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Mixed-Use and Retail Outlook and Trends III

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For the third installment of ELS’ Mixed Use and Retail Outlook and Trends, David Petta (Principal), Jamie Rusin (Principal), Sean Slater (Director of Retail and Mixed-Use), and Ryan Call (Senior Associate), pictured from left to right, discuss issues and trends in the retail and mixed-use sector.

What are new retail and technological innovations and trends, and how might they impact brick-and-mortar retail design?

Sean: Expect a backlash to the overreach of some developers’ data-mining.  I think that “quiet-zones” from digital noise may be the new wifi hot-spots.  Imagine a commercial property where you can tweet, Facebook, email, Instagram and read in peace!
Ryan: Social networking technology is accelerating and de-centralizing fashion cycles, creating a desire for retail that is more responsive and custom tailored to the individual. Increased attention to customer interaction, experience and choice is driving modern retail environments.
Jamie: Success will be found integrating technology with bricks and mortar. It’s both-and, not one-or-the-other. Same day delivery from malls is a good example.
David: Smaller footprint “showrooms”, like Tesla’s, are creating buzz and drawing crowds in traditional malls.

How will cities and developers create value from properties such as outdated malls and historic renovations?

Ryan: Creative thinking and policies can radically transform the value of neglected districts. The Adaptive Re-use Ordinance adopted by the City of Los Angeles is transforming derelict office buildings into a vibrant urban neighborhood. Buildings once considered a burden are now an asset.
David: Bowling alleys or fitness centers are perfect for back-of-house, habitually challenged space that bulked up malls in the boom years. These uses can add to a sense of community and increase the duration of the average visit.

Luxury and Millennials get a lot of buzz in the press, but what about under­served communities and the middle-class?

Sean: I think that new developments will be marketing directly to middle-class customers. There is little exclusivity left in many traditional luxury brands, so giving the public valuable amenities such as green space and plenty of seating, as well as value-oriented shopping options, will become increasingly important design elements.
Ryan: We’re also seeing an interest in improving access to groceries and health services, and increasing walkability and transit options.
Jamie: Affluent markets have led the way out of the recession, and Gen-Y social media have dominated the press. As the economic recovery continues, we see increased investment in middle-class, new household, and ethnic markets. Food will also dominate and, whereas fashion trends to homogeneity, distinct ethnic cuisines persist to delight us all.

Links:

Mixed-Use and Retail Outlook and Trends II

Mixed-Use and Retail Outlook and Trends I

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ELS Promotes Three to Principals

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ELS-Principals-GroupELS is proud to announce the promotions of Diana Hayton, Sean K. Slater, and Jeffrey Zieba to principals. Diana, Sean and Jeff will join the executive core in leading ELS into our 47th year.

haytonDiana Hayton, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, leads ELS’s historic and adaptive reuse portfolio and directs the firm’s approach to integrated sustainable design strategies. She joined ELS in 1996, applying her expertise to the firm’s civic, education, performing arts, retail, recreation, and sports sectors. Diana’s recent projects include the adaptive use of the Historic Old Administration Building at Fresno City College and the Temple Sherith Israel renovation in San Francisco. Diana also guides the development and implementation of sustainable design best practices and research for all market sectors and firm operations. She is a member of the California Preservation Foundation. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in art history and bachelor of science degree in civil and environmental engineering from Cornell University and a master of architecture degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

 

slaterSean K. Slater, AIA, directs the firm’s retail and urban mixed-use portfolio. Sean joined ELS in 2012 after 16 years practicing architecture in Texas and Georgia. Sean’s projects involve large-scale shopping centers, mixed-use town centers, university-oriented retail destinations, and major retail center renovations both domestic and international. Sean was recently honored with the Urban Land Institute’s Apgar Award for coauthoring “New Suburbanism: Reinventing Inner-Ring Suburbs.” His recent projects include Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo, California, and Mueller Town Center in Austin, Texas. Sean is a member of the Urban Land Institute and the International Council of Shopping Centers. He earned his bachelor of architecture degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

 

ziebaJeffrey Zieba, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, guides the firm’s arts and entertainment portfolio. Since joining ELS in 1987, Jeff has developed particular expertise on theater projects and assembly spaces for civic, cultural, and sporting events. His recent work includes the Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE, Uytengsu Aquatic Stadium at the University of Southern California, and the expansion of the University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music. In addition, Jeff serves as one of the firm’s leading strategists in design technology and a champion of accessible design principles. Jeff is a member of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology. He received his education in the bachelor of architecture program at the University of Minnesota School of Architecture.

 

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Historic Old Administration Building Earns National Historic Preservation Honor

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Long abandoned and once nearly demolished, Fresno City College’s newly restored Historic Old Administration Building is now the recipient of a prestigious national Preservation Honor Award from The National Trust for Historic Preservation.  HOAB is one of 17 projects nationwide this year to receive the award, regarded as one of the nation’s top historic preservation honors.

