Archinect - News

Kengo Kuma to design new mixed-use shopping center for Miami's Design District

2024-04-24T17:36:00-04:00

Kengo Kuma Associates has shared the announcement of a new mixed-use project in the Miami Design District.

The MIRAI Design District is a $1 billion development to be realized at 65,000 square feet with 16,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and another 40,000 square feet of high-end offices located above.

Image courtesy Kengo Kuma and Associates

The development's marketing arm describes the spaces as "each in meticulously curated, modular bays for luxury brands and trophy offices," designed to "allow each brand its own identity."

From there, a "series of micro-experiences" will define the concept, which is located at the intersection of Northeast 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue. The building's two main transparent mesh facades are angled to create a mix of shadows and greet users from different angles, while the shops underneath are serviced by a wooden soffit pedestrian walkway.

Image courtesy Kengo Kuma and Associates

The design district was also recently announced as the location...

Foster + Partners unveils latest Apple Store concept for Shanghai

2024-04-03T13:32:00-04:00

The latest Apple Store retail concept from Foster + Partners has been completed in Shanghai. The firm’s newest design for the company is located in Jing’an Park and forms the centerpiece of an urban regeneration that creates a permeable new connection between its site and the adjacent historic Jing’an Temple.

Stefan Behling, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners, describes: “We are delighted to have been given this great responsibility to create this transformative project for Shanghai. Our design reimagines the original plaza as a vibrant new public space, which provides places to sit and relax, drawing people in and respectfully enhancing the setting for the beautiful Jing’an Temple.”

Image courtesy Foster + Partners

Terraced seating placed on top of an elevated skywalk with gallery spaces gives the public a direct view of the Three Kingdoms era temple, framed by seasonal planting and Padang Light stone finishes that are repeated in the store’s walls and flooring.

Image courtesy Foste...

UNStudio completes Shanghai flagship store for Huawei behind ‘petal’ facade

2024-02-02T11:31:00-05:00

UNStudio has completed a flagship store for the Chinese communications giant Huawei in Shanghai.

Designed in collaboration with Huawei’s internal design team, the store seeks to create an “experience-rich concept that brings people, nature, and technology together and caters to consumer preferences.”

Image credit: Wen Studio

Image credit: Huawei

According to the architects, the design of the two-level store was inspired by biophilic forms that transition between indoor and outdoor conditions. Throughout the scheme’s interior and exterior, recycled materials are integrated to reduce the project’s environmental footprint, while detachable prefabricated systems are applied on floors and ceilings.

Image credit: Huawei

Image credit: Wen Studio

The building’s facade makes reference to the algorithm underscoring Huawei’s polar codes technology, with petal-like features appearing to be in different stages of growth, evolving in scale and rotation to form an “integrated geometric system that com...

OMA completes renovation of Tiffany & Co. Manhattan flagship with rooftop extension

2023-05-19T17:02:00-04:00

OMA has completed its transformation of Tiffany & Co.’s 5th Avenue flagship in New York City. The updated store now features a three-story rooftop addition designed by OMA and interiors by Peter Marino.

Image credit: floto+warner

The project marks the first significant renovation of the store since its opening in 1940. Now known as ‘The Landmark,’ the store “invites visitors to discover the history and range of Tiffany & Co. goods in a redefined flagship environment of displays and shared experiences,” according to OMA.

Image credit: floto+warner

The interior of the existing limestone building sees a central core reorganized to create a clear elevator lobby and improved visitor flow. Atop the building, a new three-story volume houses a dedicated gallery, exhibition, and event space.

Image credit: floto+warner

The first two floors of the volume are stacked into a clear box for exhibitions and events, with a double-height, column-free s...

Apple's first flagship store in India, designed by Foster + Partners, opens to the public

2023-04-18T15:30:00-04:00

Apple’s first flagship store in India, designed by Foster + Partners, is now open. It is located in the Bandra Kurla Complex, a business and residential district in Mumbai.

