Gensler retail research d20 09 09 2011

dialogue

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Talking about...

Leisure & Lifestyle

Leisure’s Brave New World Sports & the City Retail’s Spirit of Place The New and the Renewed A Gensler publication

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Downtown has to be like a good stew. A lot has to go into it to make people hungry.

Features

Departments

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Leisure’s Brave New World Today, leisure caters to a clientele that’s pressed for time as never before, yet still longs to unplug, engage, and enjoy.

Tim Leiweke, president and CEO, AEG

Sports & the City Sports venues are emerging as part of the urban fabric, a crucial part of the mix that anchors and enlivens city centers.

Retail and Its Communities As social media proliferate, the communities they hook up need places to land. More often than not, retail provides them.

Conversation: Centers of Experience For AEG’s Tim Leiweke, the visionary of L.A. LIVE, and retail guru Paco Underhill, place brings leisure alive, and vice versa.

Case Study: SFO’s Terminal 2 SFO’s recast Terminal 2 is resetting expectations. Distinctively San Franciscan, it even wowed Virgin’s Richard Branson.

News + Views Edens & Avant creates a vertical community, Houston gives its ballet a home, and Oklahoma City gets a bold new band shell.

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The New and the Renewed Hospitality is enjoying an upsurge. Across markets and price points, hospitality brands are expanding and modernizing.

We now live in at least two places at once. Plugged into smart devices, we interact with others in volleys of brief text, photos and films taken with our phones, and things seen and shared. Yet we’re also somewhere real. Sometimes these two places mesh well and we get more from them both than we might from one or the other alone. Other times, we barely notice where we are—or we’re so caught up in here that we’re essentially unplugged from there. Leisure’s task is to embrace this conundrum. Although being connected is practically a sine qua non, it’s not just about integrating technology. It’s also about urbanity, that close-at-hand cosmos of things that whet the appetite—that make you hungry enough, as Tim Leiweke puts it, to want to taste them.

cover: Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Seoul. above: L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles. opposite, from left: Waitrose Cookery School, London; Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Seoul; SFO’s Terminal 2; Edens & Avant, Columbia, SC. 2

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Leisure’s brave new world

By Mimi Zeiger

The leisure sector is being reshaped by the Web 2.0–fueled shift to personally directed experience. Yet community, that face-to-face proposition, is still hugely important.

above: Waitrose Cookery School connects the UK supermarket brand to its customers.

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Informed individuals drive the leisure market. They’re not “consumers” in the old sense, responding passively to market cues.

Leisure is being transformed by what might be called the convergence factor. It’s not just that social media are erasing the old demographic categories or that Wi-Fi ubiquity is erasing distance. It’s more that these phenomena are blurring the old boundaries, creating such a proliferation of options that people constantly feel pressed for time. They expect to pack much, much more into every waking minute, yet they also want to unplug, engage, and enjoy.

Working across the sector—entertainment, hospitality, retail, and sports—the leisure team at Gensler has tapped into this new reality and found that the clientele is supercharging its preferences in a way that affects leisure’s real and virtual contexts. “The customer is king,” says Tom Ito. “Whether you’re buying a car, shopping for clothes, or booking a hotel, you do your research first. Informed individuals drive the market—they’re not ‘consumers’ in the old sense, responding passively to market cues.”

Learning as leisure One way people engage is by mastering new activities.

Hands-on learning is a growing part of leisure. The rise of brands and media platforms focused on this speaks to the broad appeal and marketability of learning to cook, craft, and build. Do-it-yourself projects are part of a lifestyle that values the homemade and artisanal. While this may seem like a return to an earlier era, there’s a strong connection now between learning environments and social media. They reinforce each other, building on the reality that mastering the skills still requires face time and hands-on engagement.

“Leisure often combines real experiences with virtual networking. Social media help form and extend a community that also gathers in real time in a real-world setting,” explains Owain Roberts. “People want that connection.” An example is the Waitrose Cookery School in London. Waitrose is a British supermarket chain, and the school is the first of its kind in the UK. Working with food-service and lighting consultants, Gensler designed a bright, contemporary school that captures the spirit and warmth of the communal kitchen. The school is a meeting ground for home chefs, professional chefs, food writers and experts, and gourmands. Fully equipped for learning, it has 12 kitchen stations for skills-based classes and a dining area to sample the results. There’s also a wine bar for tastings and a demonstration theater for big public events. “It’s about pulling people with like mindsets together in a singular experience,” Roberts says. “It’s as much socializing as learning, and it lets Waitrose and its customers relate in a new way.”

That two-way relationship is what leisure brands crave.

A case in point is the new Wenger flagship store in Boulder, Colorado. Wenger makes the Swiss Army knife and other outdoor equipment. To cater to its customers in Boulder, the store has a dedicated area for lectures and demonstrations. The centerpiece of the space is a Colorado artist’s large, woven wall sculpture, made out of hand-cut pine logs wrapped in twine. To connect with its customers, Wenger invites them to post hand­ written notes on the wall, sharing favorite camping spots and hiking trails with other outdoor enthusiasts that make the Wenger store their base camp.

above: The Wenger store puts its trademark knives prominently on display. opposite: The Boulder store infuses Wenger’s outdoor products with its brand.

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Cities provide the model for mixed-use develop­ment.

In turn, the synergy these different uses generate is sparking new life in the urban realm.

Keeping it real “People are so intent on maximizing their time,” says Kathleen Jordan. “It’s amazing how much they pack into their spare moments.” Because they have such a wealth of choices, the promise of an authentic experience stands out even more. Authenticity builds on trust and brand familiarity, but it’s not just about them, notes John Bricker. “Authenticity adds value because it gives the user an emotional connection to a brand—not just a monetary one.”

What grabs people is the intuitive feeling that they’ve discovered the real deal—a place, product, event, or activity that resonates emotionally. Bricker points to The Milford as an example. Gensler’s strategy and brand concept for the renovation of the 25-story Manhattan hotel reference the vibrant energy of New York City itself—the people and the places. Photos and images in The Milford’s corridors invoke SoHo, Greenwich Village, Chinatown, the Lower East Side, and other neighbor­ hoods. The website and hotel graphics riff on the subway.

“Connecting visually to Manhattan reminds the guests where they are,” Bricker says.

Gensler designed everything at The Milford to convey a sense of place. Strategy sessions with the client cooked up the idea of a food truck parked on the street as a way to connect the hotel to a larger audience. “We’re always looking for new ways to engage customers and create a unique experience for them,” says Bricker. A food truck provides the same immediacy for The Milford as pop-up stores and flexible event spaces do for retailers.

At a time when the speed of digital technologies is eclipsing what can be done with bricks and mortar, Jon Tollit believes that flexibility is as important to the overall scheme as the brand itself. “Leisure settings need to be very fluid,” he explains. “It’s important to stay open and be as fleet of foot as you can to deliver what customers require. You don’t want to lock yourself into something that will quickly go out of date.” Tollit sees the rise of interactive design and the use of handheld devices and customized digital interfaces as a means to enrich and enhance leisure activities.

above: The Milford’s website and graphics reinforce the Manhattan theme of the hotel’s renovation. opposite, clockwise from top left: Grand Skylight Hotel, Kunshan, CN; Fairmont Hotel, 3PNC Plaza, Pittsburgh; Dior pop-up store, New York City; North Face store, Indianapolis.

