On Architecture: Starbucks puts a double shot of hometown flavor into every store
It's not about the French roast. Alec Whitney prepares a drink at Starbucks on 2344 Eastlake Ave., where an elegantly curved aluminum wing over the bar functions both as a dropped ceiling and sculptural intrusion.
Starbucks' globe-storming success is about place -- creating coffee bars that feel grounded in their neighborhoods, that lure people to hang out for a wide spectrum of reasons, and that somehow make us think "Starbucks" for refreshment or conversation instead of "Tully's" or "Ben & Jerry's."
The ubiquitous Frappuccino flogger readily acknowledges its debt to Ray Oldenburg's pathbreaking book "The Great Good Place." With increasing sophistication, it's backfilling the gaping hole in American city life that Oldenburg chronicled in 1989 -- the void of informal gathering places, or "third places," apart from home and work.
By LAWRENCE CHEEK
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Starbucks' globe-storming success is about place -- creating coffee bars that feel grounded in their neighborhoods, that lure people to hang out for a wide spectrum of reasons, and that somehow make us think "Starbucks" for refreshment or conversation instead of "Tully's" or "Ben & Jerry's."
The ubiquitous Frappuccino flogger readily acknowledges its debt to Ray Oldenburg's pathbreaking book "The Great Good Place." With increasing sophistication, it's backfilling the gaping hole in American city life that Oldenburg chronicled in 1989 -- the void of informal gathering places, or "third places," apart from home and work.
By LAWRENCE CHEEK
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER
posted by Scott Fish | 10:32 AM
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