Employing many design elements synonymous with Apple stores around the world, Apple BKC attempts to blur the boundaries between inside and outside: A 26-foot-tall glass façade highlights the double-height volume within and the outdoor areas. Greenery is invited into the store, with a row of ficus trees slotted along the inside of the glazing.

Image: Foster + Partners

The connection between the interior and exterior spaces is further emphasized by a hand-crafted timber ceiling that extends beyond the glass façade to the underside of the exterior canopy. The ceiling is made up of a triangular grid of 450,000 individual timber elements. Each of the 1,000 ceiling tiles is formed using 400 pieces of oak timber (reportedly sustainably sourced) arranged in a lattice woven pattern. This was inspired by the work of cane an...

10 store designs we liked this week

2023-01-28T08:00:00-05:00

In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.

Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Shopping Spaces.

Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles.

↑ Colvin Florist in Barcelona, Spain by ROMAN IZQUIERDO BOULDSTRIDGE; Photo: Adrià Goula

↑ Polaroid Pop-up Store in Chengdu, China; Interior Design: inkmason; Photo: One Frame Studio

↑ Moncler Shop in Gstaad, Switzerland by Küchel Architects

↑ Jiangnan Zan in Linhai, China by LYCS Architecture; Photo: WU Qingshan

↑ Yellow in Qom, Iran by The Shar Group; Photo: Sarang Farzamfar, Omid Sedighi

↑ A.P.C. Store in Los Angeles, CA by Laurent Deroo; Architect of Record: WORD; Photo: Taiyo Watanabe

↑ Uwajimaya Flagship Store Remodel in Seattle, WA by Hoshide Wanzer; Store Planning, Mechanical Engineer, Electrical Engineer,...

Peter Marino debuts signature handbag for Louis Vuitton

2022-10-20T11:25:00-04:00

Peter Marino is one of six artists included in the latest update of Louis Vuitton’s signature Artycapucines handbag collection. The incorrigible leatherdaddy and designer of several of the brand’s flagship locations says his all-black contribution was inspired by a medieval strongbox he discovered while visiting a 14th century Venetian palace.

He joins Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama, Sol LeWitt, and other artists to have been featured in the now 9-year-old collection. Bags go for €8,000 but are still rugged enough for everyday wear, despite the dual sculptural qualities he also preferred.

“It was a fun challenge,” Marino recently told WWD. “I design furniture for Vuitton; I design carpets and doorknobs, so it’s very much in the vein of what I do for them. This is not a wussie handbag,”

AMO reveals unique retail spaces for Jacquemus' Paris and London expansions

2022-10-05T12:57:00-04:00

A splashy collaboration between AMO (the research arm of OMA) and the French fashion house Jacquemus is making the scene in Paris and London this season thanks to the dynamic duo of OMA partner Ellen van Loon and Giulio Margheri.

Located inside the iconic Parisian department store Galeries Lafayette Haussmann and the equally posh London’s Selfridges and Harvey Nichols outfitters, the stores first premiered in July and were inspired by a deep dive into the brand’s origins, according to the design team.

Photograph by Benoit Florençon, Courtesy of AMO

“We wanted to capture the atmosphere of Provence through the materiality of the spaces,” van Loon says. “[That] led us to approach the design in a different way altogether. Instead of working with form and deciding on the materials afterwards, we chose the materials at the outset and let them guide the shape of each space.”

Photograph by Benoit Florençon, Courtesy of AMO

Photograph by Benoit F...

IKEA completes bookcase-inspired store in Vienna, Austria

2022-05-23T10:57:00-04:00

Austria-based architecture office querkraft has completed an IKEA furniture store in the country’s capital Vienna, whose exterior was inspired by bookcases. Designed as a car-free venue, the scheme was developed with the vision of being a “good neighbor” for the surrounding community through a blend of public spaces and an active streetfront.