Tim Mikulski with the National Trust says the HOAB is significant both in Fresno’s history, and in the development of school architecture nationally:

“It was the first permanent structure at what became the state’s first community college. Along with the Old Library, it is the original campus’ only remaining building. It was also designed around two open air courtyards to take advantage of the mild, sunny climate – a distinct step in the advancement of healthy school architecture.”

Brian Speece, Associate Vice Chancellor for Business and Operations at State Center Community College District, and Kurt Schindler, ELS Principal-in Charge,  accepted the award at the National Preservation Conference and Award Ceremony in Savannah, Georgia on November 13, 2014.

Please click the link for the full story from Valley Public Radio – part of NPR.

Link:
Fresno City College OAB Earns National Historic Preservation Honor

Historic Old Administration  Building – National Preservation Honor Award [Video]

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Shell Game: A Strategy for Historic Renovations

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Originally published in Parks and Rec Business

By David Petta and Diana Hayton

A common misconception about buildings designated as historically or architecturally significant is that they are substantially the same as on the day they opened. That is probably true for the exterior because these buildings are subject to a local landmark commission’s approval, but on the interior, modifications can be extensive due to changes in building use or programming. Repeated alterations can leave the interior of older buildings with a clash of materials, colors, and design characteristics associated with many different eras.

An architect has choices when renovating older buildings, even those registered or designated as local or national historic landmarks. In a structure that has undergone many additions and remodels, removal of non-contributing features can help return the building to its period of historical significance and to simplify the architecture. Non-original walls can be removed to open up larger spaces, making the building more flexible. A more contemporary approach to design and technology can be incorporated into the alterations so they are differentiated from the historic features. When working within an existing building’s footprint, there are more limitations with regard to the exterior shell. In historic buildings, for example, replacing old windows with more energy-efficient ones helps to reduce a building’s overall energy use but may significantly change the appearance and also prove to be an extremely expensive option. Modifications to materials and fenestration are carefully studied to justify the intervention if it turns out to be an important part of the project.

While many terms describe these types of projects—renovation, refurbishing, reclamation, renewal—the most accurate term might be simplification. At least, that has been the thinking over many years of helping the Berkeley (Calif.) Downtown YMCA improve a facility that encompasses four distinct building areas within one structure—an original 1910 historic building and additions completed in 1931, 1960, and 1994. A very adaptive organization, the YMCA of the Central Bay Area, with a design strategy of keeping spaces flexible as each phase is undertaken, hasn’t hesitated to move activity spaces within the various areas in response to program needs.

Landmark Buildings
The city-registered Downtown Berkeley Y occupies an important corner, across Allston Way from the nationally registered U.S. Post Office, diagonally from the nationally registered Berkeley High School Historic Campus District, and facing, across Milvia Street, the city-registered Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center.

Inside the Y, the historic nature of the facility wasn’t nearly as easy to see, thanks to walls, drop ceilings, and other components added over the years. Wayfinding was difficult because of the way in which spaces had been subdivided over time without a cohesive system of circulation.

The nature of decades-old additions is that they, too, often are designed to meet immediate needs rather than anticipate possible future synergies. The original 1910 Berkeley YMCA was primarily a hotel, with rooms on the third and fourth floors, a hotel lobby and member services on the first floor, a lap pool and locker rooms in the basement, and a variety of smaller spaces on the first and second floors devoted to hotel operations, meeting spaces, and rooms for spiritual and physical fitness. Each subsequent addition expanded hotel, sports, and fitness opportunities.

The first simplification—in 1931—added a gymnasium and handball courts in a two-story building appended to the rear of the hotel. The 1960 addition, in the corner created by the 1910 and 1931 structures, added a second basement pool and first- and second-floor fitness spaces, and on the top two floors, extended a secondary hallway and added hotel rooms. Finally, in 1994, a two-story building was erected on the far end of the two previous additions, adding a third basement pool and new women’s locker rooms, more fitness spaces on the first floor, and a large gymnasium on the second. With each of these additions, changes were made to the overall program. For example, a gymnasium became racquetball courts and, later, a weight room; so it isn’t too much of a stretch to say that the building plan has been in flux for nearly a century.

A Sustainable Strategy
berkeley-ymca-rev-thumb
How does one approach the renovation, over time, of a building marked by redundant spaces, disconnected activity areas, and a jumble of floor levels and connective corridors?

The first step is to take stock of the building’s assets, which, in historic structures, often isn’t easy to see at first glance. The interior of the Downtown Berkeley Y had a preponderance of thick-walled arches (added in the 1980s during the height of post-modernism) that took up a great deal of space. The Y had drop ceilings that obscured original structural materials. Behind the various remodels, the landmark 1910 building was rich in wood and brick, and even the concrete in the 1960 addition was architecturally notable—post-tensioned T beams that, although in perfect condition, were obscured by ceiling tiles, conduit, ductwork, and years of dust.

