out over this when *nothing* on the 29 looks good? (non-aesthetic forgot to mention the remodeled Super Wal*Mart monstrosity, and the Sam's Club. This Trader Joe's may look like a mausoleum, but Sam's looks like it could double for a prison. Humongous, window-less fortress that it is, perched on a hill.)
Really, I wouldn't even know where to cast my vote for ugliest 29 North building or developed area.
Who cares what it looks like - it's bringing jobs and tax revenue.
If you picture the architects for this project dressed in clothing from a 1970's Sears catalog then their monstrosity-puke-ugly-style suddenly makes a modicum of sense. If this is really the best our architectural schools can turn out then I would suspect that soon an architectural degree will come as a trinket in a Happy Meal. In SUPER SIZE only of course! "Extra napkins please, I have a Trader Joe's to design!"
There's a piece of land with a farmhouse on it on Burnley Station Rd. Asking is $138k. You can buy that, take 20 to pantops, be in the city via the most beautiful road in Albemarle county for 20 minutes before you reach downtown, never go on 29, never see it, and never have to complain.
Of course you don't *have* to complain now. You just do. And do. And do. And do nothing. I'm the fool who keeps coming back here looking for some sign of intellegence.
Just build me the stadium seating movie theater and I can handle the rest. Anyone who thinks 29N from the bypass to the airport is some sort of hallowed ground is looney tunes anyway. And everyone who moans and complains has no clue the additional money needed for these developments by the already tough City Council and Alb Co BOS. If the county doesn't do something to add sales tax revenues to the coffers we're in for a world of trouble regardless. Of course, we already need to raise property taxes to deal with this, but NO, we cannot do that. This town has way too many people that want to have their cake and eat it too.
I also can't take the whining about this project anymore. This development already looks better than 95% of 29 and I trust the ARB to tweak it to at least ease some of the concerns. I can't think of a more sterile shopping district. For those whining about Charlottesville turning into NOVA... are you freaking kidding? Do any of you actually visit northern virginia?? People, we have ONE corridor for big box retail and that's 29N. I think that's fantastic and convenient if I choose to frequent those stores. If you don't, then you have a TON of local options, which is the awesome thing about Charlottesville. Try living in the MIdwest were you have nothing but BigBox to choose from and it dominates the entire asthetic of a small city or suburb. The traffic is NOT that bad and even during peak it only takes 15 minutes to travel the entire corridor.
I don't really understand the whining about the WF either... It's a bit of a weird location, but my only complaint is that the parking lot lanes are a bit tight. Otherwise... it's arguably the most popular store in town. It's going to be crowded. It's WAY better than the old WF.
Albemarle County has squandered every opportunity it's had to plan and build aesthetically. The rest of the country is turning away from strip mall-oriented development and unchecked building of roads, but the county has ignored the lessons learned about how to develop in a way enhances transit and instead insists on building as though it were 1970. And then they turn around and mock the city for innovations like the free trolley, which is quite successful. It's so disappointing.
vote with your money...
Just tried Trader Joes Pulled Chicken in BBQ sauce, Mm..Mmm.. MMHHH!!..
I think it is interesting that this massive shopping center has been approved at Hydraulic and 29, a major source of traffic congestion already. Furthermore the Virginia tax payer is being strapped with a 300 million dollar bypass that will bypass very little and subtract a great deal from the small town rural feel of Charlottesville. All to line the pockets of a few wealthy developers.
How does Trader Joe's look? More brick!