Today we’re in Tulsa, Oklahoma, looking at the Tulsa County Election Board office building. It’s located here, in a somewhat odd location for a civic building, in a dreary, highway-choked section of town.

Those empty blocks nearby are “urban prairies.” Here’s the street-level view from Google Maps. Just take a look at that. These are—were—residential blocks. Many older post-industrial cities, most famously Detroit, have these vacant blocks. It’s very sad. It’s also a blank canvas, perhaps, for future re-urbanization along more functional, less car-oriented lines.

But anyway, here is today’s building:

You know, of course, that this did not begin life as the Tulsa County Election Board office. You may recognize this building, or you may not. Take a guess at what you think it is.

There are hundreds of them around country, many still recognizable. They’re an example of brand-centric architecture, of the sort that, as I wrote here, contributes to an “architectural public domain.”

You’re looking at a “Marina” Safeway, the name given to the grocery chain’s iconic midcentury standard building. There were many variations on this arched-roof theme. Some had cathedral-like barrel-vault ceilings, with polished wood arches. Window arrangements and façade materials differed. But the basic design screams Safeway.

Take a look here, here, and here for more photos and background history.

In the D.C. area, there are a number of these still standing, housing everything from pet supply stores to discount stores to actual Safeways. They’re simple box stores, on the small side for a modern full-service supermarket, but with pleasant ornamentation.

When you look around, you’ll see this phenomenon everywhere in places that were first built out in the postwar years or earlier. It’s a kind of history, evolution, and entrepreneurship that critics of suburban sprawl—which, of course, I am—often do not see.

Related Reading:

What Do You Think You’re Looking At? #17

What Do You Think You’re Looking At? #21

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