Design Leaders for 2nd & Broad Office are on the Move!



Design Leaders for CSHQA's new Boise office at 2nd & Broad



Project Leaders for the New CSHQA Office:  Mandie Brozo, Architecture; Nicole Cecil, ASID, Interior Design; Ted Isbell, AIA, Project Architect; Dan Pirc, Electrical Engineering; Jeff Ward, PE, Civil Engineering; Jay Romlein, RCDD/OSP, Telecommunications Engineering; Russ Pratt, PE, Mechanical Engineering.  Not pictured:  Kyle Hemly, ASLA, Landscape Architect, Tim Higley, PMP, Project and Relocation Manager Extraordinaire!

Moving day is almost here.  Our scheduled day is Friday, July 19 and the people pictured above are very busy seeing to the last details.  A six-month retrofit schedule is coming down to the wire with experienced builders, vendors, utilities employees and permitting authorities all doing their part.

We started with a rough and ready warehouse with good bones and now we’re less than a month away from a high performance office building with outstanding features.  Cosmetic surgeons have nothing on this team!  I asked the design leaders what element they are most looking forward to seeing and using in the new building:

Ted – The daylight, the environment and bringing everyone together in one space.

Mandie – Daylighting, and a more open space for collaboration.

Russ – Radiant heating and cooling!

Dan – Daylighting and dimmers on lamps for every-day energy efficiency.

Jay – The ‘El Commo Cave’, the electrical and telecom room to delight any engineer!

Jeff – Permeable pavers that improve drainage on Broad Street and reduce water added to the public sewer system.

Nicole – The opportunity to showcase creative materials and work in a sustainable, healthy environment.

Kyle – Indoor bike storage, showers and locker room.

Tim – 90 fully functional work stations with nothing more to move, store, stage, archive, auction or give away… –

Retail Trends, Part III – Hispanic Shopping Malls



Hispanic Shopping Malls provide event spaces as well as entertainment and shopping experiences.

In Part I Craig Slocum, AIA covered general trends; in Part II I introduced the fastest growing segment – Hispanic Shopping Malls.  In Part III we delve deeper into how successful developers are responding to the Hispanic trend.

Demographics.  Smart developers study the local demographic and adjust days and hours of operation to reflect the culture.  In Hispanic culture extended family units spend time together and of the 50 million Hispanics in the US today 25% are under 18.  The younger population especially enjoys "domingeo" or hanging out.  Hispanic malls are open late, until 9 or 10 pm, and definitely on Sundays.

Culture.  Mall owners pay for entertainment and host community events.  They observe and celebrate Latin holidays and customs in plaza spaces built for entertainment, music, dancing and participatory activities.  Pool tables, foos ball and big slides entertain multiple generations, and ample benches and chairs are provided for customers to sit and linger.

The right retail mix.  In Phoenix, Arizona at the Desert Sky Mall Hispanic-centric stores are mixed with major retailers with training available for mainstream retailers to learn more about Latino preferences and purchasing styles.  An empty 77,000 sf Mervyns was re-purposed into a traditional Latin Mercado housing 220 small shops.  These shops include fast-food and bakeries, beauty salons and flower shops, carnicerias or meat markets, and many other retailers.  Short-term and temporary leases are offered and the Mercado acts as an incubator for new stores to get their footing before moving to the regular mall.  The mainstream theater company was replaced with Cinema Latino.

Ideal locations.  Many Hispanic malls have been situated in older malls where the previous management failed to acknowledge changing demographics and then lost market share.  These ‘distressed retail’ locations may not be poor locations after all.  Sometimes all they need is the right vision.  –

Jorge Pierson, AIA, LEED AP is an Associate with CSHQA and Regional Manager of CSHQA's Phoenix office.  He has practiced architecture in Phoenix for over 30 years providing planning, design and project management of retail, resort, residential and industrial projects throughout the Southwest.

Retail Gold Rush – Hispanic Purchasing Power Becomes a Major Player

Eduardo's Reception Hall hosts its first event at Desert Sky Mall, Phoenix, AZ 

ICSC has been on this kick for a few years now.  A couple of years ago I was lucky to attend the first National Hispanic Initiative event in San Antonio, Texas.  The site was packed with everyone wanting to know what it was and what to do about it.  We were flooded with statistics that all boiled down to this:  Hispanics are the next Baby Boomers.  Those who study markets understand what this means - money. Like all businesses retail must go where the customers are to be successful.

At RECon last month the session ‘The Retail Gold Rush’ reinforced the reality that the Hispanic market is large and growing and our businesses need to plan to take advantage of it. The panelists Chiqui Cartagena, Maria Contreras-Sweet and Colin Crawford stressed that the Hispanic buying power is growing due to increasing affluence, larger family size and continued immigration.  

