[DJC]
[design '96]

RETAIL RETURNS TO THE VILLAGE

BY DAVID WRIGHT
The Bumgardner Architects

Whether its part of an upscale urban neighborhood, and ethnic community or a new suburb, "community-based retail" is the key to the village of the future. Cutting up parking space, slowing traffic to a crawl, and rewarding shoppers for lingering on the outside of the store walls are some of the principals involved in community-based retail, development that grows out of desire to be a part of a specific community, not just a market segment. It has to do with making a place, not just a compelling image or an entertaining experience.

And although it's still perceived as risky, community-based retail is proving itself as a strategy for developing successful businesses as well as thriving neighborhoods.

But success requires that architect and client revisit some of the most entrenched assumptions that have grown up around retail in the last few decades.

The seafood market at Fisherman's Terminal.
One assumption is that the customer lives in the suburbs and is already in her car and willing to drive any distance for the best price, the greatest selection, the most "entertainment" or the most convenient parking. Although there is some truth in this, the monotony and pavement between that shopper and her retail destination may ultimately discourage her.

Suburbs have spawned shopping malls and discount stores, which have eroded community-based retail to the point that most who live in the city -- and everyone outside it -- must now drive out of their neighborhood to find essential goods and services.

Contemporary mall designs include desperate attempts be part of a real environment. But clock towers and nostalgic details can't overcome broad moats of parking, huge plastic signs and an atmosphere in which shoppers feel like ciphers manipulated to serve the bottom line. Even very nice examples like University Village seem forced to please everyone. They could be anywhere in the Western United States.

Community-based retail is tied to a place. It grows naturally under the right conditions.

I live in Eastlake. A three-minute walk brings me to the corner store where "Mom and Pop" are a cheerful, hardworking young Korean couple who have become neighborhood fixtures. Within a 10-minute walk from our house, there are three more grocery stores, four taverns, seven restaurants, a bakery, three fast food outlets, two auto-repair shops, a dry cleaner, a well-known wine store and a nationally famous fly-fishing shop. These businesses are more than conveniences. They help shape and define the Eastlake community.

Community retail brings people to the street - not just to the store.
Seattle has many pockets of successful community-based retail, new and old: Madison Valley where Cafe Flora and the New York Deli grace the intersection of Martin Luther King and Madison; Fremont Avenue and North Allen Place where the incomparable "Marketime" gives identity to upper Fremont; the Honey Bear Bakery near Green Lake; 45th and Wallingford; Market Street in Ballard; The Queen Anne, Magnolia and Madison Park business districts.

The Pike Place Market is a well-established community. But natural outgrowths outside of the historic boundaries -- "Puerco Lloron," "Takahari Sushi," and "Procoppio Gelato" -- offer tempting hints of delights within the market proper. The newly opened "Pike Brewery and Pub" takes obvious pride in its association with this historic place.

Uwajimaya has a regional -- even global -- customer base, but there is no doubt that it is an important cultural anchor for Seattle's International District. Regular patrons walk from nearby apartments, greeting neighbors as they go. Further east, at 12th and Jackson, a thriving retail hub has emerged to serve more recent immigrants. Both examples sparkle with the lively, colorful bustle typical of this multi-ethnic community.

These and other discrete or home-grown examples demonstrate that retail outlets can transcend simple commercialism and provide the synergistic glue that reinforces community character.

Can a real "place" be created along with retail development? I think it can, if the developer is willing and the community is heard -- and well understood.

When the Port of Seattle announced plans to build a new mixed-use terminal building on the south shore of Salmon Bay, the fishing community reacted with alarm. They worried that the
Even small parking lots disconnect store and street.
new facility would be a glitzy, tourist-oriented architectural statement, incompatible with rubber boots and working clothes.

The new project used the vocabulary of a working waterfront resulting in a building that one Port Commissioners likened to a "net shed." Offices occupy the second floor above a collection of pedestrian-friendly businesses. "Nick's Bay Cafe" with its no-nonsense diner interior is very popular with the fishers who can also enjoy " Chinooks" restaurant on special occasions. The "Wild Salmon Market" sells fresh seafood and the other shops along the covered walkways all have some relationship to the water and the fishing industry. "Fisherman's Center" has become a destination for tourists and Ballard residents alike, reinforcing the proud traditions of this maritime community.

Residential sprawl, laced with pavement, has loosely covered the (vast) Sammamish Plateau. In this unlikely location, the Tarragon Corporation of Sumner has stepped up to the challenge of giving some "there" to this otherwise undefined bedroom community. The company plans a new five- acre residential/retail development. Living units over retail uses specifically targeted to the needs of the community will enclose a kind of town square where folks can shop and socialize without driving to Issaquah or Redmond.

How will they do it? What will give it qualities that will make it feel like an extension of the surrounding community instead of just another suburban mall?

From across a sea of cars, retail must shout to be heard.
Not by ignoring cars. It's a long way from Eastlake to the Eastside, and we know that this community-based retail center will need parking.

But there should be less of it than in a traditional mall and it should be broken up into clusters rather than an unbroken sea of aisles and stalls. Circulation should be a continuous one-way flow -- counter clockwise where possible. Stalls should be slightly angled. Smaller parking lots are safer and more comfortable because there are sidewalks or landscaped elements close-by to act as pedestrian refuges. Also, small lots don't visually overpower pedestrian amenities the way big lots do. Street lights should be spaced close together on relatively short poles rather than the 100-foot-high super-nova lights in malls.

When you think about it, mall structures are designed to be seen from a moving car. Their geometry is large, simple and monotonous. Signs are big, bright and plastic, and legible from one-quarter mile. It can all be completely understood at a glance -- except, of course, if you are on foot. Then there is no refuge except in the isles of the store.

The buildings served by the parking should be designed to be seen at three miles per hour -- from the car or on foot -- rather than 30 miles per hour.

The new center will be a pedestrian-friendly. Our buildings will have variety, not only in size and shape but also in pattern, color and texture. Unit paving, small pieces of public art, drinking fountains, benches and carefully crafted details will reward the eyes of shoppers driving at three miles per hour and invite them to walk. These will be buildings that reveal themselves over time, after several visits.

There will be "warm" materials up close, where people can touch them. Warm materials are those that respond gracefully to use and weather the passage of time.

Signs will be only as large as they need to be. Neon or painted signs with external lighting will prevail. Show windows and weather cover will encourage window shopping and socializing. Deciduous trees will border every walk-way. Businesses will be scaled for a neighborhood rather than a regional clientele. And they will offer goods and services consistent with community needs. Shopkeepers will be encouraged to spill out onto sidewalks and even be open-air when weather allows.

There will be no major fast food chains -- but there will be housing. Residents will regard the center as an extension of their own personal space, their turf. They will put eyes on the streets and parking lots during non-business hours. They and their friends will become regular customers in many of the shops.

In summary, new community-based retail must truly serve the community and must be very carefully designed so that pedestrians feel more comfortable than cars. Adding residents to this mix is like adding one to one and getting three as the result. If the addition is done correctly, "3" is a village.

David Wright is a partner with The Bumgartner Architects in Seattle.

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Copyright © 1996 Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.