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Leisure’s new urbanity One of the most dynamic changes in leisure is that cities are providing the model for mixed-use development. The pulsing energy of urban life and the potential crosscur­ rents of retail, hospitality, and large-scale events make for exciting interactions. The resulting projects attract a range of activities that spark life in the urban realm.

In Los Angeles, for example, AEG’s L.A. LIVE engages the downtown neighborhoods around its event spaces to anchor a vibrant 24/7 district.

“Since STAPLES Center was built more than a decade ago, almost 30,000 people have moved downtown and lots of housing has been built,” explains Ron Turner.

“Creating L.A. LIVE as a district was really important. If you just build an arena, you won’t garner the benefits it can generate.” Fostering interactions between leisure activities means that fans coming to the arena can shop and dine before the game and convention center visitors can take in an outdoor concert that’s in short walking distance. Adding geo-locative or multiplatform branding designed for handheld devices and the iPad further enriches those experiences.

The rapid growth of urban centers in China and Korea has changed the shopping mall paradigm. “One of the big opportunities there is to develop strategies that transform retail centers into a community place, whether it’s anchored by entertainment or by programmed events,” says Duncan Paterson. Pointing to projects like the redevelopment of Seoul’s COEX retail center, he sees East Asia’s example as a model for US malls. “They can become mixed-use destinations, with new uses beyond retail and entertainment that enable them to be hubs for their communities.”

“In East Asia, the urban core is the place to be, not just the place to shop,” Bricker says. “So retail there often serves as gathering places.” Take the new KFC in Shibuya, Tokyo’s hip retail district. It’s the perfect place to create an intersection between a global brand and a unique local context. Blending those elements together, Gensler made a more urban and social KFC. Generous seating encourages young women, the predominant demographic in Shibuya, to hang out in the space. It gives them a comfortable, almost domestic setting in the midst of the district’s hubbub—a new role for KFC that gives the fast food brand a community presence.

As this suggests, people’s intersections with each other and with place and technology are a big part of the convergence that’s reshaping the leisure sector. At every price point, the future is about enriching people’s lives in the midst of their crowded days. “Put unlikely pairings together and sparks happen,” says Dian Duvall. “People are one of the unexpected elements that make for authenticity—the real experiences that build a sense of community.” So even as leisure takes social media and other developments into full account, it still sets the stage for face to face.

Mimi Zeiger, editor of loud paper, writes for Wallpaper, the New York Times, and Architect.

opposite: The transformed retail center at COEX in Seoul will turn the superblock into a 24/7 urban destination. below: A new KFC in Tokyo’s Shibuya, designed for socializing.

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SPORTS & THE CITY

By Kevin Craft

The next generation of sports venues is an integral part of the urban scene. That’s changing how they serve cities, sponsors, owners, teams, and fans.

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below: Watching the game at Farmers Field, AEG’s 100 percent privately financed sports and events venue at L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles. right: The Villeurbanne Arena, Lyon, FR.

ART OF THE DEAL

$700m

AEG’s deal for the Farmers Field naming rights set a new record in North America.

Sports venues are in flux. The costs of building and operating them have shot up while the public’s appetite for funding them with tax revenues has zeroed out.

That’s changing the game for sports franchises. Yet cost is not the only driver, says Gensler’s Ron Turner.

“Sports venues today are focused on hospitality. They contain more clubs, food-and-beverage options, and retail offerings—and give fans more access to informa­ tion about the game—than ever before.”

Sports venues are also focused on the city. Today’s stadiums and arenas are much more likely to be located in transit-friendly urban sports/entertainment districts than in peripheral one-use sites. They can host events beyond sports, building creatively on their associations with sponsor brands. Their synergy with the adjoining district generates new revenue streams for both. This is a paradigm shift for the industry, turning sports venues into all-purpose entertainment centers.

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Sports venues have upped the ante dramatically in their ability to let fans customize the experience.

It’s about the fans “We’ve seen so much competition for the fans’ attention that it is forcing stadiums and brands to be much more aware of what the fans want,” says Robert Jordan, a managing partner at Venue Research and Design.

Sports franchises have upped the ante dramatically on the fan experience.

Sports venues used to be designed around a single concourse that gave fans access to their seats and housed generic concession offerings. Once the fans are inside the gates, they’re engaged at their preferred price points.

The newest venues provide multiple concourses and several different levels. Depending on the price of their ticket, fans can watch events from regular seats, suites, or luxury boxes. While hot dogs and beer are still standard fare, they are now complemented by upscale options, ranging up to gourmet standards. “Fans expect a variety of choices and the possibility of high-level cuisine,” says Turner.

Colleges and universities Colleges and universities are also rethinking the fan experience and the role that sports facilities play in improving student life and attracting coveted donations from alumni and others. Gensler renovated George Washington University’s Charles E. Smith Center with the aim of creating a flexible venue that can house student athletics, host events ranging from intramural competitions to graduations, and be a place where faculty can welcome visitors, alumni, and donors and potential donors alike.

At a Gensler-hosted roundtable of sports industry professionals, panelists discussed how venues are evolv­ ing to provide more flexible fan experiences. Panelists noted that many recently constructed stadiums and arenas include bars and upscale dining facilities that overlook the playing surface and come equipped with HD televisions and video monitors. “People want to be in more intimate settings and feel special,” says Turner, who notes that many of the bars and lounges are branded and the sponsors play a critical role in creating them. They let fans tailor their experience as much as possible. “A smart stadium lets the fans interact with the event when and where they want,” adds Jordan.

Luxury boxes, club levels, and bars and lounges may separate fans from each other, but technology is now the shared factor in the fan experience. Internet access via Wi-Fi and mobile devices gives all fans access to the same information and lets them choose to receive game-related content from venues and sponsors.

Gensler’s design touched every aspect of the arena, including the exterior walls, an indoor swimming facility, and a student-athlete academic center. One of the more innovative features of the project is a new courtside luxury section, the Colonials Club.

Members can watch games in a comfortable, wellfurbished environment separated from the court by a glass partition. The Colonials Club has continued to grow in popularity since it opened two years ago. above: Wi-Fi is universally available now in pro-sports venues. below: Farmers Field relates to the L.A. Convention Center and L.A. LIVE, giving all three added synergy and revenues.

The goal is to strike the right balance, says Shervin Mirhashemi, chief operating officer at AEG Global Partnerships. “You want fans to experience technology in a way that enhances what’s happening on-field, but doesn’t dominate it.”

Part of a bigger mix Placing new sports venues within urban mixed-use districts is a trend that began in the 1990s but is much more prevalent today. Being located amid a range of complementary uses lets the franchises take advantage of what Turner calls the “beyond-the-gates” opportunities to extend the team and sponsor brands into the larger area and reinforce their visibility in the city and region.

A prime example is L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles.

