Shipping Container Pop-ups: Best Practice or Best Forgotten?

Dan McCombie is a Research Associate at Larisa Ortiz Associates

I caught myself typing this into my google machine the other day:

“Are shipping containers still cool?”

This question has been on my mind as of late, given that the phenomenon of turning shipping containers into pop-ups for retail, exhibition space, offices, and even tiny homes, has been going on for quite some time now. Many people are no doubt familiar with the well renowned downtown Container Park in Las Vegas, constructed in 2013 as part of a huge reinvestment package spurred by the relocation of online retailer Zappos to the neighborhood. And I personally remember when back in 2011 my hometown of Christchurch (NZ) had its central city devastated by earthquake, spurring the city to create Re:Start to quickly breathe life back into the CBD. Are people still doing this? Is it still perceived as both a savvy marketing scheme and opportunity to catalyze revitalization? Or is the public starting to experience container-fatigue?

What’s the problem with containers?

Admittedly, there is a part of me that sometimes looks upon containers with disdain simply because they are so ubiquitous now. But I stumbled upon this quote from an article by John King in an article he wrote for SFGATE.com, wherein he waxes on the creation of “Proxy,” another container park constructed in 2011 in the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco:

“This isn’t about architecture so much as urban place making: you’re less aware of the structures than of the surroundings. The containers aren’t treated as sculptural elements, as is the case recently in other international cities. They’re content to add layers to the landscape, enlarging the Hayes Valley experience without making a fuss.”

Which I interpret to mean: “Calm down. Forget about the medium and consider the effect.”

And rightly so. I actually visited Proxy when I was last in San Francisco, when a couple of friends brought me to the beer garden there (Biergarten). Recalling that visit and doing some background research, I learned that Proxy was exactly as the name describes—a temporary placeholder until more permanent development could take place, much like Re:Start in Christchurch. The site on Octavia Street was originally an underutilized parking lot that the city sought to redevelop for affordable housing. However, the original plan was tabled with the advent of the economic recession. Rather than let the site lay vacant and an eyesore on the neighborhood, the city and the Mayor’s office bid the site out for a temporary and less costly installation, to which the designer/developer/operator Envelope A+D responded with their plan for a “flexible environment of food, art, culture, and retail within renovated shipping containers.” 

Although city codes lacked precedent for a “temporary” retail operation lasting more than 90 days (the project is due to expire in 2020), stakeholders were able to negotiate an agreement such that project became a reality. Now retail tenants include a mix of established brands and start-ups taking their first incremental step towards brick and mortars. In addition to retail offerings, the project hosts film screenings, art installations, and serves as a performance/event space creating a bonafide neighborhood gathering place.   

What have container parks like Proxy meant for retail?

Proxy bucks the trend in retail in the sense that in spite of its positive public reception and the relative success of its tenants, it plans to shutter in a couple of years. Why remove something that seems to be a success? Because it was always designed to be a stop-gap and of course the need to grow the supply of affordable housing in the Bay Area is still an acute need. But the lessons remain. What Proxy did well was create density in a vacant space. It was consciously conceived as a means to revitalize a previously blighted area, a parking lot that had also been the former site of a freeway. There were other things Proxy did well—curating the mix of tenants in a meaningful way and targeting operators that could feasibly make the jump to brick and mortars after a period of incubation. I also appreciate that the designers consciously eschewed the term “pop-up.” In a quote from Douglas Burnham, founder of Envelope A+D:

“We specifically don’t use the word ‘pop-up’ because it doesn’t really mean anything to us anymore…We think that a thoughtful insertion of compelling temporary uses can be an effective strategy to bring vibrancy to languishing parts of the city. There’s nothing trendy or faddish about this.”

Admittedly, one could argue it is a bit faddish to treat “pop-up” as a pejorative term. But I think this gets back to my main takeaway. Before you critique something for its popularity, it’s important to consider if and why it actually has staying power.

So…do containers have staying power?

As far as I’ve been able to tell, the containerization of our lives continues unabated. Large brands like Budlight, DSW, Puma, HBO, and HP are increasingly demanding container pop-ups for experiential retailing strategies while a growing number of companies are supplying both specialized and turnkey options. They range from Co-Working in a Box’s “PopBox”, Britten’s “BoxPop”, and Vacant’s mobile container truck, each providing a range of design and consultative services to help get businesses off the ground and engage customers in places they didn’t expect.

And let’s not miss the fact that a whole segment of companies have an identical model for indoor pop-ups. The shopping mall giant Macerich’s Pop-Up EXP program provides 100-300 SF of space with micro leases, and modular components. The difference here is we’re not talking about containers. Again—this suggests a larger trend with momentum and that the medium (containers) is really beside the point.

What’s on the horizon?

Some forward-thinking folks have gone so far as to envision containers as outparcels–parking lot satellites to larger retailers located inside shopping malls. For example, perhaps a Nordstrom anchoring a mall uses a container in the parking lot as a small fulfillment center so customers have the convenience of picking up their order on the fly without the full commitment of going inside. It’s no stretch of the imagination given the way e-commerce has pushed the industry towards more rapid and flexible retail with just-in-time delivery schedules. And what with autonomous vehicles ahead, these trends will surely continue into the foreseeable future.