The decision was made to allow these various materials to be expressed, for three important reasons:

  1. To reveal original materials that characterize the building, which serve the goals of historic rehabilitation.
  2. To allow visitors to more easily differentiate between the buildings, aiding in orientation. One can imagine that attempting to force a common group of materials to help “unify” spaces could easily backfire, leading to an overly homogenous look. Within the various rooms, flooring, lighting, and finishes took the role of helping to visually connect spaces.
  3. To attain LEED Gold certification. Instead of removing walls and ceilings and putting in new ones, we let the structure express itself, reducing the resources used and providing a warm palette of finishes, including 100-year-old Douglas fir joists, steel columns, and brick walls. The resulting spaces are lighter and airier, with higher ceilings and featuring a richer palette of materials.

Programmatically, the Y’s desire for continued flexibility and the need to work within a larger established framework made it necessary to prioritize a few important changes. As part of the LEED Gold renovation, for example, the hotel lobby was shifted to an upper level, thus freeing up prime corner space at the first floor to become the new home of the cardiovascular fitness center. (The cardio area, which has now been located in three of the four structures that make up the Y, is in its largest space to date, befitting its importance to the Y’s members.) Also, an additional program area was provided by inserting a new floor into the 1930 gymnasium (which at the time was the site of racquetball courts), creating a first-floor weight room and a second-floor mezzanine comprising a family fitness area and a kids’ interactive zone. This brings all fitness-related activities within the same general footprint, while gymnasium space appears solely in the 1994 addition as a subdivided main gym and family gym.

Historic Changes
Building owners embark on renovations because of the need to make repairs, to meet new codes, or simply to bring new life to spaces. Landmark buildings make wholesale changes difficult, but they also offer much in the way of a vocabulary of materials, which can be particularly advantageous in the latter case.

In a building like the Downtown Berkeley YMCA, where the interiors have been modified several times, what might otherwise be termed “historical preservation” isn’t really about preserving what remains, because its character has been altered repeatedly. Reconstructing a building’s historic fabric is often a matter of removing it, and letting the original structure speak for itself.

 

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Hellman Tennis Complex Grand Opening and Green Honors!

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Cal Tennis 2The Hellman Tennis Complex held it’s grand re-opening on Saturday, January 24, 2015. The project was awarded a certificate of recognition for its excellence in green building performance by the Office of Sustainability, University of California, Berkeley.

Built in 1983, the Hellman Tennis Complex featured only limited-view, concrete-slab seating. ELS’ Concept Plan creates an overall visual coherence to the complex and enhances the Cross Campus Drive entrance to the university through improvements to Hellman Plaza and the existing seating. For the first phase, ELS modified the concrete slab to allow for fixed seating at the east end of the facility along the length of court No. 1. The latest expansion adds a 1,000-s.f. building housing men’s and women’s team locker rooms, restrooms and showers; new elevated seating for 200 extending from court No. 1 to court No. 6 (providing an overall total of 700 permanent seats); and new public restrooms for fans.

Link:

Cal Athletics – Hellman Grand Reopening

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Dusty Baker Visits ELS

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DustyBakeratELSMajor League Baseball great, Dusty Baker, visited ELS to share news of his new alternative energy firm, Baker Energy Team, LLC. The three-time National League Manager of the Year and six-time All-Star outfielder enjoyed tenures with the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s. ELS wishes Dusty and his team all the best in their new clean energy business.

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Anthony Grand Awarded Seventh ASAI Award!

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GRAN-A-01_aip 30_small Anthony Grand, Senior Associate at ELS, has received an Award of Excellence from the American Society of Architectural Illustrators (ASAI) for his illustration of the USC Uytengsu Aquatic Center that opened in February 2014. His illustration has been selected for inclusion in the Architecture in Perspective (AIP), ASAI’s annual international competition and exhibition of architectural illustrations selected through a juried competition. AIP 30 opens this year on October 14th in Toronto as part of the ASAI 2015 Conference.

Congratulations to Anthony on his seventh ASAI award! In the twenty-five-plus years since joining ELS, Anthony has had a primary design role on many of our community, education, recreation, university, performing arts, mixed-use and urban design projects. His extensive illustration portfolio ranges from quick, concept sketches to formal presentation renderings in traditional mediums of pencil, color pencil and pen and ink.

Link: ASAI Architecture in Perspective 30 – Selected Entries

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Historic Old Administration Building Wins SCUP/AIA-CAE Award!

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The Historic Old Administration Building at Fresno City College has received a merit award in the 2015 SCUP/AIA-CAE Excellence in Architecture for Rehabilitation, Restoration or Preservation! Winning projects will be presented at SCUP’s 50th Annual International Conference, July 11-15 in Chicago, IL.

An exemplary work in historic preservation, restoration, and rehabilitation, the project has also been honored with awards from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, AIA California Council, AIA San Francisco, AIA East Bay, the California Community College Facility Coalition (CCCF), and the California Preservation Foundation.

Links:
SCUP 2015 Excellence Award Recipients

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ELS Announces Three Associate Principal Promotions

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ELS-associate-principalsELS is pleased to announce the promotions of Ryan Call, Christopher Jung, and Gerald Navarro to Associate Principals and Directors.