Photo © querkraft + christina häusler

The scheme’s defining feature is its shelf-like main façade. The 15-foot-deep zone envelops the building to provide shade for the indoors, while also accommodating terraces and greenery. In a move reminiscent of Paris’ Centre Pompidou, the external skeleton also houses infrastructural elements such as lifts, stairs, and building services.

Photo © querkraft + christina häusler

Inside, the 316,000 square foot scheme is supported by a 32x32 ft grid of reinforced concrete columns. From the ground level, a generous void extends up the building, visually linking the five retail floors occupied by IKEA. The top two...

Toronto's Eaton Centre to undergo $77 million revitalization led by Zeidler Architecture

2022-01-21T12:55:00-05:00

Canadian commercial real estate company Cadillac Fairview (CF) has announced a $77 million revitalization of the CF Toronto Eaton Centre.

The project will see a $60 million refurbishment of its iconic galleria skylight roof. According to CF’s announcement: “The existing glass will be replaced with the latest materials and technologies to improve energy efficiency while maintaining its classic design aesthetic.”

News of this endeavor came just days after the passing of famed Canadian architect and the shopping center’s designer, Eberhard Zeidler. The refurbishment will be led by eponymous firm Zeidler Architecture Inc. and Read Jones Christoffersen consulting engineers, with construction overseen by EllisDon Corporation. The project will be carried out in two phases, starting with the south end of the mall in mid-January 2022, followed by work on the north end beginning in March 2023.

“As the original architects of the galleria, we’re honored to play a continuing role in one of the...

UNStudio completes Shanghai Jiuguang Center, one of the city's largest retail complexes

2021-12-21T19:43:00-05:00

UNStudio, in collaboration with Nihon Sekkei, has recently completed a brand new shopping center in Shanghai. Called the Shanghai Jiuguang Center, the project merges an advanced commercial ecosystem with a human-centric, customer-friendly destination.

Nihon Sekkei was tasked with developing the outer shell of the retail center, while UNStudio took on the development of the mall as a placemaking destination for customers and the larger community. This included the design of the inner courtyard and its façades, the interior of the mall, and a public rooftop terrace. User experience was the core of UNStudio’s design, informed by looking at the various ways users could engage with different spaces and by creating curated shopping experiences.

As per the architects: “This resulted in creating a synergy between the architectural and interior design, the building scale and the human scale, the geometry and materials and the inside-outside relationship.”

The courtyard and landscape area sit...

MVRDV uses recycled champagne bottles to help Bulgari put sustainability on display in Shanghai

2021-12-10T13:03:00-05:00

Bulgari is getting a timely makeover this holiday thanks to a green facelift from MVRDV.

Using recycled champagne bottles, the Dutch firm was able to produce a dazzling new jade-like facade for the luxury retailer’s new Shanghai flagship.

Image: © Bulgari/Xia Zhi

A nod to the Art Deco style that has characterized both the city and brand, MVRDV’s installation continues its use of the cornice motif used for Bulgari formed by layered panels of brass and the recycled bottles. The panels are backlit at night to create an enticing glow for shoppers at the city’s Shanghai Plaza 66 shopping mall.

Image: © Bulgari/Xia Zhi

Per the architects: “The glass is completely recycled, produced at the Magna factory in Teutschenthal, Germany, which specializes in glass treatment. The project demonstrates the potential of sustainable recycled materials, even in luxury contexts, and takes one step towards MVRDV and Bulgari’s goal of store designs that are built using 100% circular economy materials.”

Image...

17 featured job opportunities for architectural designers in retail design

2021-10-14T13:40:00-04:00

Retail design has gone through plenty of changes over the years. From exciting storefronts to immersive experiential designs, architects and designers have helped reshape design possibilities for retail. But, beyond the looming fear of the retail apocalypse, the pandemic has added another level of much-needed design innovation and re-evaluation.

Even though e-commerce platforms have become the dominant avenue for retailers around the globe, many businesses are still turning to architects to help reshape the potential future of retail. For this week's curated jobs round-up, we focus on nine firms specializing in retail and high-end retail projects.