Personally, I’m excited to see pop-ups and container villages keep building off of what has worked in the past. Invest Atlanta, the City of Atlanta’s Development Authority, approved $550K in funding to create an “MLK Innovation Village” built out of shipping containers in an empty parking lot adjacent to the H.E. Holmes MARTA station. The village will include an outdoor gathering space, retail, and at least nine offices with the intent that this “semi-temporary” project will be a catalyst for future transit oriented development in the area. It’s the same model as Proxy and Re:Start, but with a creative transit component that could give it possibly massive multiplier effects.

Which is all to say, I think we still have a lot of containers coming our way in the future.

And that’s quite alright with me.

Puma City
 Multiple Global Ports

Re:Start
Christchurch, NZ

Proxy
Hayes Valley neighborhood of SF

Container Park
Downtown Las Vegas 

Retail Mistakes in Santiago Calatrava's Oculus

No one is saying the space is not beautiful. Ok, maybe SOME people are, but in my mind, architect Santiago Calatrava added something very special to downtown Manhattan in his stunning, and stunningly overbudget, Oculus. Shopping there, however, is another thing entirely.

The Oculus doubles as a transportation hub for New Jersey PATH trains and as a Westfield shopping center and while it serves it's purpose, I was shocked at how poorly thought out the retail components of the project are. Getting urban retail right - particularly vertical retail - can be a challenge as a new Citylab article on the historic trials and tribulations of urban shopping malls makes clear.  Yet the article speaks to solutions that were clearly not put in place at Westfield World Trade Center. The aesthetics may be beautiful (though the leaky roof and wet marble fall are likely keeping attorney's busy), my experience as a shopper left me confused and frustrated. A few things I noted...

Challenging Circulation Patterns. This picture was taken from the central "piazza". My first question was...how do you get from where I'm standing up to that overlook? The elevator doesn't go to the first floor and neither do the stairs. Hmm...

Yet another image, this time from the second floor. It's nice that the stairs float, but again, how do I get down to the first level of shopping? I couldn't find a single sign directing me to the escalators (which I did eventually find, but they were of course hidden from plain view in deference to the architecture, because really, it is hard to dress up a functional escalator). Finding ways to get from one floor to another was confusing and frustrating. Is this how a retailer wants their customers to remember the shopping experience?And what about those commuters who are in a rush? If the elevator doesn't go down to the PATH level, those customers have to double back to the middle of the piazza to find an escalator. When a few minutes may mean missing a commuter train, the answer for many will be "no way".






Poor Directional Signage. Here I am, finally, at the escalator and elevator on the second floor trying to get down to the first floor. It is nice that there is a sign directing me UP and OUT to a variety of things - the 9/11 Memorial, One World Trade Center, One World Observatory, and Greenwich Street - but not a single sign for where to go DOWN for more shopping.

Seemingly Non-Existent Store signage. Can you even tell what that store is selling? I had a very difficult time figuring out it out until I walked right up to the window (hint. Apple products. Ok, that was more than a hint). Perhaps the designers thought signage would distract from the design (they were probably right), but it also undermines retailers ability to raise awareness and drive foot traffic. 

It also strikes me that there is a mismatch between the most frequent potential customers (those going to PATH trains) and the retailers who occupy the stores, particularly on the piazza. While having an Apple store there makes sense, Hugo Boss and John Varvatos a little less so. To be fair, more accessible retailers can be found hidden, and I mean hidden (again, no signage directing you there) in the South Concourse.

While I don't know for sure, my sense is that high end brands were convinced to locate here for the vanity of it, but in the end, sales won't quite cover costs. The few times I've been there so far I have not seen many people shopping in any of the higher end clothing stores or boutiques. I'd be curious to see what happens at the end of some of the lease terms. I imagine turnover is likely. 

Round Up: The Banking Shift, Global Growth Hotspots, Placemaking = Environmentalism?, Crowdfunding vs Grants

Four Trends Driving the Shifting Demand for Traditional Bank Branches

Gone are the days of seeing an overabundance of banks on every corner. Demand, technology, and customer mix are changing things up. Likely to have lasting impact on commercial corridor retail mix.

The Global Growth Hotspots of the Future Are Here

The takeaway of this Bloomberg piece is that urban emerging markets will see the greatest concentration of growth and will become "major contributors to economic performance."

Is placemaking a “new environmentalism”?

This piece bids the question whether placemaking is becoming a way of protecting the human habitat. Yes we need to build our environment to incorporate human growth but it proposes that it can be sustainably done.

Why You Should Consider Crowdfunding Your Neighborhood Project (Instead of Writing a Grant)

Grants can be tedious and impersonal to the community. This little tidbit shares ideas why crowdfunding a neighborhood project could be the real solution.

Macy's stores are closing. Now what?! Eight strategies for downtown practitioners facing new retail realities

Macy's recent announcement that it will close approximately 100 stores over the next few years came on the heels of announcements that Sears and K Mart will close 150 more stores (they closed 78 stores last year). Other stores like Kohl's posted disappointing holiday results. These general merchandise anchors have struggled in recent years to remain profitable, and the closures are intended to focus their resources on more profitable stores. So what do these trends mean for Main Street? We think the news offers challenges and opportunities for downtown business districts. Here are a few ways we think our downtown communities will be affected in the coming years...

