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LEED Goes Shopping
Our LEED Certification portfolio is full of retail projects, but one retail building type has been elusive: the mall in-line store. That is, until this year. With a project on the boards now (sorry, confidential), we have worked out a path to the LEED plaque. Getting LEED certification for a retail store in a mall setting can be difficult. If…
It Starts With Light
Recently, I had the chance to visit the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The little art museum by Louis Kahn is one of those master works we study in architecture school, learning by re-drawing its plan, section, and details. It seems simple. Six rows of barrel vaults with some space left out in the middle for a small exterior garden. Concrete, travertine marble, and some drywall. But what Kahn did with those few things! …
Reach for the Stars
It’s been a long time since I saw “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” the German expressionist movie from 1920, but I’ll never forget the strange stage sets with their outlandish, angled buildings and furniture. Walls curve up, doors and windows are turned, and no two lines are parallel. The performers dance more than they walk, swinging their arms with emphasis and force.
On a recent site visit to the Somerville Brooklyn Boulders rock climbing gym, I snapped some photos as I usually do. When I returned to the office, I was struck by these two photos. The curving walls, mix of textures, angular light, and the construction machinery all mix together to bring back memories of Dr. Caligari’s set. Of course, that’s where the similarity ends. The movie is about a sleepwalker. I assure you that nobody will be sleepwalking in this facility when it’s open!
New Retail in White Plains, NY
On May 7th, our design team received the site plan approvals for a new retail project on Bloomingdale Road in White Plains, New York. Led by our fantastic new clients, Faros Properties and Caspi Development, we designed the building to work with the challenging topography of the site by placing all of the parking on top of a single floor of boutique retail shops. Our goal for the project has been to provide a pedestrian-driven shopping center with an outdoor sidewalk bustling with window-shoppers, café seating, and lush landscaping. An existing office building on the site was the former headquarters for Nestle, and is now home to several private and government offices. The new parking garage will serve the offices as well as new retail shops. The Common Council of White Plains approved the project unanimously!
Stay tuned for updates. We’re working on the retail marketing campaign now, and construction will start soon.
Do People Actually Shop in Stores?
(Part 2 in a series – Magic Beans)
The use of mobile devices to make purchases is still a small fraction of the total sales in the e-commerce world. But it’s rising. Per the New York Times, “last year, people spent $25 billion on purchases made from phones and tablets,” and that’s an increase of 81 percent over the previous year. I was curious how that affected my retail clients, so I reached out to them. This post is the second in a short series of responses. My questions were: how does mobile spending affect your retail business? What about show-rooming? How do you either fight it or work with it…
Do People Actually Shop in Stores?
(Part 1 in a series – Milton’s)
The use of mobile devices to make purchases is still a small fraction of the total sales in the e-commerce world. But it’s rising. As the New York Times said, “last year, people spent $25 billion on purchases made from phones and tablets,” and that’s an increase of 81 percent over the previous year. I was curious how that affected my retail clients, so I reached out to them. This post is the first in a short series of responses. My questions were: how does mobile spending affect your retail business? What about show-rooming? How do you either fight it or work with it…
Brooklyn Boulders Preview
Arrowstreet is working on this super cool new climbing gym right here in Somerville. This video shows more of what’s to come.
Here is some more information on the gym, directly from our client, Brooklyn Boulders…
State of the Industry: Brick and Mortar vs. Internet Retail
[Part 4 of a series of posts from ICSC’s RetailGreen conference. Posted in response to The Wall Street Journal’s article “Malls Get Face-Lift to Pull In Shoppers“, which stated that “the era of new-mall development in the U.S. is drawing to a close.”]
Brad Hutensky, ICSC Chairman, gave an interesting talk about the state of the retail industry, and he debunked a common refrain of the last five years, that the internet is killing bricks and mortar stores. His evidence was compelling. First, in 2012, retailers have opened over 5,000 stores, not a small number. And for good reason, as customers still value the human experience and the instant gratification of a cash purchase. Moreover, twelve of the top 20 online sellers in sales revenue have physical stores, among them Apple and one of Arrowstreet’s clients, LL Bean…
Green Thoughts from Walmart at ICSC RetailGreen
[Part 3 of a series of posts from ICSC’s RetailGreen conference.]
Last year, at ICSC’s RetailGreen conference, Don Moseley from Walmart gave an amazing 15 minute presentation on how codes differ from one municipality to another, and especially how they vary even more from the new International Green Construction Code (IgCC). Although it sounds wonky, Mr. Moseley used the specific example of how the prescribed number of plumbing fixtures can vary from code to code, with the delta being as much as 20 fixtures for the same size Walmart store. Same store footprint, same demands, totally different plumbing requirements. Importantly, when a retailer has thousands of locations across the world, it’s more difficult to plan, and it hits the bottom line in myriad ways.
This year, Mr. Moseley showed what Walmart has been doing on their roofs…
We Have Thrown Away The Keys To This Place
Now and then, I like to revisit a past project and see how it’s doing. Sometimes when you create a building, you spend so much time with it that you grow attached to it and almost think of it as a family member. The L.L.Bean Hunting and Fishing Store in Freeport, Maine is one of those projects. I remember working hard not only to create great retail space but also on the little things, like shelves, nooks, and other special places for the taxidermy displays and heritage pieces like original rifles used by L.L. Bean himself…