RYAN CALL, AIA, Associate Principal and Director of Urban Design
Ryan directs ELS’ Urban Design portfolio, which includes significant work throughout the U.S., including the Mueller Town Center in Austin; Sunnyvale Urban Design Plan; Hillsdale Shopping Center North Block Renovation in San Mateo; and the Fort Collins Mid Town Bus Rapid Transit Corridor Study. Since joining ELS in 2001, Ryan has developed a particular expertise in the master planning of mixed-use urban communities with a focus on vibrant retail districts and public spaces. Ryan was recently honored with the Urban Land Institute’s Apgar Award for co-authoring “New Suburbanism: Reinventing Inner-Ring Suburbs”. Ryan also volunteers his time locally with Berkeley Design Advocates, Downtown Berkeley Association, and Urban Land Institute’s Urban Plan Program. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Washington State University at Pullman.

 

CHRISTOPHER JUNG, LEED AP BD+C, Associate Principal and Director of Design
Christopher joined ELS in 1992 and brings a wealth of talent, experience and leadership to his new role.  With a special focus on community, aquatics, sports and recreation projects, his design portfolio also features retail and entertainment, performing arts, and education facilities. His recent designs include the California Aquatics Center for the University of California, Berkeley; expansion and renovation of Pioneer Pavilion for California State University, East Bay; and the new George F. Haines International Swim Center, International Swimming Hall of Fame and Community Recreation Center for the City of Santa Clara. His design for the East Oakland Sports Center was recently honored for design excellence by AIA San Francisco and Athletic Business. Christopher received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley.

 

GERALD NAVARRO, AIA, Associate Principal and Director of Project Delivery
Since joining ELS in 1997, Gerald’s leadership in guiding and delivering some of firm’s most complex projects has been recognized by industry awards and several repeat client commissions. He has managed more than $500 million in construction, including such nationally recognized projects as the Berkeley Civic Center, California Theatre in San Jose, Denver Pavilions, Eastridge Mall Redevelopment, Tucson Mall, and Neiman Marcus Topanga. Gerald’s project management experience ranges from renovations to all-new construction of large-scale retail and mixed-use developments. Gerald is an effective communicator and manager with a passion for project delivery excellence and client satisfaction. Gerald received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture from University of California, Berkeley.

 

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Crafting Authenticity on Urban Land Magazine’s Cover

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ULI coverSean Slater, Principal at ELS, authored “Crafting Authenticity: An Antidote to the Homogenized Mall,” which became the cover story for Urban Land Magazine’s May/June 2015 print issue.

As an antidote to the perceived homogeneity of suburban shopping malls and mass-produced goods, and influenced by the rise of the craft and buy-local movement, many consumers today want to shop in places that have a hand-made, artisinal feel. Sean researched how real or perceived authenticity could be an ingredient that national real estate investment trusts (REITS) can add to their conventional shopping centers. We’d like to thank Thomas Gilmore of Madison Marquette, James Hennessy of The University of Chicago, Chris Meany of Wilson Meany, Cuan Hanly of Mulholland, and Shaheen Sadeghi of LAB Holding, LLC for contributing to Sean’s article.

Please click the link to read the full ULI article.

Link: Crafting Authenticity for Retail Destinations

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Downtown Summerlin on Chain Store Age’s cover

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CSA Summerlin coverDowntown Summerlin is the cover story for the March issue of Chain Store Age.

The open-air center is the largest retail development to debut in the United States since the economic downturn in 2006.

As executive architect, ELS worked with The Howard Hughes Corporation to complete the project that opened in October 2014. Read the full story at the link below.

Link:
Chain Store Age: Summerlin goes downtown Vegas style

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Mueller Featured by NPR and SPUR

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Mueller-Aerial-Rendering

SPUR’s Design for Walkability Initiative has chosen Mueller Town Center as a successful case study where new development has established a dense, walkable urban district.

ELS master planned the 39-acre town center at Mueller, a 700-acre redevelopment of the Robert Mueller Municipal Airport. Smart growth has transformed the former airport site to a lively LEED-certified neighborhood development.

In February 2015, the Mueller development was featured in the NPR Cities Project, a series on urban life in the 21st century. The story, “With Porches And Parks, A Texas Community Aims For Urban Utopia,” explores how in Texas, a state where cars are king, planners have designed the neighborhood around pedestrians.

Please click the links below for the complete stories.

Link:

SPUR’s Design for Walkability: Mueller Town Center

NPR Cities Project: With Porches And Parks, A Texas Community Aims For Urban Utopia

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FE-LINE: ELS’ design for Petchitecture

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petchitectureELS participated as a Petchitect team for the first time in the 20th anniversary Petchitecture fundraiser for Pets Are Wonderful Support (PAWS), a non-profit organization that provides programs and services to keep low-income seniors and people living with HIV/AIDS and other disabling illnesses together with their pets.

Our design staff, including our summer intern, participated in conceiving, fabricating and branding FE-LINE, our one-of-a-kind pet habitat design benefitting PAWS. We’d like to thank Cosmo for volunteering as our pet model.

