Strip it down, build it up

 

The need to retrofit suburbia is uniquely American. We have the luxury of space and resources that pushed us very quickly into a nation of gross suburbs with no trees and cheap houses. Its hard to want to spend time fixing these spaces. It’s much more romantic to build from scratch on untouched land, shaping it exactly the way you want. But we don’t have that luxury anymore (unless, of course, we are ok with all of America being suburbs). I think we need a shift in mindset to seeing suburbs and strip malls as places of potential in order to preseve the landscape we pride ourselves on. One of my best friends is from Germany and he told me once that he was shocked at the amount of abandoned buildings in America. He said he never sees anything like it back home because they simply do not have the space. The way we treat our land is the same way we treat our bodies and our stuff—in excess.