Jon Jerde started the Jerde Partnership
as a firm that emphasizes ideas over style and places over objects.
This commendable mission has lead to urban planning developments
that utilize shopping as a regenerative element in cities (Fremont
Street in Las Vegas the most well known). And while the seeming
contradiction between capitalism and style (brand recognizability
created by logos and repetitive designs) would hinder Jerde's
approach, he is able to find eclectic solutions that hold their
own with the attention-getting signage and interiors of chain
stores and the like. Canal City extends his ideas in an Asian
context with successful, though slightly unsettling results.
One must ask: If there is an appropriate form for places shopping,
now a necessary part of existence for people and cities over
most of the world, is this it?