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ELS Named among Top 300 Architecture Firms!

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Architectural Record Top 300

ELS is excited to be listed among the Architectural Record‘s Top 300 Architecture Firms list! Firms are ranked by revenue for architectural services performed in 2014, and the list encompasses architecture and multi-disciplinary firms that offer architecture as a service. We are honored to be part of the list a second consecutive year, and would like to thank our clients, colleagues, and staff for their support!

Link: Top 300 Architecture Firms

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Square at Campus Pointe Opens!

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Campus-Pointe

Grand Opening Celebration of Campus Pointe at Fresno State (Photo: The Square at Campus Pointe)

 

The Square at Campus Pointe officially opened at Fresno State on Friday, July 17. This is the first phase of a new public-private partnership with Fresno State and Lance-Kashian & Co., the developer of Campus Pointe. The project is currently the largest mixed-use public and private partnership in the CSU system. Master planned by ELS and linked to Fresno State by a pedestrian oriented campus road, Campus Pointe is a new 45-acre mixed-use development. Featuring retail, restaurants, multiplex cinema, housing, hotel and office uses, Campus Pointe provides new community gathering places for students and faculty. ELS completed the conceptual design for the retail buildings, many of which are now complete.

Links:

The Collegian, CSU Fresno: The Square at Campus Pointe opens for business

The Fresno Bee: Fresno State’s long-delayed Campus Pointe celebrates grand opening

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ELS named among 2015 ARCHITECT 50!

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arch50-2015
ELS is excited to be listed among ARCHITECT magazine’s Top 50 firms in the nation for a third consecutive year! The program looks at how firms throughout the country compare across a broad range of categories, from design to sustainability, to business. According to Eric Wills, Senior Editor of Architect, “It was a particularly tough year, so to make the top 50 is an impressive accomplishment.”

The magazine noted that, “ELS had one of the most diverse staffs of designers, with 40 percent women and 50 percent minorities.” We are honored to be among the 2015 list, and would like to thank our clients, colleagues, and staff for their support.

Link: The ARCHITECT 50

 

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East Oakland Sports Center Wins AIA East Bay 2015 Design Award

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east-oakland-sports-1

East Oakland Sports Center has been recognized by AIA East Bay as a 2015 Merit Award Winner. As one of the few LEED Silver-certified natatoriums in the U.S., the new 25,000 square foot community sports, recreation, and aquatics center is a project for social and environmental change in East Oakland.

Clarence Mamuyac, President and Principal-in-Charge, and Chris Jung, Associate Principal and Project Manager/Designer, accepted the award at the AIA East Bay Design Awards Ceremony on October 1, 2015. The awards program received more than 70 entries, out of which 12 were honored with awards for exceptional design excellence.

Link:
2015 AIA East Bay Design Award Winners

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Deep Dive: Swimming Pools around the World

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usc-swim-9Clarence Mamuyac and two of ELS’ aquatic projects are featured in Interior Design Magazine’s article, “Deep Dive: Swimming and Rehab Pools Around the World.”

“We’ve seen an uptick in pool-related projects, whether for universities or community centers, the latter primarily due to the public-private partnership financing model. The design of projects under the P3 model is held to a high standard, as they’re considered civic and must stand the test of time,” says Clarence Mamuyac, president of ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

Please click the link for the full article and slideshow.

Link:

Interior Design – Deep Dive: Swimming and Rehab Pools Around the World

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Crafting Authenticity: An Antidote to the Homogenized Mall

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Originally published in Urban Land Magazine

Take a location with some history, add the right look — and seek the right mix of merchants — to create a retail site that people will want to experience.

Article and Photos by Sean Slater

In one of the oldest neighborhoods of Oakland, California, a short pedestrian alley called Temescal Alley has recently become the “East Bay’s Hippest Street,” according to Condé Nast Traveler magazine. Its buildings—a number of them built in the early 20th century as stables for horse-drawn trolleys—are modest. The 18 shops that open onto the alley and its neighbor, Alley 49, are local businesses, including a vintage clothing shop, an art gallery, a synthesizer store, and an apothecary. The wait to get a haircut at the barbershop can take hours. The menswear store, Standard & Strange, takes its name from a line in Jane Jacobs’s 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

Old fashioned street signs to Temescal Alley Barber Shop and men’s clothier Standard & Strange direct customers to the ramshackle authenticity of Temescal Alley’s collection of small shops in Oakland, California.

“The standard and the strange” is a good way of describing the appeal of “authenticity” in the urban landscape. In reaction to the perceived homogeneity of suburban shopping malls and mass-produced goods, as well as the rise of the craft movement and the buy-local movement, many of today’s consumers want to shop in places that have a handcrafted or bespoke feel to them. Because big-box and internet retailers have captured the low-cost end of the retail spectrum, brick-and-mortar retail stores cannot compete on price, so they need to focus on offering unique environments and experiences if they are to remain relevant.

