WINNER
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Wal-Mart stores pepper the developing South, functioning as air-conditioned Main Streets, with pharmacies, salons, banking, and soon health-clinics. Every 10 years, new stores are built to accommodate its growing program. It's common for EveryVilles to have 2 empty Wal-Marts within 2 miles of the latest super-store. These carcasses are rarely revived.
The program proposes the slow, visible destruction of the old sites. Using what IS there (physical remains) and the memory of what WAS there (local situation), a "Rural Ruin" is produced for the public to reflect on their roving "Main Street". The final end game is a designed "Virgin Landscape," negotiating between pre and post Wal-Mart conditions. This script structures variability for interventions across many EveryVilles. NEXT: 2 sample interventions- the 1st is wildly fantastic; the 2nd is almost plausible. The full drawings evoke the highway horizon but layout spreads anticipate publication in a shopping circular.