More competitive leasing environment. With more and more SF on the market, malls in lackluster markets will struggle to lease space, and in some cases they will be competing for retailers who might also be considering a downtown retail space. This means that you have to be more aggressive in your leasing efforts, and get better at communicating the value add of a downtown location. You should ask yourself a few questions. Are your downtown vacancies easily found on on-line listing services? If not, are you working actively with your property owners to ensure their properties are listed and available for easy viewing? Do you maintain demographic and market data for retailers who are considering your market? There are a myriad of ways - some that require more investment than others - to ensure your district's vacancies are on a retailers radar. But either way, supporting retail leasing efforts will take some concerted effort and investment. On that note, don't forget to downtown our book, "Improving Tenant Mix: A Guide for Commercial District Practitioners" for free from ICSC's website for ways to take a more hands on approach to your district's leasing efforts. 

Omni-channel retailing will become more and more the norm as mainstream retailers invest in their on-line presence. Main Street retailers will need to find a way to follow suit. Yet asking small retailers to carve out resources for a robust on-line presence is a lot to ask many of them. As a result, communities and BIDs may have to step up their efforts to educate businesses on the strategies the tools they have available to them to ensure survival. Many businesses, particularly those that make their own products, may not be aware that they can sell on platforms like Amazon, Zappo's or Rue La La. We recently met a business owner who gave us the skinny on her on-line selling strategy, telling us she had abandoned Amazon because their requirements were "too much of a pain", but that she has had a great experience with Zappo's. This kind of intelligence will be useful to share with your local business community. And for those interested in selling directly to customers through an on-line platform, there are more and more options for them out there. (Read our recent post "On-Line Selling - An Option for Smaller Businesses" for more info.)

A retail website powered by Shopify, one of a number
of  on-line platforms that makes on-line selling
accessible to small businesses.

Programming and creative usage of public space (i.e "place based strategies") will increase. Commercial districts, like malls, are increasingly trying to offer distinctive experiences that cannot be found so easily on-line. Cooking demos, craft classes, exercise classes, etc. will all become more critical to engaging with customers. In downtown, that means activating and programming public space in a way that will drive downtown visitation. Consider the Meatpacking District's free outdoor yoga program. They teamed up with a local store to offer programs on the street during the summer. This is a great way to highlight a local business while also bringing activity to open spaces. These activities also reinforce a well thought out strategic position for this market based on the segment of the businesses that are there - a place where young, active people congregate. We love it.

The Meatpacking District BID in NYC
sponsors "Downward Dog Yoga Days" in the Summer
in partnership with a local business. 

Food will continue to drive leasing in many downtown environments. When food is in the mix, shoppers increase their dwell time, which increases the amount of money they are likely to spend in the district. A panel on Urban Retailing at last year's ICSC Recon emphasized this trend. Restoration Hardware Executive David Stanchak was on hand to discuss RH's recently opened new store in Downtown Chicago that includes a food operation - The RH Chicago Three Arts Club Cafe. According to Stanchak, "for every dollar we do on food-and-beverage sales, we're generating $2 on increased gallery sales."  The good news is that downtown environments already do food quite well, but will need to begin to find better synergies between food and shopping. In some communities, the hours that retailers are open do not necessarily overlap with the hours that restaurants are open, which diminishes opportunities for cross-patronage. Correcting this misalignment, perhaps through a well-promoted once a month late night effort could help address this issue. That said, care should be taken not to overtax small business owners who often have limited staff capacity to do this on a regular basis. Promoting the event sufficiently, and to the right customer audience, is key to ensuring the success of late night shopping strategies.

The 3 Arts Club Cafe, a food concept within
Restoration Hardware's new downtown Chicago location.

Food kiosks, food trucks, and seasonal food offerings will also continue to grow. Some communities might not be able to support a full time bricks-and-mortar food retailer, but can instead focus on developing a temporary set of offerings that may be associated with an event. We are working in a community in Long Island right now that has a small municipal beach. Last year they started a very successful food truck and movie night. It probably shouldn't come as a surprise that they sold many, many more beach passes over previous years - adding to the town coffers while also building community. These investments clearly also pay dividends.

Downtown Raleigh BID puts on the Food Truck Rodeo
over a weekend in the early Spring with more than 50 food trucks. 

Leasing to specialty businesses will rise. The downtown environment has an element of authenticity and interest that makes is a great place for some of these more interesting retail concepts. In some cases, lower rents and a lower hurdle to entry make downtown storefronts an enticing alternative to malls. Consider Muse Paintbar in Providence, RI, a business that bills itself as "the premier art and wine experience". Located on Main Street in a historic building, Muse Paintbar offers a wide array of classes for adults and families too.

Property owners and merchants will request higher transparency around BID spending. In the mall world, payments by retailers to cover common area maintenance (CAM) are critical to ensuring shared spaces are well maintained. The International Council of Shopping Centers recently posited that 2017 will see a more "widespread effort by retail tenants...to rein in or set limits on CAM costs." We believe that the same economic forces driving retailers to second guess CAM charges are not limited to businesses that lease storefronts in malls. As many of you know, in a downtown environment, the equivalent of CAM charges are BID assessments, which in a similar manner to CAM charges are obligatory contributions by property owners and/or merchants that support the enhanced maintenance of shared public spaces and help to advance long term district improvements. While getting a BID off the ground may become more challenging as businesses and property owners double down on keeping costs down, we do believe that existing BIDs will have to make sure their members understand the value they are getting for their investment. This means getting much better at bench-marking impact with measurement tools like pedestrian counts. And while BID members may balk at increasing BID budgets, doing away with these additional charges is not an option either. As one analyst indicated, it "costs money to create experience". And given how important experience is going to be to shoppers in the future, downtown's with BIDs are going to be better positioned to weather competition from on-line retailers than those that don't have the resources to program and maintain the downtown environment. 

