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Urban Gas Stations?


dtown

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In Grand Rapids MI, located on Fulton St. between Grand Valley St. Univeristy's downtown campus and US 131 is an Armoral gas station.

Other urban gas stations in my home town that I know of.

Shell station: Division Ave. and Wealthy St.

Clark station: Fulton St. across from John Ball Park.

Speedway: Leonard St. and US 131

Clark station: Leonard St. a few blocks west of the Speedway

Shell station: Leonard St. and Alpine Ave.

BP: Leonard St. a block or two west of the Shell station

A couple of urban Gas stations exist in the Eastown area. Can;t think of their names off hand.

Various other urban gas station exist in Gand Rapids's South East side but I don't venture there as many of neighborhoods in that area of town are not safe to go into.

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In Grand Rapids MI, located on Fulton St. between Grand Valley St. Univeristy's downtown campus and US 131 is an Armoral gas station.

Other urban gas stations in my home town that I know of.

Shell station: Division Ave. and Wealthy St.

Clark station: Fulton St. across from John Ball Park.

Speedway: Leonard St. and US 131

Clark station: Leonard St. a few blocks west of the Speedway

Shell station: Leonard St. and Alpine Ave.

BP: Leonard St. a block or two west of the Shell station

A couple of urban Gas stations exist in the Eastown area. Can;t think of their names off hand.

Various other urban gas station exist in Gand Rapids's South East side but I don't venture there as many of neighborhoods in that area of town are not safe to go into.

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It's difficult to really work gas stations into urban designs because of fire restrictions. Technically you probably could not build above the area where cars drive under to pump, unless you use an intense sprinkler system and a floor slab above that with a long burning period or something. The idea with the pumps in the wall where you just drive up off the street sounds like a good idea though.

Since you are from michigan dtown, the closest example you could see of a more urban gas station are two locations in Ann Arbor. One is on Ashley, and there is another somewhere off main. However, they are no longer gas stations, but stores. The building portions are very close to the road, and the canopy extends all the way out to the sidewalk. I've also heard a rumor that village corner (a grocery store) on South U was a gas station and repair shop. The building has a 16 foot setback from the STREET curb as opposed to the normal 8. Of course, people think that area is a small public plaza, and that the big openings in the wall were just store windows, but I was told they were garage doors at one time. It has the type of architecture that is not typical of gas stations you see today. I think that's why people always thought it was a grocery store. I'm guessing all of these examples were built sometime in the 20's or 30's

An even closer example to you can be found in Frankenmuth, Michigan. There is a building that was once a gas station/auto dealership. You could probably only pump to vehicles at a given time back in its day. Much later, the street was widened shrinking the sidewalk to about seven feet. The building had an additonal floor added and now houses several retail stores.

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I think the original poster was asking for gas stations that look like they fit into the urban plan. None of these that you listed come even close.

There is one that I can think of in Downtown Savannah Georgia named Parker's. It's a gas station and an small urban market. It's quite old and therefore fits into the plan quite well.

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It's difficult to really work gas stations into urban designs because of fire restrictions. Technically you probably could not build above the area where cars drive under to pump, unless you use an intense sprinkler system and a floor slab above that with a long burning period or something.
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There's only one I can think of in the Grand Rapids area and it's not in an "urban area", it's in the historic Cannonsburg Village near the intersection of Honey Creek and Cannonsburg Roads. They took an old abandoned general store and refurbished it, and put the gas pumps somewhat behind and to the side of the building. The gas station store and deli are left built out to the road. It's pretty cool looking. Urbanistic principles can be found in a lot of small older towns and villages.

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There's only one I can think of in the Grand Rapids area and it's not in an "urban area", it's in the historic Cannonsburg Village near the intersection of Honey Creek and Cannonsburg Roads. They took an old abandoned general store and refurbished it, and put the gas pumps somewhat behind and to the side of the building. The gas station store and deli are left built out to the road. It's pretty cool looking. Urbanistic principles can be found in a lot of small older towns and villages.
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Drive around downtown Chicago and you'll run into a few, mainly on the western peripheries.

Ugh! Here's one in downtown Detroit.

2006_0929AroundDetroit9_29_060094.jpg

Luckily, Mayor Kilpatrick has put a stop to any new gas stations to be built in the city.

Speedway near the Ren Cen:

2006_0929AroundDetroit9_29_060023.jpg

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One other urban gas-filling process used in Paris, besides the street side ones mentioned earlier in the thread, are urban parking decks where you can request a fill up while your car is there. Not only is that convenient for the driver, but I think it has the net effect of a sponsorship of the parking deck by the gas company. I have only been to Paris as a visitor, so I'm not completely sure how they work, though. I don't know, for example, whether it is something like a valet that takes the car to the pumps in the basement, or whether they have a little gas truck that stops behind the car for the operator to then fill it up.

To me, the best urban gas station is one that doesn't exist, so I have always had this type of system in the back of my mind as ideal. Most urban drivers stop to park for some period of time, so why not get your fill up when the car is there idle. It would seem that a single operator with a single little gas truck could do hundreds within a work day. It also theoretically would give some profits to the parking deck facility operator, which potentially offsets the parking fees.

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