Design street retail space that can change over time
by Peter David Greaves AIA, LEED AP
Weber + Thompson
As published in Puget Sound Business Journal
March 24, 2006
Imagine how convenient and easy life would be if you lived in a dynamic mixed-use condominium development with an urban grocer downstairs and all the necessities for life in the city -- a dry cleaner, restaurants, vibrant retail and a corner coffee shop.
Architects, planners and city planning departments all agree that the mixed-use building type is the model for developing the vibrant, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods we seek. Housing over retail is a tried-and-true formula for working/walking neighborhood downtowns.
But what happens when there is not enough demand to fill all that retail space? Are there other ways to animate the sidewalk level of these districts?
Older, denser cities, especially on the East Coast, have all grown to the point where land is too valuable to be limited to one use. The urban neighborhood streets in New York, Boston, Montreal and Chicago are all now built to the edge of the sidewalk, with retail on the ground floor and office or housing above. But this condition didn't happen overnight; it evolved over decades.
Even in these cities, single-purpose zoning in some areas has stripped downtown streets of their vibrancy. Office towers dominate without even a corner Starbucks in sight. In recent years, this single-purpose idea gave way to zoning requirements for retail activity at the sidewalk level.
Heeding author Jane Jacobs ("The Death and Life of Great American Cities") concepts of enlightened urban design, planning departments returned to previously discarded ideals for our city centers. In urban Seattle, think of the Skinner Building on Fifth Avenue, the very model of a contextual mixed-use building: a fine retail base on the street with offices above, in this case wrapping a theater.
While not every block can support added amenities like a theater, this model has become the example for our neighborhoods.
Consider the dynamic changes taking place in Pioneer Square, Ballard, or even Columbia City, Seattle neighborhoods that are being reborn as the ideas of mixed-use, 24-hour neighborhoods are rediscovered.
Seattle's shift to mid-rise housing or office over retail began in close-in neighborhoods, such as Belltown, and spread to Capitol Hill, Queen Anne and First Hill.
The same example was further applied to reinforce Seattle neighborhood commercial districts and, at last, is being applied to emerging urban areas such as Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond as a way to accommodate new residents and stem the sprawl that threatens the green/open spaces surrounding our cities. Most everyone agrees this is good idea. Zoning codes are now written to require mixed-use buildings with a retail uses at the sidewalk level.
But what happens when the demand for retail space is outstripped by ever-increasing supply? Remember, the cities we look to as good examples all evolved into this pedestrian-friendly condition over time. In the Northwest, all cities are trying to accomplish the same thing immediately. This is a classic chicken-and-egg proposition. We need a critical mass of residents to create the demand for retail. The demand needs to be in place before the retail businesses can survive.
People who seek urban living want to move to a vibrant and active part of town. Ground floor retail can be difficult to lease in the central business districts, where there is ample foot traffic. Out in the neighborhoods and emerging downtowns, the foot traffic is even less, and the ability to lease retail is even lower.
If not retail, then what? Working and walking neighborhoods need structure, support and services.
The structure is easiest. The act of building to the sidewalk edge defines the retail experience. How about support for this neighborhood? For example, is there a way to build the branch library in the base of a mixed-use building? Or a day care, or a preschool or even an elementary school? What about the branch post office? What about the neighborhood grocer?
It happens in other cities the world over. Why not here?
There are a number of other services that make a neighborhood work. They all need space close to the residents that they serve. Again, the rest of the world has grown into this condition over time; trying to build it all at one time is a real challenge.
We need new business models. At the very least we need to preserve the space to allow for growth to keep up with demand. The range of uses must be flexible to accommodate the change in demand. The height of the street level space should allow for a series of uses over time. The spaces should be taller than the current model's 13-foot minimum height.
For example, artists may first move into this space because it is affordable and interesting. The artists will later need galleries to display and sell their work. After seeing the show, you need a place to have a glass of wine and talk with your friends, and after drinks, you need to have a bite to eat. In the morning, you need coffee to jump-start your day.
Flexible space is the key; commercial activity needs room to grow, space to evolve.
Sometimes the best use of the street level, especially on less active side streets, is residential. The live-work option that many cities, including Seattle, are now entertaining is a step in the right direction.
Townhouses of all configurations work in a lot of other cities. In some cities the units on the street level are the more affordable. In other cities they are more desirable and more expensive. Both ideas work.
Some start as residential and then evolve into office or retail as demand changes. With some flexibility on the part of the planning and building departments, we can build this model here, too. Can we build a two-story townhouse as the base of a five- or six-story building of flats? Why not try?
The activated sidewalk level we seek is the right idea. Time is the missing dimension. The projects we design and build now must accommodate and encourage the changes that will come. The spaces must be large enough, and tall enough, to accept a range of possible uses.
The promise we make as architects and planners is to create places where people can live, work and play. Architects, the developers we work with, and the planning departments that write and interpret the rules need to work together to find creative and flexible solutions that bring the sidewalks to life. Mixed-use developments are here to stay -- let's get them right. We owe it to our city.
PETER DAVID GREAVES is an associate with Seattle-based Weber + Thompson, and has overseen several complex mixed-use projects and their teams.