Retailers, especially at the high end, are open to thinking outside of the box and customizing their stores to unique urban spaces. According to Richard Johnson, a senior real estate specialist who spoke at Recon in May, urban locations are appealing despite the higher costs, "“There is always a lot more cost, and we do more work for urban locations,” he said. “You want to give your best face to your best clients, and urban does that. The goal is to create something unique that has our customers coming back time and time again.” 

Overall, we think downtown is well positioned to compete in the coming years. As people look for authentic experiences, the kind of things that simply cannot be done on-line, we are confident that many downtown's can and will rise to the challenge.

Support Your Local Artists This Holiday Season!

We're all gearing up for the holidays and of course buying gifts has become part and parcel of the season. Although looking for various types of gifts for all the different people in our lives has become less stressful and made easier with department stores and shopping malls offering a wide range of products, artisanal holiday markets have become the new hub to do this same type of cross shopping.


In New York, holiday markets are sprouting up all across the city - indoors and outdoors - and offering customers carefully-curated and unique shopping experiences filled with independent vendors selling an eclectic array of goods. A few weeks back, I stumbled upon Ridgewood Market Holiday Night Bazaar inside a German beer hall in the burgeoning neighborhood. Although the indoor market was discreetly located and inconspicuous, within 45 minutes I was armed with gifts for everyone on my list and not only did I spend much less than I would have at Bloomingdale's, I also got gifts that were handmade and one-of-a-kind.


This community-based artisan market, for example, features over 40 local artists who live or work within the neighborhood and that night all of them were out selling their products in person. There were ceramic pieces carved by hand in a nearby studio, metal jewelry mixed locally, and even honey harvested in local backyards. The truly engaging shopping experience that artists/vendors at such markets are able to offer is also special as many are able to speak eloquently to the process and inspiration of each product being sold.

As more research begins to point to the importance of maintaining physical retail presence and creating compelling shopping experiences to attract millennial shoppers, these holiday markets are certainly doing a great job offering millennials the stories they seek and the opportunities to touch, feel and test products.

Most importantly, this type of local and artisanal market is also fast becoming an outlet for artists, or aspiring small business owners, to test their products on the market and start building a customer base at a particularly crucial time of the year for retail. So for those of you who are still struggling to find the perfect gifts for all the special people in your lives, visit your neighborhood artisanal holiday market in your beer hall, church, or park, and support the local artists and aspiring business owners living amongst you!

Check out amNY and TimeOut New York for their lists of holiday markets in NYC!

The fallacies of retail market analysis and why looking at the numbers alone is a recipe for failure

Here is something to chew on. One of the biggest factors in the success of your downtown or commercial district has nothing to do with local purchasing power. As any broker or retailer can tell you, retail success is based on a variety of conditions and as a firm we have always taken a comprehensive approach to understanding retail environments, one that extends far beyond leakage calculations. As urban planners, we are also quite cognizant of the impact of the physical environment and its role on successful retail. Whenever I train downtown practitioners, I tell them to think about their job this way - "your job is to create the conditions to ensure businesses succeed, to 'set the stage' for a retailer. If you can do that well you have done a good portion of what you were hired to do."

So while understanding market demand is a critical and often a first step in determining opportunities for downtown retail, we have always posited that retail market analysis requires an analysis of much more than market demand. Our approach, developed over nearly twenty years of field work, looks at four key areas - the physical environment, the business environment, the market demand generated by residents, employees and visitors, and the adminstriative capacity to improve and manage the district over time. In fact, these four elements are part of a tool we developed for the City of New York and funded by the Local Initaitive Support Corporation called the Commercial District Neighborhood Assessment tool (CDNA). I like to call it "Commercial DNA". The goal of the assessment is to understand the fundamental and dinstincive qualities and characteristicts that make a commercial district unique - much like our DNA is what makes each of us unique. This kind of asset-based retail analysis is by nature much more comprehensive, and allows us to develop a clearly defined set of improvements, interventions and activities that will build off of local assets and ensure more viable and sustainable retail environments.  

This post focuses on one specific element of the Commercial DNA assessment, that of the physical environment and in particular issues of access, convenience and visibility. The failure of a retail environment to ensure these fundamental conditions are met can ultimately undermine retail performance in subtle but destructive ways. Below I’ve outlined a few issues that we see come up quite frequently when looking at traditional downtown environments. This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but it’s a good start for those looking to diagnose “access” challenges. 

Access/Convenience

Two Starbuck exist comfortably across the street from one a
nother along Mission Street in San Francisco.

For many goods and services, customers are driven by convenience and ease. The minute you ask a potential customer to wait at a light and make a left hand turn across a few lanes of traffic, you have decreased the likelihood that they will do it, and therefore decreased sales volume for a business. The same holds true the minute you ask a shopper to cross a busy street to grab a cup of coffee on the way to work. This is precisely why there are two Starbucks across the street from one another on Market Street in San Francisco, for instance. And it is also why Dunkin Donuts’ site selection criteria includes being on the “in bound” side of the street, or take-out food businesses want to be on the "out bound" side of the street to grab customers on their way home from work. In both cases, the idea is to faciliate an easy purchase in every way possible. Basically, it is a basic human reflex to find the shortest distance between two points, and downtown retailers need to find ways to make sure customers can easily walk in the front door with the least hassle possible. This is one reason why we perform a block-by-block analysis in our work, because each block and each corner holds unique challenges and possibilities for retailers that often must be addressed.