Developer AEG is proposing to crown the sportsentertainment district with Farmers Field, a new stadium and events center designed by Gensler. The sheer range of attractions that L.A. LIVE already offers makes it an ideal location for a second professional sports venue. The football fans that come to Farmers Field will associate the team, stadium, and sponsor with L.A. LIVE itself.

Integrating Farmers Field with the nearby Los Angeles Convention Center will give them both the ability to compete successfully with other cities for larger events.

“These are lucrative markets that will increase Farmers Field’s value,” says Gensler’s Jonathan Emmett. “It’s not a stand-alone facility, but a multipurpose events center in the heart of the city—a venue that’s large, flexible, and amenity-rich enough to attract the big conventions and world-class sports events like the Super Bowl and the World Cup.” Locating sports venues in mixed-use districts is also a trend outside the US. In Shenbei, a new district of Shenyang, China, Gensler is designing an 18,000-seat

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above: Watching the game is just one of the attractions of the Colonials Club at George Washington University’s Charles E. Smith Center.

basketball arena to National Basketball Association (NBA) specifications. The arena will be a key component of a sports and entertainment center that pairs it with a hotel, events plaza, food and retail offerings, and a sports training facility. “It will be the focal point of a unified civic space,” Emmett says. Sports leagues outside the US often play fewer games or matches per year, making a mixed-use location especially appealing. In Lyon, France, Gensler is designing the 13,000-seat multipurpose indoor Villeurbanne Arena with an adjoining programmable public plaza. “From a revenue standpoint, the beyondthe-gates opportunities of the plaza are as big or bigger than those of the arena,” Turner explains. The hospitality will have a unique regional theme. To appeal to the sports-conscious French, a new Tony Parker Basketball Academy will add sophisticated athletic training facilities to the mix—all designed to make the new arena and plaza a year-round draw.

Raising the sponsor profile To fund the construction and marketing of new sports venues and districts, many franchises and developers are turning to sponsors. “You don’t see public funding of stadiums and arenas the way you used to,” says AEG’s Mirhashemi. “Sponsors are ever more important.” AEG and Farmers Insurance Group inked a $700 million naming rights deal for Farmers Field in January 2011, setting a new record for such deals in North America.

The agreement puts Farmers Insurance at the design table, Mirhashemi explains. Working with Gensler’s sports practice, the company can walk through the color schemes, the branding initiatives, and the different ways it will use the new stadium.

and sponsorships are the two largest revenue compo­ nents for many venues. Sponsors looking for higher returns on their investment aren’t content just to slap advertisements on concourse walls, Jordan adds. “They know that, to be successful, they have to interact with fans and get that two-way conversation going.”

The new paradigm for sports venues places them in a vibrant urban context to which they contribute. “That has a huge bearing on how they are planned and designed,” Turner says. “On the inside, these are excep­ tionally complex buildings—technologically advanced, highly flexible, and amazingly sophisticated in the range of what they can offer fans beyond the attractions of the games themselves.” Their events draw the crowds and the mixed-use districts around them capture their pre- and post-game revenues. The synergy between those districts and their sports venues reinforces their combined destination value. “The goal is to keep the action going 24/7,” Turner says. “The old paradigm of the stadium or arena in a sea of parking doesn’t work anymore. The franchise can’t afford it and neither can the city. They need each other.”

Kevin Craft is the Washington, DC–based editor of GenslerOn (gensleron.com).

The Farmers Field naming deal is an example of a current trend: sports franchises and venue operators are working much harder—and more creatively—to integrate their sponsor brands. According to Turner, advertising dialogue 20 I Leisure

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RETAIL AND ITS COMMUNITIES

By Clare Jacobson

Retail’s destination value is gaining a new currency as people balance globalization with healthy doses of local flavor.

From the agora to the arcade to the pop-up store, retail has long been an integral part of public life. While its form has changed over time, its importance as a community center remains. Recent events—including the rise of Web 2.0 connectivity, the steady growth of online shopping, and the ups and downs of the global economy—seem to suggest the demise of the brickand-mortar retail that has been so essential to creating places. And yet despite these trends, and often in direct response to them, retail is constantly inventing new ways to become a real destination.

“Retail place making is about creating a context for all the different kinds of experiences that resonate with people as social creatures,” says Gensler’s Maureen Boyer.

“As designers, we have to consider all the aspects—the architecture, the lighting, the signage and graphics, how the retail setting relates and shapes the world outside, and how it supports people and events.”

Creating a sense of community is equally important for large retail centers and for individual shops. “Place making today is all about the culture that comes along with the physical location. That’s really what’s driving people into stores,” Irwin Miller believes. Making the sale has as much to do with how the store engages the customer as the appeal of the products on the shelves.

Targeting local consumers Increasingly, retail culture is being rooted in specific places. Some of the biggest retailers, like café chains, have changed their approach to delivering a unified 14

experience, says Barry Bourbon. “They’re much more focused on making the setting appropriate for the culture and the expectations of their customers,” he explains. The result is a move away from sameness across the retail landscape. As Michael Bodziner notes, “People are asking why they would want to go into a store whose environment and experience is exactly the same in New York City as it is in Atlanta.” In its recent work for The North Face, Gensler mixed “global” elements, shared by all the stores, with others that reinforce local connections—camping information, for example, and three-dimensional icons that reflect the topography of the city and its region.

Developing locally aware retail involves both aesthetic decisions and cultural considerations. In Turkey, for example, menswear is located next to the perfume department, as menswear is typically bought by women.

In China, the importance of food, the focus on luxury brands, and the preference for gift giving rather than impulse buying all affect the way retail settings are designed. Japan, on the other hand, “is daring and provocative in retail place making, using elements of whimsy, surprise, and delight to reinforce a location,” Dian Duvall observes. “For global retailers especially, it’s crucial to understand and respond to these differences.”

clockwise from top left: Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Seoul; KFC, Tokyo; North Face store, Indianapolis; the retail podium at Shanghai Tower. dialogue 20 I Leisure

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Retail place making is about creating a context for all the different kinds of experiences that resonate with people as social creatures.

Gensler’s approach to designing for varied locales starts with an analysis of the host city and a decoding of the city in all aspects, from culture to architecture, says David Glover. “We take that analysis and recode it into a visual language that’s suited to the place—so tied to it that what you design really couldn’t be done anywhere else.”

Having up-to-date analyses is especially important in the rapidly changing world of retail in developing countries. As Tim Etherington notes, India and China still have a very strong idea that value is purely based on price, while the West sees value in terms of price, quality, and convenience. This is beginning to change as more Chinese shoppers make trips to Hong Kong, where they are exposed to a high level of service that raises their expectations back on the mainland.

Others use pop-ups to fill empty slots in retail centers.

And some malls are functioning as galleries of shops that change out every month or two.

Catering to informed shoppers Flexible retail space lets retailers move quickly to capitalize on changing technologies. While online shopping has failed to bring the predicted demise of traditional retail, smart phones and Web 2.0 make it easier for shoppers to be better informed. Smart retailers are acknowledging and embracing this.

Retailers are also using in-store technology to expand the customer experience. Cisco has developed a mirror that shoppers can touch to send images of themselves to their friends. Clothing stores are using interactive environments for kids to play DJ or dress up in virtual

outfits. But most retail technology stays in customers’ cell phones or PDAs, because developers and landlords shy away from heavy investments in digital infrastructure.

