Running Around Town - Walkable Neighborhoods

I met a new friend at a coffee shop a couple blocks from my condo and we discussed how great it is when the neighborhood you live in is walkable. As an example, I am now about a 10-minute walk from Target, less time if I jog.

I don’t mind going there often on foot just to pick up an item or two. Errand running has become one more way to sneak in a mini-workout or simply time outside. And now I am aware of random business opening hours such 8am M-Th, 7am F-Sun.

Our Target is a mid-century building that was once a Robinson’s department store.

I like the hardscape design and the geometry of the planters there. I’m less enthralled by the black metal accents but suppose it breaks up expanse of the rectangular structure.

From the Los Angeles Conservancy website:

Robinson’s hired luminary mid-century architects William L. Pereira and Charles Luckman to design the new three-story store. The building occupied an entire city block on Colorado Boulevard and was sited and planned to include areas for prime Rose Parade viewing.

The building’s main volume is a monumental, mostly unadorned box clad in painted brick, terrazzo panels, brown tiles, and expanses of pebble-adorned concrete. Iron trellises run along two sides of the building, adding a sense of framing to the simple structure. In a nod to the ever-increasing domination of the automobile, the store included a three-story concrete parking structure that could park 700 cars.

This impressive Mid-Century Modern building lives on as a Target, after a brief life as a Robinsons-May; in 1993, it became Target’s first multilevel store.