Visibility
Stores, particularly mom and pop stores that do not advertise like national chains, need visibility from every angle to compete.

Years ago I met the owner of this ice cream store in
Downtown Bethesda, MD, (then Gifford's)
who told me that this vertical ice cream cone made a huge
 difference in sales when he put it in. Clearly Haagen Daz agrees. 

When a quick glance by a passing pedestrian or motorist is your only form of advertising, you better work hard to make sure you are catching the customer's eye. 

If buildings are blocking visibility or if signage is non-existent or only facing one way, the lower visibility will affect sales volume. This matters even more for convenience shopping when there are no anchors. For many businesses, and especially mom-and-pops, the lost of even a single every matters. This is why 150 feet can matter to a retailer deciding between a corner location (called an “end cap”) with high visibility from all angles and a mid-block location. 

Retailers will also wait for the right site, even if it means foregoing a market entirely. A few years ago we talked to CVS about a location one block from a subway stop in a market with high demand and limited drugstores offerings. The response was “come back to us if you can get us that corner location. There is no way I can go to our real estate committee with anything less than what we consider a 100% corner”.

That brusk response is not uncommon, but some of the challenges of a site 1/2 a block off a 100% corner can be offset by signage. Our work a few years ago in Mount Washington, Pittsburgh, PA bore this out. After blade signs were introduced down a sleepy street, pedestrian counts increased by 30%, businesses reported increased sales volume, one jewelery store owner was able to keep his store open a few extra days a week and vacancies declined.

Enough parking, but not visible or comfortable to use

The walkways in Shadyside, PA to rear parking lots are well
lit and attractive. Source: Google Streetview

In many downtowns, the problem isn’t a lack of parking, but rather a lack of visible parking directly in front of the stores that shoppers want to patronize. Of course many will argue that people don't park in front of the store they want to visit when going to a mall, so why should downtown be different? In theory, that is true, but the problem is that struggling downtowns do not function like the malls (yet). They often have successful retailers and restaurants interspered among vacancies or less attractive offerings. The take away here is not to solve for the problem by putting lots of parking in front of a given store, but rather increase density of offerings so that shoppers can in fact patronize multiple stores at once, rather than a single destination. 

South Orange, NJ has nicely landscaped
walkways to rear parking lots. 

Another issue with parking is the perceived inconvenience of parking in a lot that is a block or two from a shopper’s ultimate destination. To make matters worse, sometimes the public realm between the lot and the retail area is so poorly tended that a block long walk can feel a lot longer. For example, in areas where heat is an issue, the lack of shade trees can make a short walk oppressive. Other issues include lighting, or giving shoppers something interesting to look at while they walk. Without these improvements, walking can be uncomfortable and unappealing. Some communities have addressed these connectivity challenges fairly well – South Orange in New Jersey and Shady Hill in Pittsburgh come to mind. Both have invested in well tended landscaping and pavings along these mid-block alleys that make the experience of walking to/from the parking lot more pleasant.

Inadequate Street Crossings
Even minor barriers affect shopping behavior. Asking shoppers to walk to the end of the street before crossing results in a loss of shoppers and sales volume. We worked in one community in New Jersey where the lack of a mid-block crossing was resulting in significant detrimental affects for all businesses. Whereas the district could have felt cohesive, offering 60k + sf of total offerings and drawing from a larger trade area, retailers and property owners made it more difficult for shoppers to patronize both sides of the street. In fact, you were prohibited from parking in one lot and patronizing businesses on the other side of the street. Instead, you were expected to get back in your car and park in the lot across the street if you wanted to patronize a business within 50 ft of your already parked car. Once a drive is in the car, they are likely going elsewhere. This only means lost business for all businesses.

As I said, this is certainly not an exhaustive list, but it gives you insight into the variety of issues that we consider, beyond discretionary spending power, that make a difference between a successful downtown retail environment and one that is struggling.

Please check out our website (larisaortizassociates.com) for more information on how we can help your community. 

Round Up: Urban Taxidermy, Tightening the Rust Belt, Tips for a Successful Art Tour, The Elements of Placemaking

Jargon Watch: "Urban Taxidermy"

As cities struggle to maintain character of neighborhoods and commercial districts, they are conflicted between two options, the preservation of old buildings versus allowing development to proceed. By preserving a district you also preserve a "walkable, vibrant streetscape where people want to be." Enter Urban Taxidermy.

Robert Allsopp defines urban taxidermy as "the art of preserving, stuffing and mounting buildings for lifelike effect to simulate an intrinsic social, cultural or commercial vitality."

Before urban taxidermy.

After urban taxidermy.

Do Parts of the Rust Belt ‘Need to Die Off’?

Experts suggest that struggling Rust Belt cities must look to the future of their cities by slimming down strategically through "smart decline."  Smart decline refers to "the ways in which cities can plan around population loss and find ways to manage it (and maybe grow again one day)." Some strategies include moving lowest density occupants to compact neighborhoods, building greenbelts instead of maintaining untraveled streets, encouraging urban farming or letting the barren areas revert to nature.

Helping the Public Enjoy Art

A multi-tiered approach to getting people out for an art tour in downtown Des Moines, Iowa offers some ideas on how to attract visitors to your district for one-off events and beyond.