“They’re wary of the costs and the potential for it to go quickly out of date,” Glover says.

Concerned shoppers mean greener retail Today’s widespread concern for sustainability is impacting retail. The increasing quantity and variety of sustainable materials make going green easier. But green products are just the beginning of the solution; sustainable retail includes initiatives like recycling, managing time-of-day opening, locating near mass transit, and planning retail as urban infill. Not every retailer opts for LEED certification or its international equivalents, but it’s becoming more common, Bourbon says. “For brands like REI, LEEDcertified stores reflect the DNA of their branding. Their

customers expect it,” says Bourbon. That expectation is playing out with auto dealerships, too, Kyle Davis adds.

“We did the first US LEED-certified dealership in 2006.

Today, with all the hybrid cars, a lot more dealers are signing up.”

Health and wellness are lifestyle attributes that matter to a growing number of people—one of the threads that run through retail in many different locations. “That’s because retail is so much a part of everyday life,” says Boyer. “To connect with their customers, it has to reflect their values.” For retail’s settings to have an impact, “designers have to pay close attention to everything that consumers find meaningful,” Miller adds. “When place is a differentiator for a retailer, the customers come to feel that it’s part of who they are.”

Clare Jacobson has written for Architectural Record and Engineering News-Record. She is based in Shanghai.

Putting retail in the mix In China and in the West, retail is increasingly an element of mixed-use districts rather than purely a staple of retail centers and malls. In China, the population density and the traditional intermixing of everything from groceries to bookstores to hair salons have made mixed use the obvious model for retailers and the developers that cater to them. This is an emerging trend in the US, says Marty Borko. While some of these districts are sports-anchored, others base their appeal on a combina­ tion of entertainment, hospitality, and retail. Food and beverage plays a bigger role now, he notes. “The urbanity of these districts attracts a broader range of offerings.”

Adding mixed-use components to retail is also helping to revive struggling suburban malls. One of the latest examples for Gensler is an outdated 1970s-era mall in Southern California. The owners are eager to explore not only how to rework the mall, but how to integrate it better into the community. “In the end, it all goes back to customer experience,” Borko explains. “How do you turn the mall into a great place that people will see and return to as an important local and regional destination?”

above, from top: GM showroom, Seoul; the plaza at the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott Tower, L.A. LIVE, Los Angeles. opposite: The community room at the REI store, Round Rock, TX.

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Making room for new uses Mixed use is also about generating a 24/7 level of activity, and retail is falling in with that. “What we’re seeing is that clients want multifunctional settings they can curate themselves,” says Owain Roberts. “A retail space today may also function as a gallery and live music venue.” This also reflects the pop-up store phenomenon, Michael Gatti believes. “The pop-up is a testing ground. It’s a more cost-effective way for retailers to try something new than building a real store.” While there is disagreement on whether pop-ups are a passing fad or here to stay, their effect on brick-and-mortar stores is indisputable.

Some retailers opt for pop-up-like installations in their existing stores, with guest artists and temporary fixtures.

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The New and the Renewed

By Vernon Mays

As the economy goes, so goes hospitality. After suffering through a global recession, the industry is bouncing back. Vital metrics like average daily rate, occupancy, and revenue per available room are on the rise.

Hospitality is on the rebound. Hotel brands are expand­ ing in domestic and international markets, and older properties in many cities are being refreshed. “People are starting to travel more, so demand is coming back,” says Tom Ito. It’s not true in every market, he cautions, but in a growing number of cities, “both supply and demand are on the rise, which is great for the industry.”

Nowhere are the opportunities richer than in the booming regions of Asia—China, in particular. Several trends are happening at once, with implications for hotel development at all price points, says Alton Chow.

At the top end, for example, luxury brands are saturating the major cities, with operators looking to develop super-luxury hotels that surpass the quality and amenities of the accepted five-star system. “Cities are essentially filling up with every possible high-end brand,” he says.

One approach is to build on the reputation of existing luxury brands, such as the Waldorf Astoria, which has franchised in Shanghai. Other companies, like Hilton and InterContinental, are developing higher-end brands for the Chinese market. Chinese hotel brands are follow­ ing suit. Jin Jiang Group, for example, just announced that it will introduce a new luxury hotel in Gensler’s 121-story Shanghai Tower.

below: The entry of The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre. opposite: The lobby wine bar at the Fairmont Hotel, 3PNC Plaza, Pittsburgh.

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Developers are investing. US brands are expanding in international markets. And older properties are being refreshed for the next wave of travelers.

With the Chinese market brimming with high-end hotels, international operators in China are turning their attention to three-star and four-star brands. “The fourstar brand is easier to run, with lower overhead, and it’s quite profitable,” says Chow. To help them tap the market, Gensler is developing concepts for global hotel brands tailored to the needs of Chinese travelers.

China is seeing the rise of the homegrown mid-level hotel, too. Gensler has been working with a Chinese economy brand, Home Inn, to create a more upscale three-star brand called Yitel. With plans to roll out 200 hotels in five years, the company called on Gensler to develop the branding for the hotel and its interior design standards. “We wanted to create something both Asian and international. It was important to help the client’s team pinpoint what Yitel is to them,” Chow says.

In a separate assignment, Home Inn has asked Gensler to rebrand its established economy hotels with a new logo and refreshed design.

the Dubai International Financial Centre, a 121-acre free-trade zone masterplanned by Gensler as a walkable district. The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre hotel is also designed for walkability. A planned retail spine will link it to the financial center’s centerpiece, The Gate. Hotels in such locales play an important role from an urban design perspective, Sirera notes. “They function like the public squares of the financial district, because they contain the public spaces, retail shops, and restaurants.”

Higher expectations Although the pace of investment in the Middle East was slowed by the economic downturn, major hotel projects continue to move forward in locations such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Riyadh. As hotel brands are exported from their home bases in the US and the UK, a kind of multiplier effect takes place, says José Sirera.

“Brands that are three- or four-star hotels in their home countries are often recast as five-star hotels in the Middle East, because of the size of the guest rooms and client expectations.” Gensler’s current work on the Hotel Indigo is a good example. A three-star product in the US, it’s going to be a five-star offering in Riyadh.

European vacationers have made Dubai a fun-in-the-sun capital, but business travel is equally robust there.

Cities like Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, where Gensler is now at work on a new InterContinental Hotel, attract a large business clientele. Dubai is an important business destination, as well, with the progressing build-out of

above: Graphics for the Yitel three-star hotel brand. below, clockwise from left: Kimpton Hotel Palomar Philadelphia; JW Marriott Hotel lobby at L.A. LIVE; Fairmont Hotel, Pittsburgh. opposite: The Larcomar mixed-use center, Lima, PE.

Anchoring mixed use Increasingly, hotels share the role of anchor in new mixed-use centers or as a vital element in creating new chemistry in aging retail developments, including suburban malls. Gensler’s JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton tower at L.A. LIVE has helped bring nightlife back to the city’s downtown. Urban-scale mixed-use development is already the norm in many Asian cities, where highdensity development has occurred for generations.

