Main Street on Steroids is a speculative thesis on the possibilities and sustainability of a big box hypermarket integrated with urban residential housing. It proposes economies of scale and economies of agglomeration which can only be realized by architecture and commerce of this scale allowing for an unique urban lifestyle which is at once efficient, profitable, and comfortable.

The proposal takes the urban grid and tilts it upward, creating a vertical city within a city. The grid is flexible, adaptable, and mutable which provides opportunity for a ‘city’ of mixed uses, mixed income, and diversity. This ‘city’ is then supported by the commercial and transportation infrastructure to service it. outdoor and recreation spaces perforate the rigorous mass of the residential block and provide for further amenities.

‘Sustainability through efficiency’ is the motto of s.mart, the retailer for this thesis. Efficiencies are realized through streamlined logistics made possible by architectural infrastructure, minimized packaging due to direct delivery and pre-ordering, increased customer education and responsiveness through new technologies, and the dense use of urban space. The building is an incubator for the urban lifestyle of the 21st century.