Public Space at the Crossroads of Everything

The "place" in Placemaking is the combination of many more elements than you might've previously even considered. 

Five Design Principles that Every Facade Improvement Program Should Incorporate

By Patricia Voltolini, Associate, LOA

What is the first thing you notice when you visit a commercial district? Storefronts and buildings probably make that list. Great storefronts are critical to a vibrant street environment. They engage passersby and contribute to active street life. Not surprisingly, façade improvement programs have become a common and effective tool in many commercial district revitalization efforts.

Yet many facade programs go wrong quite quickly. Without design guidance, the "after" might not look much better than the "before", and resources spent will have less impact than you might like. Unfortunately, overcoming this issue can be a challenge. Many BIDS, BIAs or CDCs working to revitalize low-income or distressed corridors do not have the budget to engage a retail designer to help prepare and review façade improvement applications. Even when they do, this person is often not a retail design expert.

With that in mind, we thought it would be helpful to share some of our own insights as they relate to the key takeaways from a wonderful new publication entitled, Laying the Groundwork:Design Guidelines for Retail and Other Ground-Floor Uses in Mixed-UseAffordable Housing Developments, prepared by the Design Trust for Public Space in partnership with the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The publication is the result of extensive research and collaboration from a broad range of design and retail experts - including our own Principal, Larisa Ortiz - who served on the advisory panel. It is available for purchase on the Design Trust website.

While the report outlines best practices and provides practical guidance for those building new retail space in mixed-use buildings, we think it also provides excellent insight for those looking to develop facade improvement programs. A good facade improvement program not only impacts the overall look and feel of the district, but if done with certain principles in mind, can help businesses achieve higher sales. Incorporating these concepts into your facade program design will help ensure that the program meets the objectives of your district stakeholders as well as the businesses themselves.

So keep in mind the following key principles as you design your facade improvement program....

1. Maintain Transparency

There is growing recognition of the importance and value of transparency in driving retail sales. A transparent storefront invites customers inside with products and services on display. It also discourages crime by providing what urban theorist Jane Jacobs called “eyes on the street”. Making the facade as transparent as possible allows for a full visual exchange between indoors and outdoors. Customers and shopkeepers inside the store see what is happening on the street and pedestrians outside see the activity and offerings in the store. This interdependent relationship benefits both customers and retailers. 

The same storefront with different window treatments create a very different corridor environment. The previous merchant (also a pharmacy) completely covered the windows and failed to create any visual connection to the interior of the store. The new pharmacy made the windows completely transparent, and uses them to showcase products while allowing enough visual exchange between indoors and outdoors.

In order to maximize transparency, the design guidelines recommend having 70% of the façade surface completely transparent between 2’ and 10’above sidewalk-level, with measures in place for attractive privacy solutions when needed.

In many urban districts, retailers (even after a façade improvement program) cover their windows with sales posters and signs. Store-owners want to attract customers with these signs but in doing so they block visual connection between inside and outside and often create an uninviting storefront. A customer who can't see inside a business is highly unlikely to walk inside.

One way to keep the façade transparent and place signs  at the lower (or upper) section of the storefront, immediate below (or above) eye-level.

The same facade before and after renovations. The image above (before) shows all windows entirely covered with signs, a typical feature of many supermarkets and delis in urban districts. The image below shows the same supermarket after a facade renovation. Despite significantly covering the windows with sales posters, the owner  made an effort to keep some level-of transparency by placing signs below and above pedestrian eye-level.

This dollar store has large windows (over 70% of its facade is glass) but the store owner has covered it almost completely with products, blocking any visual connection to the interior of the store.

Another common occurrence is having non-retail stores (salons, professional offices, etc.) with minimal transparency. These businesses should also be regarded with the same design standards as other retail businesses as they are also key components of the streetscape and as responsible for creating vibrancy in the corridor as retail stores are. In fact, the design guidelines presented in Laying the Groundwork  target not only retailers but also banks, laundromats, and even community uses like cultural space, healthcare and childcare facilities.

This facade provides an excellent example of what non-retail stores should look like (or not). The space on the left has a highly transparent and engaging storefront while still providing some level of privacy to its users. The space on the right, however, has windows but they're completely covered with shades and gates and impede any visual connection between inside and out.

In order to guarantee full transparency, facade improvement programs should add a clause requiring windows to be kept free (or with minimal) signage and that product display should not block vision to the store's interior. In fact, the  minimum of 70% transparency recommendation does not refer only to the substantial presence of store windows, but that these windows be kept fully transparent.

Exterior illumination provides light on the sidewalk and highlights the facade at night. Exterior lighting can also be used to accent trees and planting. An active, well-illuminated street frontage improves safety for retailers, residents, and the district. It also reduces the need for security gates by creating a safer street front.

One important consideration is the relationship between lighting and store signage. Both should be coordinated and the new façade design should minimize lighting presence above the sign, especially if the units above are residential.

2. Maintain  Connections between the Storefront and the Street by Minimizing Barriers

An active, well-illuminated street frontage improves safety for retailers, residents, and the district. It also reduces the need for security gates by creating a safer street front. Ideally, security gates should not be allowed in retail spaces under lease agreements. There are many other ways to provide security, including security systems with video, sensors, alarms, etc.