Image courtesy of Heitler Houston Architects

Heitler Houstoun Architects seeks a Retail Project Architect/Manager
Location: New York, NY

Details: "HHA is seeking experienced Retail Project Managers/Project Architects with 6 -10 years of professional Architecture experience (5-year B. Arch or M. Arch) in the fields of health, wellness, appar...

OMA reveals first quadrant of redesigned KaDeWe department store in Berlin

2021-10-09T09:00:00-04:00

The important first section of OMA’s redesigned master plan for the famed Berlin department store Kaufhaus des Westens (or KaDeWe) has officially opened to the public this week after a five-year renovation effort.

Organized into quadrants, the reorganized mass introduces a smaller area plan with improved accessibility and more wayfinding. OMA is hoping to address the changes in consumer spending as well as the rise of online retail known as a threat to traditional brick-and-mortar establishments.

Photograph by Marco Cappelletti, Courtesy of OMA.

“The renovation of the KaDeWe aims to redefine the dynamics between retail space, its patrons, and the urban environment, in a time when e-commerce is reshaping our relation with in-person shopping,” OMA partner Ellen van Loon offered. “The project reinterprets the fundamental elements of a typology that has remained virtually unchanged for more than 100 years.”

Photograph by Marco Cappelletti, Courtesy of OMA.

Consisting of a concentric void...

KPF unveil their first mass timber tower, one of the tallest in North America

2021-09-28T11:31:00-04:00

KPF has released details of the studio’s first mass timber tower, situated in Vancouver, Canada. At 16 stories tall, the Burrard Exchange tower is expected to be one of the tallest hybrid mass timber buildings in North America, providing 450,000 square feet of office and retail space within the Bentall Centre campus. KPF have served as the design architect for the scheme, while the Vancouver office of Adamson Associates Architects are serving as the architect of record.

The project will be built on one of the last large development sites in Vancouver’s urban core, currently occupied by a multistorey car park. The conversion of the site into retail and office space forms part of a reactivation of the 1.5 million-square-foot Bentall Centre, a major office complex in Vancouver’s financial district which also houses an underground shopping mall.

Burrard Exchange. Image: KPF

The tower’s hybrid, exposed mass timber structure will enclose office floor plates each measuring 30,000 squa...

Starbucks is seeking a caffeine-savvy designer for their China stores

2021-09-27T10:57:00-04:00

In the retail and commercial sectors, the architect’s brief is often driven by a need to offer flexible layouts to suit a variety of potential tenants. This emphasis on flexibility is for good reason, allowing a single unit to accommodate a wide portfolio of businesses without the need for expensive, environmentally damaging adaptions. However, an emphasis on standardized elements, from light and ventilation levels to waste, servicing, and delivery strategies, can also remove architects from the equally important and intriguing process of designing for a specific brand, with a unique customer experience.

Today, global retailers such as IKEA and Apple have become famous not only for their products, but for the manner in which those products are presented to potential customers. For IKEA, this means bringing customers on a choreographed journey through their showrooms, one which has even inspired viral hide-and-seek challenges. Apple, meanwhile, is famous for their collaborations with...

Nike's Jordan Brand is looking for a Global Retail Designer to help create the future of retail design

2021-08-18T15:08:00-04:00

Even before the pandemic, brands like Nike were pushing for innovative ways to engage with customers and reinvigorate their retail stores. With destinations like the Nike Shanghai House of Innovation and Nike Soho storefront, fans of the beloved brand went for the shoes and stayed for the experience. As fashion and retail businesses look to expand their approaches to retail design, Nike is searching for a new crop of designers to help imagine the future of retail.

As part of Archinect's job highlights series, we recently showcased an opportunity to work as a Project Designer for a firm specializing in living walls and green roofs. This week, we're profiling the Nike/Jordan Brand as they search for a Global Retail Designer.