Shanghai Tower, which mixes hotel, office, conference, and retail uses in a single sustainable highrise, is just one example. Gensler also is currently updating part of the superblock COEX complex in Seoul, Korea, which includes hotel, convention, retail, and office uses.

Now mixed use is taking off in South America. On the coast of Lima, Peru, Gensler is repositioning and expand­ ing Larcomar, an established retail center on a dramatic bluff site overlooking the Pacific. It will add a 300-room, five-star hotel to the fully upgraded property to create an integrated shopping, entertainment, and high-end dining destination. Says Ito, “Larcomar embodies the new Peruvian way. It’s not redevelopment in the classic sense. It’s about enhancing our client’s property to maximize the value of an existing asset.”

A boon to urban centers Urban centers are reaping the benefits of hotel projects, which in some cities have been drivers of economic development and civic improvement. In the heart of Santiago, Chile, Gensler is adding hotels, office buildings, and new retail to Parque Arauco, a dated shopping mall.

Rather than simply refresh the existing mall, Gensler advised the client to broaden its reach by establishing a new district to make Parque Arauco a destination for the entire community. Hotels are a key part of the new mix.

Another prime example of hotel-as-economic engine is Pittsburgh’s Fairmont Hotel. “This is a transformational project,” says Doug Gensler. “To fulfill its vision of how to reinvigorate the city’s struggling downtown, PNC partnered with Fairmont to create a world-class hotel.”

It is the centerpiece of the 23-story, 750,000-squarefoot PNC Plaza, which also has offices, condominiums, and ground-floor retail. The new hotel has helped to revive Pittsburgh’s urban core by spurring additional redevelopment projects downtown.

Building on history Hoteliers are recasting historic buildings as stylish new hotels. Kimpton, for example, converted the art deco Architects Building, a 26-story office building, into the Hotel Palomar Philadelphia. Chosen for its prime location near Rittenhouse Square, the building’s small footprint limited the number of guest rooms per floor. The design team solved the jigsaw puzzle of the floor plan, delivering the 230 guest rooms that Kimpton needed to satisfy the pro forma and seal the deal.

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Kimpton also asked Gensler to lead the adaptive reuse of the 1907 Lafayette Building as the four-star Hotel Monaco Philadelphia. The beaux arts building, well located near Independence Hall, is subject to intense preservation review. “As with the Hotel Palomar, we have to reconcile the claims of history with the desires of today’s hotel clientele,” says Jack Paruta.

The allure of historic properties is not confined to the US east coast. Gensler recently renovated the venerable El Encanto Hotel in Santa Barbara, California, a 93-yearold campus of bungalow-style guest rooms and suites that was upgraded into a five-star hotel. In Phoenix, the firm completed a new restaurant in the landmark Arizona Biltmore, and has finished a master plan calling for a new spa and two wings that respect the original Frank Lloyd Wright–influenced hotel.

The need to renew Long-established hotels are reexamining their brand, seeking ways to provide continued value to their customers while making strategic improvements that add more comfort and style—or just a new attitude.

“There is such competitiveness that a lot of brands are upgrading,” says Barbara Best-Santos, who worked with Marriott on a new prototype for Residence Inn. “Consumers are intent on getting the best experience for the money, and that’s driving a lot of guest choices.

Hotels that recognize this can grow their business.”

Consumer preference also has given hotel owners a new incentive to embrace sustainable design. A trend that caught on slowly in the hospitality industry, it’s quickly becoming an industry standard, with many brands working sustainability into their base requirements.

Gensler has worked closely with Wyndham Hotels, for example, to craft sustainability standards that range from operations practices such as recycling and energy use to selection of green materials and furnishings.

Staying competitive in a recovering market is an equally compelling reason to reinvest. And the signs indicate that reinvestment will continue in a big way this year.

Looking at its own portfolio of hotel brands and REITs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts see capital expenditures rising by 76 percent in 2011. That spending level, $2.1 billion, is only 13 percent below 2007’s peak.

If that’s not a cause for optimism, what is?

Vernon Mays is an editor-at-large at Architect magazine and a senior editor at Gensler.

In the near future, many hotels will be hurrying to complete the property improvements required to maintain their flag. Pent-up demand for this work is the result of deferrals granted to hotel owners during the cashstrapped days of the recession, when maintenance was put off. “Properties that were in bad shape before are in worse shape now,” says Nancy Nodler. dialogue 20 I Leisure

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CONVERSATION

CENTERS OF EXPERIENCE

What do you see as AEG’s role in downtown Los Angeles?

Is fixing the Los Angeles Convention Center contingent on building the stadium?

Tim Leiweke: Where else do you get the chance to take the second largest metropolis in the United States and turn it into a real urban city?

Los Angeles has never been able to achieve that. Instead, we have many communities that exist by themselves. So the challenge downtown is that it’s always been a collection of disconnected districts. There’s never been an overall vision. We’ve always struggled to figure out what we want our downtown to be. But AEG has a pretty good handle on how to connect all of this together and create an image, a theme, and a place. When it comes to events, nightlife, conventions, trade shows, and public celebrations—that’s our role to play. We have a lot of work to do, but we can make this one of the great urban cores in the world.

TL: Everyone says that we want the city to float the bonds for the Los Angeles Convention Center so we can build the stadium. It’s the opposite. We want to build the stadium and use the winds of that economic sail to fix the convention center. So the convention center only gets fixed if the land lease, the property tax, and other predictable revenue streams from the stadium are there to pay for the convention center’s bonds. Convention centers don’t make money on their own.

It’s the hotel rooms that they create and fill, and the room taxes, sales taxes, vehicle taxes, airline taxes, and property taxes that they generate that go to city hall to pay for police, fire, and other public services.

How do neighborhood-building and urban transformation fit into AEG’s strategy?

TL: I think downtown has to be like a good stew. A lot has to go into it to make people hungry and want to taste it. So we need to do better on transportation. We need to do a better job with public space and parks. Gensler is helping us take our thinking and reach out to others to make connections. The challenge for LA is that to become a great destination for tourism and conventions, we have to make people feel comfortable here.

Tim Leiweke is president and CEO of AEG, a global presenter of sports and entertainment programming.

As the visionary behind STAPLES Center and L.A. LIVE, the sports and entertainment district in downtown Los Angeles, he’s now focused on Farmers Field and the Los Angeles Convention Center modernization.

above: AEG’s L.A. LIVE has transformed downtown Los Angeles into a 24/7 destination. opposite: The lobby at the JW Marriott at L.A. LIVE has become a hugely popular social hub.

tim leiweke

By Sam Lubell

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When we started building STAPLES Center, less than 5,000 people lived in downtown LA. We had few hotel rooms, and our convention center was surrounded by neighborhoods that people felt uncomfortable walking through. Things have changed. Almost 50,000 people will live in downtown Los Angeles within the next couple of years. The next step is: How do we capture tourists and events and conventions? Certainly building Farmers Field and fixing the convention center are going to be big deals. But so are the parks, the public spaces, and the avenues that we have to create for pedestrians and for bikes, streetcars, and buses. It’s about to turn now. And it’s not just an interest in residential development. We’re being approached by retailers, hotels, nightlife, services, and schools—and with ideas for parks and green space.

