A rather lofty supermarket

Many of us shop at large supermarkets, whether it’s Whole Foods, Safeway or Piggly Wiggly. However, just about all of them are ugly one-story flat boxes. Thanks to technology, the times they are a changin’.

Structural, energy-efficiency and venting advancements are making it increasingly commonplace to allow people to live above such large, open plan buildings. That basically means more housing where there typically wasn’t any, and that’s good for affordability and pedestrian vibrancy.

It’s no surprise that this particular example, apparently the first for Safeway, is located in downtown Portland – long considered one of the best modern cities (if not the best) for investing in CoolTown-oriented places.

A green-oriented article with more photos can be found here. More examples here.

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neilkt