Nike Shanghai House of Innovation Image © Nike

The position is located in Portland, Oregon near Nike's World Headquarters. This job is ideal for a design professional who is not only passionate about the brand but someone with "diverse experience, problem-solving a...

AMO-designed new flagship for Virgil Abloh's Off-White has opened in Paris

2021-07-06T20:57:00-04:00

A new collaboration between OMA/AMO and design icon Virgil Abloh has opened in Paris this past weekend, giving the 9-year-old Off-White brand a flagship location in the couture capital’s 1st arrondissement.

The store is the second project from AMO and the famed designer after opening a Miami location at the end of last summer. The two had previously paired on a retrospective exhibition of Abloh’s work held at the MCA Chicago in 2019.

Off-White founder and creative director Abloh told Hypebeast he views the new flagship as “an incubator for new talent, a cultural connector within the community, and an experimental laboratory of creativity and innovation.”

The three-floor retrofitted 19th-century space features a ground floor with a dedicated wing for Nike products, gallery space, and two contrasting retail areas meant to “amplify the voices of the community” and evoke bygone Parisian flea markets respectively.

The remaining two f...

Featuring a rippling glass facade by SANAA, the fully restored La Samaritaine department store opens in Paris after 16 years

2021-06-24T15:16:00-04:00

The overhauled La Samaritaine department store is now open in Paris after an $894 million restoration that has kept the building closed since 2005.

The new Samaritaine features a rippling glass veiled facade, covered patios, repaired skylights, and an updated 1907 roof that gives the shopping center's restored interior an opulent feel.

The Art Nouveau facade on Rue de la Monnaie. © Pierre-Olivier Deschamps via SANAA.

Japanese firm SANAA worked to restore the Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings for LVHM with help from Canadian studio Yabu Pushelberg. The new Samaritaine Pont-Neuf building will now serve as a luxury shopping destination in a 19th-century retail space itself reconstructed a century ago by architect Frantz Jourdain.

Interior view of La Samaritaine's staircase and skylight features. © Pierre-Olivier Deschamps via SANAA.

The newly restored buildings had once been host to an unprofitable venture and will now feature contrasting retail spaces, with three floors aimed delibera...

Brooklyn-based Almost Studio designs 1,500 sf boutique for fashion designer Sandy Liang

2021-01-14T12:24:00-05:00

Brooklyn-based architectural firm Almost Studio has designed the 1,500-square-foot flagship boutique for the popular emerging fashion designer Sandy Liang. It is due to open in December of this year.

The space sits on the ground level of a five-story brick building built in 1900 and was previously occupied by a laundromat. Almost Studio patched and sealed the original concrete floor, replaced the ceiling for new HVAC, and framed the glass storefront with stainless steel, introducing a fresh feel to the long linear retail space.

Almost Studio co-founder Anthony Gagliardi explained, in a statement, the team's primary design challenge was to "generate a spatial logic that allowed the store to feel cohesive, while also inserting an enfilade of individualized areas within the irregular and narrow space."

Upon entry, visitors are greeted by the boutique's shopping area, which stretches roughly 60-feet in length. Next comes the point of sale, then dressing rooms and bathrooms, and finally ...

U.S. retailers decrease construction spending

2020-12-02T11:32:00-05:00

An analysis of the 10 retail chains that spend the most on construction shows that seven experienced declines in construction spending in the first nine months of 2020 compared to the first nine months last year. Only three of the 10 — Publix, AutoZone and Dollar Tree — increased construction spending...

The findings come from the Dodge Data & Analytics 2021 Construction Outlook, as reported by Construction Dive. According to the report, the retailers' reduced spending comes from a "move away from brick-and-mortar retail that has been ongoing for years but accelerated br the pandemic."

MVRDV-designed lingerie store in Paris uses transparent glass floor for a more "revealing" design approach

2020-11-02T13:33:00-05:00

MVRDV has completed a new flagship store in Paris for French lingerie brand Etam, renovating a 19th-century Haussmann building by removing its internal barriers and adding a glass floor to allow light to fill the interior.

