A sleek new structure at the entrance to Plum Market is creating quite a stir.

“Is it the start of a kids’ playground?” a customer asked store team leader Aaron MacLeod. Another wondered if it was a “space-age coffee bar.” One person found it reminiscent of “a series of beach cabanas in a parking lot or a fleet of sailing ships on a beautiful sea,” while another was reminded of French urinals.

The eye-catching structure to the left of the store’s entrance is composed of seven carefully crafted sail-shaped sheets of aluminum, angled to “deflect wind and reflect light,” according to its designer, U-M architecture prof Robert Adams. Four of the “sails” appear to float above a wide, tapered blue counter. Careful inspection reveals a Roman numeral stamped on each sail, a dedication “To Ady” on one, and the numbers 5665 on another.

The Roman numerals, says Adams, ensure installation in the correct sequence, and Ady is a former Plum employee who doggedly pushed the project. But Adams won’t disclose the meaning of 5665. “You’d have to know Mandarin and numerology to understand,” he quips.

Adams says the structure’s design is drawn from features of agricultural buildings, such as horse corrals. And that’s what it is: a twenty-first century version of the corral–one that holds not barnyard animals but shopping carts. Adams says it holds 50 percent more carts than the ugly standard model it replaced, which looked like it was thrown together from leftover plumbing. In addition to holding carts, the new structure will display fruits, vegetables, potted and hanging plants, or wreaths, depending on the season.

Lighting on the inside walls–not yet installed at press time–will reflect off the aluminum and glow as natural light fades each day (and Seasonal Affective Disorder sets in for some of us). The light blue color of the counter should evoke memories of summer skies and days on the water.

MacLeod says people are using the structure even though it’s unfinished: they eat lunch at the counter, hold spontaneous meetings, and have suggested adding swing-out stools. MacLeod and Adams may expand the concept farther east, under the existing porch roof, but have no plans to extend it to the corrals located in the store’s parking lot.

Life out there is plagued not only with hastily shoved carts and the occasional careless driver, but with energetic snow plowing.