National retailers are taking notice. Starbucks is rolling out the Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room, the first of which opened in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood last year. It sells small-lot coffees roasted on site. The question arises: how far can authenticity go? Is it an ingredient that national real estate investment trusts (REITs) can add to their conventional shopping centers?

The typical shopping mall, built all at once by the same developer and usually designed by the same architect, offers coherence and predictability for both national retailers and consumers. Traditional main streets, however, developed incrementally over a much longer period of time, with individual property owners using different architects. In the modern age, new, authentic-feeling retail environments tend to come about either because a “lone wolf” developer creates and curates a complex of buildings over time, or retail tenants group themselves by affinity along a few blocks of a street—often sparked by one successful shop.

On North Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, longtime merchants and delicatessens, including Schwartz Deli and Canter’s Deli, have been joined by trendy hair salons and urban streetwear shops.

On North Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, longtime merchants and delicatessens, including Schwartz Deli and Canter’s Deli, have been joined by trendy hair salons and urban streetwear shops.

Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles is an example of the organic model. A four-block stretch of Fairfax was long known mostly for businesses serving the area’s Orthodox Jewish community. In 2004, Supreme, a New York City–based streetwear shop, opened a branch on Fairfax and began attracting similar retailers, followed by hip restaurants, including a few run by celebrity chefs. Streetwear, a style of casual clothing that draws on hip-hop and skateboarding cultures, arose in reaction to the mass-produced clothing available in conventional malls. The distinct cultures of urban streetwear and the existing shopkeepers seemingly have one thing in common: the need for an open storefront facing a busy street with a common sidewalk.

In the case of Temescal Alley, local husband-and-wife landlords Sarita Waite and Raymond Lifchez, an architecture professor at the University of California, Berkeley, selected the tenants.

An older and larger version of the lone-wolf model is Fourth Street in Berkeley, California. This popular retail street started taking shape in the 1980s in a formerly industrial area. Local design/build firm Abrams/Millikan & Kent created a building design center on the street, with home furnishings, design stores, and Fourth Street Grill, a California cuisine mecca until it closed in 1993. Over decades, the development grew into a shopping corridor with about 70 shops and restaurants. Anthropologie and Apple sit alongside locally owned cafés and clothing stores.

Self-described as the anti-mall, the LAB occupies a former warehouse and combines the barebones aesthetic with handcrafted touches for a unique style of decoration throughout. LAB opened a second antimall, CAMP, which mixes traditional vernacular forms to create a new type of shopping environment. Multicolored mailboxes and yarnbombed Adirondack chairs, shown in the featured image, are some of the quirky touches that adorn the center.

Self-described as the anti-mall, the LAB occupies a former warehouse and combines the barebones aesthetic with handcrafted touches for a unique style of decoration throughout. LAB opened a second antimall, CAMP, which mixes traditional vernacular forms to create a new type of shopping environment. Multicolored mailboxes and yarnbombed Adirondack chairs, shown in the featured image, are some of the quirky touches that adorn the center.

Another lone-wolf example is what LAB Holding, a Costa Mesa, California–based development company, calls the “anti-mall.” The company’s first anti-mall, the LAB, opened in Costa Mesa in 1993 in a former night-vision goggle factory. It was aimed at attracting urban youths who were disenchanted with conventional malls. “The LAB stands for ‘little American business,’ ” says Shaheen Sadeghi, company president and founder. “Twenty-three years ago, when we started this company, we felt that the energy, the excitement, the entrepreneurship, and the sense of connection are usually generated by smaller or newer companies.”

Tenants include Urban Outfitters and vintage clothing merchant Buffalo Exchange, as well as various one-of-a-kind clothing shops. Materials from factory buildings were recycled to serve as walls and planters for the complex. The LAB uses handcrafted touches to ensure that “no projects are duplicated, no architectural or landscape design replicated,” according to Sadeghi. An indoor/outdoor courtyard contains a living room with couches and magazine stands, and art shows, local music performances, and poetry readings are held there. With LAB Holding’s blessing, local knitters have yarnbombed planters and signs in the complex, lending it a crafted feel. LAB Holding opened a second antimall, CAMP, in 2002, with retailers targeting health and outdoors enthusiasts.

Ferry Building, San Francisco

Creating a sense of authenticity can be crucial for retail projects that, on paper, lack some of the traditional markers for commercial potential. San Francisco’s Ferry Building, for example, is now a model for market halls across the country, but before its redevelopment, it had terrible prospects from a traditional retail standpoint. Completed in 1898, the building had declined after the Bay Bridge opened in 1936 and significantly diminished ferry traffic. In the 1950s, the Great Nave—a dramatic 660-foot-long (200 m) skylit concourse on the second floor of the Ferry Building—was converted to office use, Abbot an effort that included inserting a third floor and suspending a ceiling from the nave’s arched roof trusses. The construction of the double-deck Embarcadero Freeway further eclipsed the structure.

After the freeway was demolished in the 1990s, the Port of San Francisco held a public competition to redevelop the Ferry Building into offices. Local developers Wilson Equity Office, Primus, and Wilson Meany teamed up to win the project.