The project sits at a corner site on Boulevard Haussmann, in one of the prime shopping locations in Paris near the Opera Garnier. MVRDV cut back the exterior of the building to highlight its classical appearance whilst allowing natural light to enter the store at both ends.

This "stripped down" approach moves to the interior, where the design reveals the original stone structure through the removal of interior walls and part of the mezzanine floor above. At ground level, a glass floor stretches as one of the project's defining features. It allows light to enter the basement level and connects visitors at the ground level to the level below and vice versa.

The floor is treated with a special film that makes it transparent when viewed at an angle, but clouded when v...

Foster + Partner's new Apple Marina Bay Sands takes social media by storm

2020-08-31T17:17:00-04:00

Singapore's third Apple store to date, located at the Marina Bay Sands, has caught the public's eyes and has already made its presence on Instagram.

The floating, spherical structure sits near the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore, designed by Safdie Architects. Designed by long-time Apple collaborator Foster + Partners, the orb-shaped, colorfully lit store has already received fanfare on social media outlets.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Majid Hussain™ | Singapore(@sgmajidhussain) on Aug 30, 2020 at 3:36am PDT
View this post on Instagram A post shared by tony (@tonytitanium) on Aug 29, 2020 at 8:41am PDT
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View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rave (@rave.kpop) on Aug 28, 2020 at 4:51am PDT
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kelvin Heng | 王俊杰 (@kelv.li...

California considers converting abandoned malls to residential uses

2020-05-22T15:00:00-04:00

As the far-reaching impacts of the COVID-19 crisis continue to reverberate nationwide, California lawmakers are attempting to reorient the state's housing policies in an effort to continue making progress in addressing the housing crisis gripping the region.

Previously on Archinect: "California's stealthy approach to abolishing single-family zoning pays off." Image courtesy of Flickr user Kent Kanouse.

Lawmakers have introduced a slew of bills in recent weeks aimed at furthering housing production goals, Cal Matters reports. Until now, the state has focused on a two-pronged approach of reducing zoning and regulatory hurdles for new housing developments while also infusing nonprofit housing developers and state agencies with vigorous financing to build new units. With the increasingly dire financial situation being left in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, however, plans have had to change in order to keep up and state authorities will now likely lean on private businesses to produce a...

OMA completes otherworldly Galleria department store in Korea

2020-03-25T14:34:00-04:00

After being commissioned in 2016, OMA recently completed the sixth and largest location for upscale South Korean department store Galleria in Gwanggyo, a new town just south of Seoul. The building features multi-faceted glass protruding from a textured mosaic stone facade, which echoes the landscape of the neighboring Suwon Gwanggyo Lake Park. This distinct stone-like appearance “makes it a natural point of gravity for public life in Gwanggyo,” OMA says.

As visitors walk along the public route that was “excavated” from the stone building, they will encounter retail spaces and cultural activities like exhibitions and performances that form a “Public Loop.” They can also peer through the multi-faceted glass facade to see views of Gwanggyo. The route eventually leads to a roof garden.

Photo © ...

Third-biggest mall in North America makes its New Jersey debut

2019-10-28T13:30:00-04:00

Visitors finally took their first steps inside the American Dream mall on Friday. The mall, located by MetLife stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, was once called “the ugliest damn building in New Jersey and maybe America,” by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Construction has been on and off for several years, after hitting several road blocks in everything from funding to lawsuits from the NFL.

The American Dream complex is located at the Meadowlands in Bergen County, New Jersey. The mall is designed by GH+A Design and Adamson Associates Architects and will ultimately dedicate 55-percent of its floor area to entertainment uses and 45-percent to retail.

Eventually, the mall will contain a LEGOLAND theme park, a water park, an aquarium, a massive observation wheel, and a kosher food hall, among many other components.

Photo of the American Dream mall. Image courtesy of Wikimedia user Brad Miller.

