See-through glass (what an odd idea) can make a difference

Urban design critic Mark Hinshaw suggests that we

[t]ake, for example, the Taco Time on Northeast 45th Street in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood. Here is a shopping street filled with small, locally owned businesses. Each has added a combination of carefully crafted storefront windows, entrances and signs - all aimed at engaging the people who stroll along the street day and night. What does this fast-food business do but thumb its nose at all this effort and build a box of mirrored glass that looks as if it wandered in from some suburban office park. The folks who designed the building should be ashamed of themselves for doing such violence to the streetscape.

Two points. I'll do my best to include photos or at least a sketch whenever discussing a building. There is far, far too much conversation in words alone about objects, and this in a medium ---the TV screen for god's sake --- where it is fairly easy to show an image.

So here is a picture of the Taco Time as discussed above.

I would differ slighty with Hinshaw about the Taco Time. It's a great example of how "site plan trumps architecture"--but not entirely.

The site plan is good: it more-or-less follows "The Three Rules." Built to the sidewalk, the parking in back (which you can't see in this photo -- I owe myself a lunch so I'll cruise by and see if I can get a better pic.) etc. etc.

But the mirrored-glass violates one of the sub-Rules and prevents the permeability/transparency which a building needs if it is to allow the inside/outside exchange which creates a pedestrian-oriented street. If the owners replace the mirrored-glass with see-through glass (what a funny idea!) the building would have a totally-different impact on the street.

Furthermore, where I differ from Mark Hinshaw slightly is in his apparent stress in this article on the appearance of buildings. The point needs to be made over-and-over again --- (and it was Hinshaw who first led me to understand this very point) --- urban design rules are NOT aesthetic so much as behavioral i.e. we want the design of buildings to encourage a different civic experience and human behavior on the street. Because of its mirrored-glass, the Taco Time is a good example of "almost but not quite." But it is not the abomination many think. It's just a purchase order away from being quite nice.