Predictive Architecture

[jamesq]

Here in Calgary, as well as most of Canada, newer stores (for example, big grocery stores or department stores like Safeway or Wal-mart) have what I call "airlocks". Basically two sets of double doors with a small area in between. The point of this is to keep the cold out, which would be more difficult if you had a single set of doors. Revolving doors serve a similar purpose.

If the store had double doors and high enough traffic that both doors were simultaneously open much of the time, they would also install a "heat curtain". This was a dedicated heater above the door that constantly blew hot air down in a strip. Not terribly energy efficient, but it keeps your greeters from freezing to death. For those of you who have not experienced this ubiquitous Canadian device, it's like walking through a combination hair dryer/force field with warm air on one side and cold air on the other.

When I was in Phoenix, all the stores had a single set of doors - it almost never gets cold in these places, so the extra expense wasn't worth it. There certainly wasn't anything like an heat curtain.

When I was in St. John's last summer I walked out of the mall's double doors and encountered something I've never seen on the prairies: A high concrete barrier in front of the door. This was way more then you'd need to stop people from driving a truck through the mall - they were at least four metres tall and a few metres wider than the entrance.

I asked stephtopia about it and she said it was to keep hurricanes from damaging the mall entrance! Hurricanes are not something I've ever been familiar with. They do hit Newfoundland occasionally, though not as often as the nations and US states on the Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean sea.

This gives us two binary values: Cold (double doors) and Warm (single doors) is one. The other is Hurricane (barriers) and No Hurricanes (no barriers).

Cold+Hurricanes (example: St. John's): double doors and barriers.
Cold+No Hurricanes (example: Calgary): double doors and no barriers.
Warm+No Hurricanes (example: Phoenix): Single doors and no barriers.

I've never been to Miami or New Orleans or Houston, but given that they're warm and have hurricanes, I'm betting that stores have single doors and barriers. Can anyone confirm or deny?

Note that barriers in St. John's where not ubiquitous - I only saw a handful of them. Thus I'm not expecting them to necessarily be common in the Gulf states, but I do expect them to be not unheard of.

Addendum: When I worked for Office Despot we had problems with keeping the building warm during the winter. Allegedly this was because the store's environmental controls were in Delray Beach, Florida and they couldn't believe that -40 was a temperature that people would tolerate without moving south. Sometimes I agree with them. Thinking back, I suspect this was BS on the part of the local management.

Comments

[mallt.livejournal.com]

In really hot places you have the double door system with a "cold curtain".

[minyata.livejournal.com]

Remembering back to my various trips along the eastern seaboard of the US and Gulf side Florida and New Orleans... I dont remember any barriers. In fact, I remember thinking to myself "wow, I really wouldn't want to be here for a hurricane!" I suspect they have doors that function as storm shutters as well as security that get closed when they are on a hurricane watch, and the insurance companies are making a killing!