WalMart looks at urban multilevel design, including housing
and we know it will be energy efficient ...but now, from Greenclips: ..."As the company tries to penetrate urban areas that have lofty land prices and entrenched antidevelopment movements, it's increasingly building up, not out. Wal-Mart now operates roughly 20 multilevel stores, many of them in buildings vacated by other retailers. Over the next five years, the company plans to open another 50 to 60 on lots one-third the size of its traditional 25-acre swaths. "Historically, if a site didn't fit our size, if it didn't fit our parking ratio -- 1,000 spaces and a 195,000-square-foot supercenter -- we would walk away and chase other opportunities," said Rob Bray, Wal-Mart's senior vice president of real-estate construction and design. "Today, we say, 'How?'" ..and we know how-- they're all up in it about the green = green these days... OK, that pic might be a stretch, it's doubtful that they're going to jump outta the gate wih Emilio Ambasz, but then again, if you saw the pics of what they pushed (sadly, unsuccsessfully) to get into Vancouver BC, it's not that far off...