Throngs of visitors and locals peruse the marketlike tenants along the skylit arcade in the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

Throngs of visitors and locals peruse the marketlike tenants along the skylit arcade in the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

“There was 200,000 square feet [19,000 sq m] of office space on the waterfront that people would invest in,” says Chris Meany, cofounder and managing partner of Wilson Meany, the Ferry Building’s current owner. “But the request for proposals said that you have to have a ground-floor use that will attract the public. In 1998, there was 100 percent agreement in the development community that retail would fail there.” No parking was available. Half the surrounding trade area consisted of water. And six traffic lanes separated the building from the rest of the city.

The winning team was the only one to propose restoring the architectural feature that made the building’s interior compelling in its ferry terminal days—the Great Nave.

“Our idea was let’s restore the building and really get to the soul of the building, which is its nave, and that will be a magnet and attract people,” Meany says. The team proposed giving the ground floor, which would become the main public area, a view to the nave by cutting two large holes in the second level’s original mosaic floor. The solution alters the original building but reveals what made it special. California’s Office of Historic Preservation and the National Park Service allowed the alteration. In considering how to create a market hall that felt authentic, the development team visited a number of examples around the world. “The successful ones were all uniquely adapted to their particular place. We said, ‘The Bay Area has a series of artisans and chefs who share a belief in sustainable agriculture. So we’re going to invite them to cohabitate,’” Meany says. The idea was to create a retail street with stalls beneath the Great Nave. The revamped Ferry Building opened in 2003 and continues to draw crowds of local residents, office workers, and tourists.

La Brea, Los Angeles

Madison Marquette’s tenant mix combines nostalgia and trendy men’s fashions. The developer allowed urban artist Shepard Fairey carte blanche to decorate a key building on the avenue.

Madison Marquette’s tenant mix combines nostalgia and trendy men’s fashions. The developer allowed urban artist Shepard Fairey carte blanche to decorate a key building on the avenue.

In 2008, the Los Angeles office of Madison Marquette bought a complex of 11 buildings dating to the 1930s on one block of South La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles. Although the company was not able to purchase two parcels, the 11 were enough to create a unique shopping district. Across the street, American Rag, a large, popular denim store, was already drawing customers from all over the Los Angeles Basin. It was bolstered by other, smaller streetwear and sportswear shops nearby. Madison Marquette decided to curate a mix of retail, food, and office tenants that would appeal to a similar customer base and reflect the property’s history as part of the city’s design district. Although the existing buildings were relatively nondescript, the distressed look of the architecture provided part of the authentic feel. Tom Gilmore, president and senior managing director of Madison Marquette Retail Services in Los Angeles, remembers that one day Mark Werts, owner of American Rag, crossed the street and said to him, “Don’t you dare touch the peeling paint. That’s what you’ve bought here—the peeling paint, the stained floors, the grime.” Madison Marquette upgraded the structure and facades but left the original brick walls, wood-truss ceilings, and steel beams exposed.

La Brea opened in 2011. The target market was not luxury, but it was a higher-than-average price point and had more of a focus on male, urban consumers than a standard mall would have targeted. “Underwriting was very challenging: there were no brands like Bonobos, Gant, or Aether at the time,” Gilmore says, naming three apparel companies that target young, male consumers and that opened stores in the La Brea project in 2014. “Now they are nationally known, to some extent because of this project.”

Public/Private Partnerships

Financing authenticity on the larger scale is a challenge. One successful strategy is to rely on public/private partnerships. LAB Holding’s third anti-mall, the Anaheim Packing District, opened in 2014 as the result of a public/private partnership with the city of Anaheim.

In Chicago, the city called on the University of Chicago to help revitalize the 53rd Street retail district a few blocks north of the university’s Hyde Park campus. “In the early 1900s, the street was home to hotels, residences, live theaters, fine dining, local retailers, and a strong office population,” says Jim Hennessy, associate vice president for commercial real estate operations at the university. But by 2000, the district suffered from blight. Seeing an opportunity to support economic development in the community and help attract top scholars, researchers, and students, the university started by purchasing the long-vacant historic Harper Theater in 2002.

Kilwins chocolate, fudge, and ice cream shop was an early arrival on the revitalized 53rd Street Corridor in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. The building had been renovated with metal panels, completely covering the original red brick and terra-cotta detailing.

Kilwins chocolate, fudge, and ice cream shop was an early arrival on the revitalized 53rd Street Corridor in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. The building had been renovated with metal panels, completely covering the original red brick and terra-cotta detailing.

The revitalization effort relied heavily on community input. “Through a series of community workshops that began in 2007, Hyde Park residents and business owners identified the need for more retail options and amenities along 53rd Street,” says Hennessy. “The University of Chicago and the city of Chicago combined resources to redevelop Harper Court, a mixed-use project led by Vermillion Development that became the anchor for revitalization of the entire corridor.”

In Chicago, the Harper Theater, which opened as a vaudeville theater in 1914, was converted into a movie theater in the 1930s and closed in 2002. The building sat vacant for more than a decade before it was restored and reopened as a neighborhood movie theater in January 2013.