What are your immediate plans—including the prospects for Farmers Field?

TL: AEG Chairman Philip Anschutz feels comfortable that this is not only the right place for the stadium, but the right time to bring the NFL to Los Angeles. We’re optimistic, but we don’t control it completely.

Some of that control rests with the NFL, some with finding a team, and some with the city. But, to me, fixing Los Angeles Convention Center is the heart of this deal. It changes the dynamics of this city forever.

San Diego and San Antonio have built an entire industry from their convention business. They’re all about tourism and conventions. Need I mention Las Vegas?

But look at Los Angeles—arguably one of the most famous cities on earth. Because of Hollywood, we’re the city that creates what people listen to and watch. We set their style. And yet you look at our ability to recapture the economic juggernaut that these other cities have captured with tourism and conventions and we haven’t done it. Tourism and conventions require planning, infrastructure, and work. The reason San Diego is successful is that they’ve really worked at it. They’ve built a magnificent convention center and added hotels and an entertainment district that feed into that experience. That’s our future. That represents the city’s highest potential growth in jobs, taxes, and new revenue. The new convention center will transform downtown Los Angeles.

Your goal is to maximize customer experience.

But do you sometimes have to balance impact with practical needs?

TL: The battle is that people like me are forced to focus on budgets and on spending the money where we make the money, while others want to create iconic designs. The balance I’m interested in is to bring it in on time and on budget, and spend money where it generates revenues.

I’m not as hung up on what it looks like. That’s why we find architects that can help us make our buildings both functional and beautiful.

For instance, L.A. LIVE’s 54-story JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotel and residential tower is successful because of a combination of its unique design and functionality. People are impressed by the look of the building, the feel of the building, the comfort of the building.

When people walk into the lobby, they’re blown away. Farmers Field is going to be the same way. Gensler’s role as the architect is not only to help us make it fully operational, but to make it iconic, as well.

Sam Lubell edits The Architect’s Newspaper in California.

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CONVERSATION

Paco Underhill, the renowned “shopping anthropologist,” is the president of Envirosell, a New York City–based behavioral research and consulting firm focused on retail environments. Now a classic, his 1999 book, Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, put people at the center of retail design.

Paco Underhill

By Mimi Zeiger

What are the most unexpected changes you’ve seen in retail since you published Why We Buy?

How do you break down the retail experience?

What part is product? Space? Technology?

Paco Underhill: Stores are the dipstick of social change. So, if we think about what made a good store in 1990 and what does so now, there are fundamental differences. The power of the Web-enabled mobile phone has taken most merchants and marketers by complete surprise.

That means companies are designing in silos. One part of the company, the dot-com side, might be based in San Francisco, while the bricks and mortar side is based somewhere else. Yet, as far as the consumer is concerned, they’re all one entity. What we’re seeing is that customers are looking for an integrated, multichannel platform. Their ability to access information is four or five steps ahead of the physical design.

PU: What we call “giving good store” is the interrelationship between the physical design, the merchandizing and product mix, and the operating culture. One irony of 21st-century design culture is that often the easiest thing to change is the physical design. The hardest thing is to correlate changes in the physical design with changes in the operating culture. A progressive merchant tries continually to fine-tune all of the assumptions. One of our jobs as a research and consulting firm is to see if we can get all of the constituent parts of a client organization on the same bus, so that everyone agrees where they’re going.

How can retail designers and strategists keep up?

What should clients and designers be aware of when working across markets and cultures?

PU: One way is by recognizing that the tactile, three-dimensional world still has power. The success of pop-up stores and place-making experiences tells us that having a place for the customer to physically interact with a brand is an extremely powerful marketing tool. We’re seeing dollars pulled out of print media and put into bricks and mortar as a way to have better interaction with customers.

PU: Let’s look at it two ways. First, there are a series of biological constants, which work whether we’re in São Paulo, Shanghai, or San Diego. People are all of a certain height, so while they may be slightly taller in Oslo than they are in Lisbon, the basic concept of ergonomics applies. Our eyes all age in the same way, so if I look at the issues of visual acuity, they are largely universal across all markets.

Bricks and mortar allow us to reinvent something that was an important part of the retail landscape 40 years ago—the catalog showroom. For example, there’s a place at the Time Warner Center in New York called an “interactive brand emporium,” where you can view products by a single electronics manufacturer. Nobody’s trying to sell you their products. They just explain how they work and their potential impact on your life. Another brand I’m thinking of has a store with items for sale, sure, but more than anything there’s an attitude on display. If you buy into that attitude, maybe you’ll buy the product. More importantly, they have a magazine you might subscribe to, as well.

Other things are different—like topography, security, distribution of wealth, and culture. We are affected by density. So if I’m planning for Tokyo or for Dallas, there are radical differences between the two. In the US, while there’s a difference between a bus driver and a dot-com billionaire, the relative difference is not as extreme as it might be between social classes in Brazil or India or China.

Your research has roots in urban studies. Do you see parallels between retail and urban settings?

PU: One thing that fascinates us is the number of times we have been pulled into a non-retail setting, where the client says, “Can you come help me? I run the Phoenix Zoo.” Or, “The entrancing sequence to the Metropolitan Museum here in New York City is very clumsy. We know that a high percentage of people who get to our Great Hall never walk into our museum. Can you help us out?” Lots of things that we learn from retail are eminently applicable in other settings. We draw on retail principles in order to bring a more systemized approach to the threedimensional brand experience.

There’s another dimension that deals with the export of retail or the export of design. Many countries have identifiable centers. Britain has a center, which is London. Japan has a center, which is Tokyo. But look at a country like Italy—it has no center. Spain has no center. Even the US has no center. In general, I believe it has been easier for companies based in locations without centers to export retail, because they enter new markets with some sensitivity to the fact that things might change.

They are more flexible. One of the issues we work on is how to get our global clients to recognize that they have to hold onto their global identities, but at the same time be very careful about executing locally.

Do shoppers have a voice in these decisions?

PU: From the standpoint of the research world, shoppers want to be asked questions and see how their answers relate to everybody else’s. Retailers should remember that we live in an overstored world.

Shoppers often vote with their feet, meaning they walk in and they walk out, and they don’t come back. For those of us in North America, our merchant empires have to be focused on reinvention, because if it doesn’t happen constantly, you’re likely to be left behind.

Mimi Zeiger, editor of loud paper, writes for Wallpaper, the New York Times, and Architect.

right: Shanghai’s Nanjing Road.

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CASE STUDY

how SFO’s T2 revolutionized air travel

By Allison Arieff

Renewing San Francisco International Airport’s Terminal 2 gave it a local flavor and reset the expectations of a weary—and wary—flying public.

Few who fly would disagree that the experience of air travel from check-in to landing can make you feel that everyone involved has simply given up. You can see it in people’s faces: shoulders rise, teeth clench, expressions grow steely, and civility erodes. With Gensler’s redesign of Terminal 2 (T2), San Francisco International Airport (SFO) has changed the game.

