PRINT THIS STORY:

CHANGE TEXT SIZE:

ARCHITECTS CONTINUE TO PUSH RETAIL ENVELOPE

By Jennifer Hopfinger

The “tiny town” trend, as architect Tipton Housewright calls the design practice of using historical styles with little connection to the local community, may be on its way out. “Like green design, modern architecture is purpose-driven,” said Housewright, a principal at Dallas-based Omniplan Architects. “When design serves a purpose, as opposed to being decorative, then it makes sense to build a project that is appropriate for the surrounding environment on many levels.”

But this is not what happens with projects that are built in ways incongruous with their actual locations, says Housewright. “I don’t know why you would want to build a turn-of-the-century New England village in Santa Monica, California, for example,” he said. “In fact, I think contrived designs that adopt the trappings of another time and place run counter to the principles of sustainable design, which strive to address today’s issues and fit into the surrounding environment in an authentic way.”

Modern design looks crisp, clean and contemporary, but it is not necessarily stark and minimalist, as many imagine, says Housewright. He points to SanTan Village, in Gilbert, Ariz., a 1.5 million-square-foot outdoor regional center, as an example of a vibrant modern design. Omniplan is working with Westcor, a subsidiary of Macerich, on the project, which features inviting outdoor spaces. (At press time the project was slated for an Oct. 26, 2007, opening.)

Lawrence Beame, president of Beame Architectural Partnership, agrees that design, modern or not, should reflect the history and identity of a specific community. Beame is working with Kahn Development Co. to build The Village at Sandhill, a 300-acre, mixed-use development in Columbia, S.C., that contains a lifestyle center with a landscaped, pedestrian-friendly promenade, a big-box power center, a neighborhood supermarket-anchored center and some freestanding big-box stores. The project incorporates design elements, such as bricks and cornices, that are common in South Carolina. The project is scheduled for wrap-up by next November.

Beame Architectural Partnership, based in Coral Gables, Fla., also does work in Central and South America. “Developers in those countries are looking for very different design elements in shopping centers, and the work is extremely rewarding for an architect,” Beame said. “They’re still building enclosed malls in those countries, so we can try things with that format that haven’t been done in the U.S.”

Most malls in those regions are enclosed, for comfort in the hot climate. But Beame uses enormous windows and transparent facades to create a sense of fluidity between the indoor and outdoor spaces. And because many of the malls are in urban areas, the structures must be vertical and often have more levels than U.S. malls.

The City Mall, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, developed by Lade Lee Corp. and opened in 2005, is an example of Beame’s handiwork. The 900,000-square-foot enclosed mall has two levels of parking beneath three levels of retail. Colonnades line the structure at the street level. The mall includes a food court, a cinema complex and 200 retail spaces. Beame says he is seeing similar vertical shopping centers in U.S. urban areas, though most are open-air.

The U.S. enclosed mall is ripe for reinvention from a design perspective, says Housewright. “There is a great deal of data that suggests the enclosed mall is still a very strong format, far from dead, as some people believe,” Housewright said. “There are plenty of shoppers that want to come out night and day, regardless of weather conditions. I don’t know what direction the design might take, but I’m starting to hear major clients discuss the question of what’s next for the enclosed mall.”

In the meantime, the development of open-air shopping centers in the U.S. continues to abound. Creating a sense of hospitality, community, and intimacy is central to open-air design. “The guest experience is a big priority for developers,” said Brian Wolfe, a principal at Perkowitz + Ruth Architects. “We’re getting requests for lots of outdoor-living-room-type settings.”

The retail marketplace will get increasingly polarized, with many shopping centers going either upmarket or downmarket and creating new design challenges, says Stan Laegried, a principal at Seattle-based Calison.. “Developers can’t use a formulaic approach anymore,” he said. “They have to package a center that is unique to a specific market.”

Callison is working with developer Schnitzer West on The Bravern, a mixed-use project in Bellevue, Wash., that exemplifies the trend toward high-end retail. The 300,000-square-foot, open-air retail component, anchored by Neiman Marcus, will feature luxury shops. Microsoft is a major tenant in the 745,000-square-foot, amenity-filled office buildings, and the 786,000 square feet of residential space will be among the most expensive housing units in Bellevue. A European architectural style reflects the upscale nature of the project. The Bravern is scheduled for completion sometime late next year.

In high-end centers hospitality takes center stage. At the Bravern, “we are as interested in the spaces between the buildings as we are in the buildings themselves, so the public spaces are very welcoming,” Laegreid said. Cars pull up into one of two circular “arrival courts” that offer valet parking. “We wanted the arrival to mimic that of pulling up to a grand European hotel,” he said.

In the end architects and developers want to build a successful shopping center, regardless of the type of design. Omniplan’s Housewright says he measures success in retail design in two ways. “Foot traffic will be reflected in sales figures, and that’s a bottom-line measure of success,” Housewright said. “But I also measure success in terms of the center’s contribution to the community.” There are many financially successful retail fortresses that are surrounded by parking lots and blank walls, but they aren’t making the community a better place, he says. “We want to design projects that create community centers and participate in the fabric and life of the city.”