Unfortunately, in many urban communities, transparency is often trumped by safety concerns. For example, many retailers elect to put up solid security gates as a anti-theft measure. However these gates only serve to accentuate concerns about safety. Your facade program should discourage, or require, less obtrusive forms of security. If roll down gates are required, share alternatives to exterior rolls down gates. (See our previous post "Are there viable alternatives to roll down gates?")

Air conditioning units can also be barriers and jeopardize a facade design's  potential to creating vibrant streets. Avoid whenever possible the installation of air-conditioning units over doorways or having them protrude through the façade. Instead, plan the placement of louvers to enhance the facade and the quality of the retail storefront. Provide a clear zone for louvers on the exterior storefront. Finish louvers to match the color of the surrounding storefront elements so that they are an integral part of the facade design.

A store's visibility has significant impact on retail sales - this is why businesses pay more for corner locations ("end caps" in retail parlance) where the store is visible to customers from a variety of angles. Effective signage can also play a role in improving visibility. In pedestrian environments, signage that projects from the building (i.e. blade signs) offer pedestrians strong visual cues that there are businesses in the vicinity. In one community where we worked, the installation of blade signs increased pedestrian traffic down a previously quiet street by 30%. (See our post "Pittsburgh Neighborhood Unveils Strategies Aimed at Drawing Tourists")

3. Keep the Street Wall Continuous and Avoid Gaps

The conditions of street-level retail are intimately connected to the quality of the customers’ experience in your district. The benefits of well-designed storefronts extend far beyond district attractiveness. From fostering community pride to serving as catalyst for further economic investment, they create positive changes to the social, economic and environmental health of the commercial district and surrounding communities. Although this recommendation is not technically about facade improvements, it does suggest that by clustering facade improvements and/or creating a continuous street-wall of improved storefronts, the program can have greater impact. Consider using the the facade program in a targeted way along a single block front for a limited amount of time. Or design the program as an incentive to fill vacancies - perhaps by increasing the allowable grant contributions when used for a vacant space. 

4. Maintain Flexibility for a Variety of Potential Tenants

Effective retail spaces are flexible. In many districts, the needs of tenants vary widely. Offering flexibility means greater potential to fit the needs of a larger set of prospective tenants. One suggestion is to design the façade program so that it has the potential to accommodate multiple entries. Another is to require improvements that result in on-grade pedestrian entries to ensure ease of access. Consider a retailer whose customers are young families with children - a set of steps will cause immediate concern. How might a parent with a stroller make it up the steps? Or a senior citizen - or anyone with mobility challenges? 

5. Remain Distinctive so that Shoppers Can Easily Find the Retailer

Retail entrances that are clearly marked and distinct from other street-level uses (residential or office entrances) facilitate wayfinding and help catch a shoppers eye. While the guide suggests a minimum of 15 feet between any retail entrance and other uses, we think that clear visual delineations are more important than actual physical distance. Awning and other design elements, like signs, can be deployed in a way that ensures a retailer has a clearly defined entrance.  

The Abandoned Bike Dilemma

Are those pesky abandoned bikes causing an eyesore to your district and taking up valuable space?

We've all seen them. These abandoned bikes obviously have not seen their owner in a very long time and each time you see one its sad bike carcass has become more derelict. Lately, CDA came across the issue with a recent project so we thought we'd look into it.

We discovered that, especially in NYC, it is very difficult to get a bike removed and that both the process and the requirements are rigorous and inflexible.

In New York City for example, the bike must be affixed to public property and must meet 3 out of 5 of the following criteria:

• The appearance is crushed or not usable;
• Have parts missing from bicycle other than seat and front wheel;
• Have flat tires or missing both tires;
• Handlebars and pedals are damaged, or the fork, frame or rims are bent;
• 75 percent of bicycle is rusted.

But as WNYC noted the process to report abandoned bikes is solely by phone so there is no official online or digital submissions process and calling in a complaint "takes about 14 minutes and involves speaking with two operators." LA, on the other hand, has an online submission and appears to make the process more user friendly.

Most college campuses are very liberal with mass removals of abandoned bikes each summer. Bicycles are first tagged as abandoned and given two weeks to be moved before being impounded and then finally given away or salvaged 90 days later. The policy is similar in Toronto where even bikes that look operable but reported are tagged with a two week notice and removed if not relocated. According to Chicago's city code, an abandoned bike can be removed after being tagged for just a week.

Questioning how your city handles abandoned bikes?  It can be as simple as Google'ing "city of ____" + "bike removal." A little investigation, either by internet or 311, can get you on the way to clearing your commercial district of a long overdue abandoned bike.

Sometimes in the end you have to look at the problem and see it from a different angle. Adel Souto of New York has made this topic into an art form, check out his blog.

Roundup: Surgeon General rare push for exercise, placemaking projects, transportation trends translating out of urban core, big box parking lot solutions for peds

Surgeon general pushes people to start walking, communities to step up

The surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, on September 9th encouraged Americans to take a walk, to combat sedentary America, but he asked communities to also step up to make neighborhoods easier and safer for foot traffic.

Photo: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

4 Cities Get $3 Million Each for Placemaking Projects

ArtPlace America granted funding to see art and culture intertwined not at the end of the project but throughout, in an effort to make art and culture the focus of community projects. "The winners include Cook Inlet Housing Authority in Anchorage, Fairmount Park Conservancy in Philadelphia, Jackson Medical Mall Foundation in Jackson, Mississippi, and Little Tokyo Service Center in Los Angeles."    More coverage here.

Will Big City Transportation Trends Translate to Small Town USA?