T2’s sense of place is distinctively San Franciscan. Gone is the deadening homogeneity that makes arriving in one city indiscernible from the last. Travelers at T2 can see the bay and hills through generous windows and skylights, and they can also experience the work of local artists and the food produced by local organic farmers. The art reflects an ongoing partnership with the San Francisco Arts Commission that’s made SFO an accredited museum—a first for a US airport. The region’s farms, vineyards, and outdoor markets inspired the curated concessions. “We gave travelers a local flavor,” says Art Gensler. “That’s what a city’s gateway is all about.”

The importance of design The success of T2 is in the details, large and small, that add up to a memorable setting. As San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee put it, “We felt like we’d walked into a five-star hotel.” If you’ve got your laptop, you’ll enjoy lounge- or counter-seating with places to recharge—no need to huddle near the power outlets. Parents will revel at the inclusion of well-considered children’s play areas; like the restaurants, cafés, and shops, they’re near the gates.

Intuitive wayfinding makes getting around easy. And tourists and natives alike will appreciate the seamless way the airport links by rail to their regional destinations.

“This is one of the few terminals in America where you arrive and think it’s going to be a great day,” Virgin America Chairman Sir Richard Branson said on opening day. “T2 feels like the best of San Francisco,” adds Gensler’s Steve Weindel. “The airport values design in the same way the community does. They both have a really strong point of view.”

Comfort and Control

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SUSTAINABLE LIKE SF

Delight

BRIDGE TO THE BAY

8 LANES

GREEN!

5 STARS

GATEWAY

Faster security means less stress, then you get to decompress!

T2’s sustainable commitment plays out in small ways and large.

SF Mayor Ed Lee: “We felt like we’d walked into a five-star hotel.”

SFO T2 is the Bay Area’s warm welcome and its fond farewell.

• Security, as easy as it can be • Then a place to recompose • Next moves are clearly visible

• Fill up your water bottle • Learn green practices • Bask in the LEED Gold

• Hospitality influence • Bay Area food/drink • Kids are in the picture

• World-class art • Those bay views!

• Train into town

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CASE STUDY

“This is San Francisco. It was natural for us to take a very forward-looking approach to Terminal 2’s design.”

Departure level plan 0

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12

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6

4 10 7

4 9

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200 ft

1 Concessions & retail 2 Restrooms 3 Gate lounges 4 Ticketing/check-in 5 Museum displays 6 Security screening 7 Back of house 8 Airline club 9 Virgin America 10 American Airlines 11 Meet and greet 12 Recompose zone 13 Concessions court

Renewing T2 for 21C First built in 1952, then expanded by Gensler in 1981 as SFO’s first international terminal, T2 went out of service in 2000, not long after a new international terminal came online. So there was a lot of catching up to do. Reinventing the 640,000-square-foot, 14-gate terminal was the job of the design-build partnership of Gensler and Turner Construction. When Gensler took the measure of the existing building, it saw the potential to develop a great open plan to serve the 3.2 million passengers T2 is expected to serve in its first year. And Turner saw a smooth road ahead for construction, since the terminal was unhindered by existing operations.

At a time when people are spending far more time at the airport, the first priority was to deliver a superb experience—backed up by solid performance. Before 9/11, it was typical to arrive 30 minutes (or less) before your flight left the gate. Today, “you need at least twice that to make sure you get through security in time,” says Gensler’s Bill Hooper. “Plus, you need to grab food in the terminal, because many flights don’t serve meals. You’re spending twice as much time past security, so you need more amenities while you’re there.” Pre-9/11 airports weren’t designed to provide them. Even after 9/11, many of them were designed to get people in and out as quickly as possible. “The quality of the experience was often an afterthought.”

20% Less energy is required to run T2’s innovative displacement ventilation system, which also improves air quality.

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CASE STUDY spatial qualities shift subtly throughout, so that every setting has a distinct personality. “Wherever you are in T2, you experience the Bay Area culture,” says Gensler’s Terence Young. “It’s not just on the surface,” he adds.

“Sustainability really matters to this community, so it had a huge impact on the design. Because it’s such a public building, T2 became a test case for us—can an airport inspire people to live in a greener way?”

T2 is America’s first LEED Gold-registered airport. Even for those who experience it all the time, the tangible, day-to-day benefits of LEED are often hard to discern.

But T2 takes the LEED Gold designation beyond the LEED checklist. To spark ideas about how people can live sustainably while traveling and in everyday life, Gensler developed graphics to explain how sustainable design makes T2 healthy and high-performing.

Sustainability is a constant Innovative sustainable design and operations programs at T2 cut energy and water use, while aggressive recycling and composting help significantly reduce the terminal’s waste generation and carbon footprint.

Gensler sought to make sustainability an integral part of the travel experience. Hydration stations address the wasteful problem of tossed half-full plastic water bottles by providing a place to fill reusable ones. An innovative displacement ventilation system improves indoor air quality, using 20 percent less energy in the process. Reusing a substantial portion of T2’s existing infrastructure allowed the Gensler/Turner team to shave costs and reduce T2’s carbon footprint by some 12,300 tons of carbon dioxide.

Taking the stress out While most older terminals have made modifications to address the changing realities of security checkpoints, online check-ins, and orange alerts, these typically feel like incomplete workarounds rather than integrated solutions. And they do little to minimize traveler appre­ hension or anxiety. “It’s the uncertainty of moving through airports that stresses people out,” Hooper says.

“So we design them to be very easy to navigate and very comfortable.” Adds Gensler’s Jeff Henry, “SFO pushed for that, and American and Virgin America, the two airlines involved, were fine with it. They know that things go much better and faster when their passengers aren’t stressed out.”

Security is a big part of this. Gensler completely rethought the security area at T2, providing more points of entry—a total of 8 passenger lanes—and clear wayfinding. The result is a security-screening process that is far more efficient than its older counterparts.

Pleasantly surprised by the speed and relative ease of what they’ve just gone through, passengers find themselves in the light- and art-filled recompose zone just past security, a unique setting that offers them a place to regroup. From there, they have a clear view of flight information and the gates and food and retail offerings in the concourse.

Reflecting a city’s sensibility People see airports as an extension of their cities. San Francisco is made up of many diverse neighborhoods, and the Gensler designers set out to replicate that feeling within the terminal. Palettes, materials, and 30

“This is San Francisco,” says Gensler’s Melissa Mizell.

“It was natural for us to take a very forward-looking approach and incorporate that thinking in the way the terminal is designed and operated.”

A major design element at T2 is that vastly underused building material known as natural light. New skylights and clerestories create a bright, healthy aesthetic, even as they cut the terminal’s electric bill during the daylight hours. The restrooms are equally efficient.

“They’re what you’d expect to find in a downtown San Francisco hotel,” Mizell says. “At an airport, that quality is a big and pleasant surprise.”

“Fun and enjoyment aren’t words that people normally apply to airports,” says Jeff Henry. “At T2, we set out to change that.” Virgin America, known for imbuing the flight experience with sophisticated design details and a wry sense of humor, was a perfect partner. So was American Airlines, which embraced T2 as the harbinger of a brighter future for air travel. Says Jesse McMillin, Virgin America’s creative director, “We all went in with the feeling that a big public project like T2, located in San Francisco, begs to be revolutionary.” And so it is.

