Reasons to be Cheerful - Part One

So let's forget the recessionary doom and gloom for a moment and start the week with a good news story. And what better news could there be for Marin folks than the long-awaited opening of the mega huge Crate & Barrel at the Town Center Corte Madera. Before you get too excited, you need to know that the store doesn't actually open its doors until late Spring, but to get the juices flowing here are a couple of pics of the construction I snapped this weekend.
As you might be able to make out from the photos, the structural work is nearly complete and they are starting to finish off the services and interior walls. What you can't see is just how big the store will be. At over 18,000 sq.ft, the store will be much larger than the old store that closed in The Village in 2007, and will include the full C&B range, including a furniture department.
I have to say I am a little surprised by the external design of the new store, which is very sleek, square and modern. It's what you would expect to see on a C&B in a strip mall, but in the middle of the faux-tuscan Town Center it seems out of place (the 'before' picture above shows the old Shoe Pavilion store). I guess it's good to have variety and individuality in the mall architecture, but I just get a feeling that the square boxy-ness of the store might interfere with the center's Feng-Shui, which was a key ingredient in the design of the current center. It would be a shame if the new Crate, plonked down in the middle of the mall, blocked the flow of positive energy along the thoroughfare. The bad Chi could totally put people off their gourmet flatbread at Champagne Bakery...