With the rise of transportation options in urban core America - Uber, TaskRabbit, Lyft, Seamless, etc - to deliver people, food, and services, those in the periphery are at the cusp of figuring out how to make it useful for them as well but finding few options.

Photo: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

How to Make Big Box Stores Less Terrible for Walking: 8 Expert Tips

Big Box stores are not going anywhere, especially in America, and the vast majority are not designed for the pedestrian but for the personal automobile making them a dangerous destination by foot.  This article gives guidance to the big boxes to help get their non-auto patrons safely to the door.

Photo: @fineplanner/Twitter

Nominate your favorite public place for a Great Public Spaces award!

Public spaces, when designed well, make a great destination, draw the community together, generate pedestrian traffic and activity, and, let's be honest, make for some excellent people watching.

Project for Public Space (PPS) is honoring the world's best places and is currently taking nominations for Great Public Spaces.  PPS is not just giving out awards, they are "sparking a conversation" on what makes a public space great.  Do you have a favorite public space in mind that deserves notice? Simply follow the link HERE to nominate one - could be one that you might remember from travels or one that might be in your own town.

Some notable public spaces from around the world:

Plaza de la Constitución - Oaxaca City, Mexico | Credit: Steve Cadman

The Spanish Steps - Rome, Italy | Credit: Wooly Matt

Rittenhouse Square Park - Philadelphia, PA | Credit: R. Kennedy

Museumkwartier - Amsterdam, The Netherlands 

The High Line - New York, NY | Credit: Iwan Baan

Barton Springs - Austin, TX | Credit: Wally Gobetz

Gil Penalosa inspires a discussion about communities that meet the needs of everyone from age 8 to age 80.

Making communities safe and welcoming to all people regardless of age, income, race or ethnicity was the topic of a panel I moderated at the ICSC Midwest Urban Forum in Detroit this past week. One panelist came from slightly further afield. Urban planner Gil Peñalosa, former Parks Commissioner for the City of Bogota, Colombia (where his brother Enrique served as Bogota's Mayor) offered a compelling vision and rationale for communities to meet the needs of people from the ages of 8 to 80 - which is why he founded a non-profit based out of Toronto called 8-80 Cities.

Gil Penalosa, former City of Bogota Parks Commissioner speaking at the IDA Midwest Urban Forum in Downtown Detroit. If you are wondering about the empty chairs in the background...it started raining and we improved beautifully by bringing everybody onto the stage with us! 

He succeeded in painting one of the more compelling visions of a walkable downtown that I've heard in a long time. He started by asking the audience to imagine an 8-year old child that they love. Then he asked them to imagine an 80-year old senior that they love. He finished by asking "would you feel comfortable with that person walking or crossing the street in your neighborhood? Would you send them along to the nearest store to grab a pint of milk and eggs?" By putting walkability and safety in these very personal and blunt terms, he said more in just a few sentences than most people can say with charts and graphs in a half hour. 

This challenge, making communities realize the importance of connectivity, walk-ability and bike-ability to local commercial districts, has been coming up for us more and more here at LOA, particularly when we deal with neighborhood commercial districts that are struggling to remain relevant as shopping destinations. When you talk to business and property owners in many of these districts - our most recent project in a small NJ town comes to mind - they complain about lack of parking. Yet in this case, the district is surrounded by fairly well off walkable neighborhoods. Unfortunately, over time the safe walkable/bikable connections between the commercial district and the neighborhood they serve have been eviscerated. Roads widened and sidewalks narrowed to accommodate vehicles moving at faster and faster speeds. So the impact of road expansion is two fold. Not only are cars encouraged to speed, but when people consider going to their local commercial district, they hop in their cars. And once they are in their cars, a few extra minutes takes them someplace with more parking, more retail offerings and more selection. In this environment, traditional commercial corridors struggle to compete. 

So what are the elements of a successful walkable, bikeable commercial district? Here are a few:

• Bike parking. Adequate,convenient places to safely park your bike. 



DO: Consider setting aside adequate parking for bikes.
One parking space can fit up to 12 bikes.

• Bike lanes. This is not just about bike lanes on the commercial street, it is also about outfitting connecting streets with bike lanes that offer safe and convenient access to the district from nearby neighborhoods. 

DO: Do your best to create safe, dedicated bike lanes.
In Long Island City, Queens the dedicated two-way bike paths
offer cyclists safety at a very busy intersection. 

• Sidewalks wide enough, safe enough, and comfortable enough for an 8 year old, or an 80 year old, to walk on.

DO: Even streets without trees can be comfortable for pedestrians.
In Great Barrington, MA awning provide much welcome shade during hot days. 

• Slow(er) moving vehicles. Consider traffic calming measures that prioritize pedestrians at crossings. 

  

  DO: Bump-outs are a way to give your road a diet...
  and narrow streets are a great way to slow down cars. 

• Pedestrian lighting. The traditional cobra head light does a great job of lighting streets at night, but what about sidewalks? Pedestrian lighting is scaled to offer light for those who use sidewalks. 

  

  DO: Pedestrian lighting is for pedestrians. Cobra heads are for cars. 

• Benches. Offer a reprieve for seniors and when placed in front of stores, are more likely to be monitored. 

  

  DO: Find out if your businesses can set out benches in front of their stores.
  If the regulatory powers that be allow it, it can be a great way to offer kids and elderly much needed reprieve between visits to stores.