Allison Arieff, a former editor of Dwell, writes for Good and the New York Times.

environmental sustainability

1 667tons Estimated annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions attributable to T2’s different sustainable elements.

90% 1.4mil The amount of recycling that T2 will achieve by 2020 to meet San Francisco’s mandate, which is 75 percent today.

Gallons of jet fuel saved per year by T2’s supply of 400 HZ power and pre-conditioned air to planes at the gates.

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News

+Views

vertical community Edens & Avant Columbia, SC Edens & Avant opened its first shopping center in 1966. Today, it’s known for its vibrant mixed-use town centers, each reflecting the area it serves. It takes real teamwork to capture that local spirit and create a mix of activities, uses, and retailers to match.

Incubating that innovation is what Edens & Avant’s new headquarters is designed to do. Taking three floors of the new Main + Gervais Office Building, it features a mid-façade atrium. Working with the architect, Gensler carved out this volume while the tower was in design. The atrium and its terrace look out at the historic South Carolina State House. The middle floor is Edens & Avant’s social hub, encouraging interaction and community. One of the company’s core values is passion, which is celebrated in gallery-like fashion by an installation of personal artifacts. Their significance is explained in accompanying narratives from the different members of the headquarters team.

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NEWS + VIEWS

Center for Dance Houston Ballet Houston, TX Every great ballet company has a school, and every great ballet school has a memorable building. With the opening of its Center for Dance, Houston Ballet, one of the great companies, fulfills its destiny. The largest professional dance facility in the US, the 115,000-square-foot academy comprises nine dance studios, a 200-seat dance labora­ tory, and the offices and workshops of the ballet and the school. Along with 375 current dance students, the Center for Dance supports Houston Ballet’s remark­able community programs, which intend to double their impact to reach 30,000 students by 2015. Despite its size, the Center was completed ahead of schedule and 12 percent under budget—definitely light on its feet.

The Center takes its design cues from the proscenium stage. Viewed from outside, the building is like a lac­ quer­ed cabinet of wonders, opening to reveal the stacked, double-height studios, each a picture of movement. The warm reclaimed walnut paneling inside contrasts with the polished dark granite of the building proper. From the dancers’ perspective, the studios look out at the Buffalo Bayou and the Houston Art District, connecting them with their patron city. An open-air sky-bridge links the Center for Dance to the Wortham Theatre Center where the company performs, giving people on the street glimpses of dancers going back and forth.

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NEWS + VIEWS

A Band shell for Myriad Gardens Oklahoma City, OK What do band shell and roller coaster have to do with each other? Read on. When Oklahoma City asked Gensler to design a band shell for its Myriad Gardens, it sought a compelling civic landmark, achieved with an economy of means. Thanks to amplification technology, the band shell could be an open, tubular-steel structure, easier to maintain and less vulnerable to high winds.

Gensler used parametric modeling to generate the band shell’s curving shape in 3D. To build it without breaking the bank, the design team called on a roller coaster manufacturer, imagining that the band shell might pose similar moves. It did, and the structure was fabricated directly from the team’s parametric model, saving time and cost. The 40-foot-high band shell fronts Myriad Gardens’ elliptical wave pool. At night, LEDs turn it into a light show. And when the sun beats down, you can find shade under its closely spaced tubular frame.

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dialogue editorial

contributors

editorial board

Editor John Parman

Allison Arieff Kevin Craft Clare Jacobson Sam Lubell Vernon Mays Annie Simpson Mimi Zeiger

Robin Klehr Avia Andy Cohen Art Gensler David Gensler Diane Hoskins

Creative Director Mark Coleman Issue Editors Vernon Mays Matthew Richardson Designer Peiti Chia Managing Editor Erin Luckiesh Photo Editor and Publications Manager Katya Black Web Designer Jonathan Skolnick

credits

thanks

All images credited to Gensler unless otherwise noted.

AEG provided: page 22 left Dean Alexander: page 13 Christopher Barrett: page 1 far right; pages 32–33 both Andrew Bordwin: page 7 bottom right Paul Brokering: page 17 Benny Chan/Fotoworks: ifc Bruce Damonte: page 6-7 bottom left; page 7 top right; page 15 bottom right; page 19; page 20 bottom right; page 27 bottom left Envirosell provided: page 24 top Frank Gärtner/Getty Images: page 12 top (screen on iPad) Ryan Gobuty/Gensler: cover; page 1 middle left; pages 14-15 top left; page 16 both; page 20 middle right; page 23 David Keller/Gensler: page 26 right; page 30 bottom; page 31 David Kiang Photography/Getty Images: page 10 Peter Kubilus: page 20 left Nic Lehoux: page 1 middle right; page 26 left; page 27 top and bottom right; page 28; page 29 both; page 30 top; pages 34–35 both Blake Mourer/Gensler: pages 4–5 both Zach Nash: page 36 both Gerry O’Leary: page 18 Timothy Soar: page 1 far left; pages 2–3 Sports Illustrated/Getty Images: page 12 top (excluding the screen) Yukmin/Getty Images: pages 24–25 Yum Restaurants International provided: page 9; page 15 top right Jeff Zaruba: page 22 right

Barbara Best-Santos, San Francisco Michael Bodziner, San Francisco Marty Borko, Los Angeles Barry Bourbon, San Francisco Maureen Boyer, San Francisco John Bricker, New York Alton Chow, Shanghai Andy Cohen, Los Angeles Kyle Davis, Chicago Dian Duvall, San Francisco Jonathan Emmett, Los Angeles David Epstein, Austin Tim Etherington, Shanghai Michael Gatti, New York Rob Gatzke, Morristown Art Gensler, San Francisco Doug Gensler, Boston David Glover, Los Angeles Jeff Henry, San Francisco Bill Hooper, Washington, DC Tom Ito, Los Angeles Kathleen Jordan, New York Lara Marrero, Los Angeles Irwin Miller, Los Angeles Melissa Mizell, San Francisco Nancy Nodler, Houston Jack Paruta, Morristown Duncan Paterson, Los Angeles Virginia Pettit, Washington, DC Leah Ray, Chicago Owain Roberts, London Ray Shick, Shanghai José Sirera, Abu Dhabi and London Donna Taliercio, Washington, DC Jon Tollit, London Ron Turner, Los Angeles Michel Weenick, Tokyo Steve Weindel, San Francisco Terence Young, Los Angeles

Dialogue has a parallel Web edition— dialogue.gensler.com—that lets you email individual articles and access an archive of past issues. Check it out and subscribe.

Gensler is a leading architecture, design, planning, and consulting firm, with offices in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Dialogue magazine, published twice yearly, focuses on design’s ability to transform organizations and improve people’s lives.

Dialogue is produced by Gensler Publications. © 2011 Gensler. To comment or request copies of the print edition, please write to us (dialogue@gensler.com).

Dialogue is printed on FSC®-certified, 10 percent postconsumer-waste paper with ultralowVOC (–3 percent) vegetable oil–based ink.

Savings to our natural resources include:

7 16 469 1,639 7,389

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