In Chicago, the Harper Theater, which opened as a vaudeville theater in 1914, was converted into a movie theater in the 1930s and closed in 2002. The building sat vacant for more than a decade before it was restored and reopened as a neighborhood movie theater in January 2013.

Harper Court comprises office space for university employees, a Hyatt Place hotel, and 75,000 square feet (7,000 sq m) of retail space, including local retailers alongside national retailers such as Chipotle and Starbucks. The Harper Theater was restored and reopened as a neighborhood movie theater in 2013. “Its movies now play to sell-out crowds,” Hennessy says.

The revitalization has been successful because it relates to the area’s history and creates opportunities. A multitenant building at 1500 East 53rd Street serves as an incubator for new local retailers. “Retailers typically stay for a period of six months, with the option to stay long term if the neighborhood proves to be a good fit,” says Hennessy. In all, 30 retailers have been added to 53rd Street in the past three years. “Two-thirds of these new retailers are local Chicago-based companies.”

Although many national retailers still prefer spots in conventional shopping malls, a number of smaller ones look for authentic-feeling locations in hip urban settings. When Jack Spade, a New York City–based company, was founded in 1993 as the men’s line for fashion design house Kate Spade, the company had great flexibility in terms of how it could promote the brand. It opened about a dozen brick-and-mortar stores in hip urban locations across the globe, in major cities like London and Tokyo, and in smaller ones like New Canaan, Connecticut. Although the physical stores might not make a lot of profit, they help promote and position the brand.

Intelligentsia Coffee occupies a former warehouse space.

Intelligentsia Coffee occupies a former warehouse space on Abbot Kinney.

“We were interested in seeing models of very small stores—what their profitability could be and what their impact on the community could be,” says Cuan Hanly, former vice president and brand and creative director for Jack Spade, who now is chief executive officer of the fine leather goods shop Mulholland on Berkeley’s Fourth Street. “We always wanted our stores to feel engaged in the community, to have that owner/occupier feel about them. We tried to customize each retail space.”

Choosing where to open Jack Spade stores ultimately depended on instinct, Hanly says. “Our store on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, California, opened in 2010, before the big expansion of retail on that street,” he says. “I remember walking the street and just feeling like it was going to be good. Obviously, you look at traffic levels; you look at cotenancies; you try and get some intelligence on who might be moving into the area, but generally it was an instinctual feeling. The architecture of the store was very important as well—that it felt individual, it felt different. The building we found is like a little house.”

The street reflected in a stained-glass manufacturer’s sign.

Abbot Kinney reflected in a stained-glass manufacturer’s sign.

Such preferences—for a “little house” feel, or for older buildings with scarred bricks or peeling paint, or for historic theaters returned to life—suggest a challenge for owners of suburban shopping malls seeking to call on the magic of authenticity. Authenticity is difficult to roll out on a large scale because it arises from a relationship to the unique qualities of the place it inhabits, whereas the anchored shopping mall was created to be a place apart. And obtaining financing for a mall requires relying on large national tenants.

Catellus Development, based in Oakland, California, is developing Mueller Town Center, a mixed-use development in Austin, Texas. The developer has teamed with the city to include a high number of local retailers in the town center. Despite the challenges of building a pro forma on limited national credit accounts, the city and developer realized that the success of the project would hinge on local food, local fashion, and local entertainment.

However, REITs are aiming to incorporate aspects of authenticity, with a particular focus on food and events, which can be tailored to the local community’s interests and can offer the experiential qualities that online retailers cannot.

A number of malls are turning to food trucks to bring life to their parking lots. Pacific View Mall in Ventura, California, for example, holds Food Truck Friday every third Friday of the month, with different trucks serving up steamed buns, barbecue, and panini. The Domain Mall in Austin recently opened its Great Lawn, which is covered by a cable structure illuminated with light-emitting diodes. Domain hosts not only food trucks, but also entertainment, fitness classes, and a farmers market.

Chicago-based REIT General Growth Properties has formed a new division called Eat/Drink that is working to roll out market halls in its properties and that is offering healthier fare at higher prices than typical food courts. Although consumers still expect a degree of predictability from shopping malls—for instance, they may want to be sure that Panda Express is there each time they visit—they also love the element of surprise. Mingling the two—the standard and the strange—may be the key to success.

 

The post Crafting Authenticity: An Antidote to the Homogenized Mall appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

Urban Land Special Section: Pacific Northwest

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Sean Slater and our project at Hillsdale Shopping Center are featured the special section on the Pacific Northwest — specifically Northern California, Oregon and Washington — published in the September/October issue of  Urban Land Magazine.

Author Mike Sheridan writes, “Boasting an enviable quality of life, strong in-migration, and a vibrant economy powered by technology, aerospace, and other industries, the Pacific Northwest remains one of the America’s real estate sweet spots.” Please click the link for the full article.

Link:
Urban Land Special Section: Pacific Northwest

The post Urban Land Special Section: Pacific Northwest appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

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