The 3 million-square-foot complex is set to become the third largest mall in North America, falling behind the Jon Jerde-designed Mall of America, the largest mall in the United States, and the West Edmonton Mall in Canada, the largest on the continent, designed by Canadian architect Maurice Sunderland.

Louis Vuitton's London flagship reopens as a Peter Marino-designed spectacle

2019-10-24T15:51:00-04:00

Reopening after a 14-month makeover, the renovated store is a multi-storey expo fitted with the work of [...] artists, which – unlike those collections, and art you'd find in a concept store – is intended to be viewed, rather than purchased.

Photo: Stephane Muratet, courtesy Louis Vuitton

Elle's Sara McAlpine on the rise of 'The Spectacle Store' among luxury retailers and how Louis Vuitton's newly reopened London flagship fits right in.

"The face of retail changes so fast," Peter Marino, whose New York-based firm was in charge of the lengthy makeover, tells Elle, adding, "It’s very much a necessity for [brands] to have these big special statements in key landmark locations."

Photo: Stephane Muratet, courtesy Louis Vuitton

The Louis Vuitton London Maison on New Bond Street reopened today after undergoing 14 months of renovation to "reveal a complete reimagining of the space, featuring a sweeping double helix shaped staircase crafted in cerused oak and worked as a sculpture with an offset centre."

Photo: Stephane Muratet, courtesy Louis Vuitton

There are 43 artworks throughout the store — from 25 artists including site-specific commissions from Sarah Crowner, Jim Lambie, Josh Sperling, Farhad Moshiri, and Matt Gagnon — as ...

Don't believe the hype: Brick-and-mortar retail is here to stay

2019-09-24T19:30:00-04:00

The hypothetical Retail Apocalypse should be supported by a decline in the total retail establishments, but that's not the case. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported 1,044,509 establishments for 2018, for a net gain of 2,413 establishments over 2017 (1,042,096). The 2018 figure also represents a net gain of more than 20,800 establishments since a retail trough in 2011, a low point resulting from the Great Recession.

Sharon Woods, CEO of real estate consultant group LandUseUSA, writes in Public Square, a journal produced by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) presents an opposing, data-driven view of the future of America's retail landscape.

Woods writes, "The future for brick-and-mortar retail is far less bleak than the scene painted by mainstream media. Although e-commerce is taking a larger share of the pie, brick-n-mortar and physical store sales are also continuing to grow. Most of the chain store closures are limited to certain segments of retail—particularly department stores anchors and apparel tenants of sprawling regional malls and strip centers."

As the chart above notes, much of the retail growth is taking place in chain restaurants, CVS HealthHUB stores, and dollar stores like Dollar Tree and Dollar General.

Can nostalgia preserve the legacy of retail spaces in America?

2019-09-03T12:40:00-04:00

Architecture and nostalgia share a special relationship. Designs trends and building techniques that thrived during their heyday may not receive the same response decades later. However, one must not underestimate the following of these seemingly "outdated" designs. As the world continues to transition into a hyper-digital world, can nostalgia save the livelihood of retail shops and of retail design overall?

Kelsey Lawrence of The New York Times recently wrote an article addressing the public's attempt to preserve and cherish the quickly vanishing presence of retail spaces and big-box stores. According to Lawrence, forums and private discussion groups on Reddit and Facebook have attempted to catalog and archive these fading brick-and-mortar spaces. In addition to highlighting curated images and stories, forums like "Off the Rack" on Facebook and "r/RetailNews" on Reddit also present a display of forgotten or dwindling existences of big-box retailers, fast food restaurants, and other...

Is the "retail apocalypse" overblown?

2019-08-13T14:00:00-04:00

The Department of City Planning studied commercial corridors in 24 neighborhoods across the five boroughs and concluded that while shuttered storefronts plague some of the city's richest and poorest areas, the phenomenon is far from a pandemic. "There is no single dominant trend in retail in New York City," the survey asserts. "Data did not indicate a pervasive vacancy problem across the city, but did identify a number of high-vacancy corridors."