In Phoenix, Arizona the Desert Sky Mall, with the help of José De Jesús Legaspi, is one of the first malls modified to address this growing market.  José’s strategy was basically very simple:  he made changes that he knew would appeal to Hispanic shoppers.  It also helped that the demographic surrounding this mall is highly Hispanic.  He knows retail dies if you do not accommodate those close to you.

By happenstance CSHQA was able to add to the Hispanic flair at Desert Sky through our client Jaime Martinez who purchased an empty shoe retail building on the mall perimeter.  Jaime and his father Eduardo, successful businessmen from Mexico, saw the potential of this vacant building and converted it to Salon De Fiestas or otherwise known as Eduardo’s Reception Hall. This turned out to be a good addition to the mall offering a great rental space for family and community events.

To wrap up: The next big wave is the Hispanic market and those who can ride it will have fun and make some money on the way.  –

Jorge Pierson, AIA, LEED AP is an Associate with CSHQA and Regional Manager of CSHQA's Phoenix office.  He has practiced architecture in Phoenix for over 30 years providing planning, design and project management of retail, resort, residential and industrial projects throughout the Southwest.

The Legaspi Company is a full-service retail real estate firm focused on the Hispanic market.  Founded by José De Jesús Legaspi, the firm identifies and capitalizes on untapped opportunities to revitalize depressed retail malls and serve the Hispanic community.  www.thelegaspi.com

In the third and final part of this Retail series we will take a closer look at elements that contribute to a successful Hispanic Shopping Mall.

Optimistic About Retail? You must have been at RECon 2013



Restaurants like Ling & Louie's are building both pad and airport concession spaces to expand their brand.

Last week I attended RECon 2013, the annual global event for the retail real estate community held in Las Vegas.  After sharing stories, ideas and trends with 30,000 of my best friends I’d say the pulse of the North American retail industry is guarded optimism.  With housing in the white-hot zone I trust the adage ‘retail follows rooftops’ will prove itself once again. 

These are the trends to keep in mind:

1.  Growth will be modest.  Overall growth will stay in the single digits for now.  Helpful factors include:  a better capitol market, an uptick in consumer spending and increased restaurant income.

2.  Re-purposing is winning over ground up.  Non-retail and class-C retail spaces are being remodeled for quality retail.  Previous failed big boxes (Circuit City, Linens & Things) are being rapidly absorbed.  Projects once started and abandoned in the recession are coming alive again.

3.  Shift toward urban density.  The millennium generation is moving away from the suburbs and toward the rewards of urban living – more diversity, interaction, entertainment and choices.  Retailers are running sprints to catch this growing consumer clout.  Super store Walmart is rolling out 40,000 sf neighborhood stores and 15,000 sf express stores.  Home Depot began introducing down-sized versions over a decade ago.  Target recently rolled out City Targets in Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle, and Office Depot has designed stores to sell 4,500 items, half their typical inventory.

4.  Brands are re-tooling.  New brands are challenging the established brands, pushing some of those brands to re-tool and reinvent.  Tenant improvements and in-store re-design are must-have skills for retail designers.

5.  Know your malls.  Outlet malls with name brand anchors are going strong.  Outside the very dense metropolitan areas (D.C, New York) standard consumer malls are currently built out, or even over built.  The big trend - the fastest growing segment of retail real estate in America - is the Hispanic Shopping Mall.  It's phenomenal!

 

Looking to serve 50 million US Hispanics, these popular malls are coming into their own in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and other mostly southern states.  Savvy developers are actively mining this new niche with a spending power expected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2015.  Read more in Part II of this blog next week:  Retail Gold Rush – Hispanic Purchasing Power becomes a Major Player.  –

 

Craig Slocum, AIA is a principal with CSHQA and a leading retail designer for the firm.  National clients include Buffalo Wild Wings, Ling & Louie's, Albertsons, Safeway, Moxie Java, Dutch Bros., Walgreens, KeyBank and T-Mobile.

Seeing Green: Manufacturing on a ‘Global’ Scale



Medical office suite with Global Industries furniture and calming color palette

The world’s fifth largest office furniture manufacturer rocks sustainability!

A few weeks ago Megumi Haus and I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Global Industries in Toronto, Canada.  What at tour!  I have been specifying furniture from their family of 40 unique factories for about three years, but seeing the production in real time was fantastic!

Our first tour was of a factory that recycles wood and plastic into furniture components, such as seat pans and backs. Company-wide this amounts to 2,000 tons of scrap diverted annually from the landfill.  Cardboard packing is 80% recycled and cardboard scraps become acoustic panel filler.  Scrap fabric, to the tune of 100 tons per year, becomes insulation or very cool cloth shoulder bags. 

We saw computer aided pattern cutting where the bits of scrap, particularly for solid prints, are tiny!  Leather cutting is taken to a new level of artistry – the entire hide is scanned in one pass with patterns and imperfections noted like a map.  Cutting patterns are adapted to each individual ‘map’ and the very best sections become furniture and cushion centerpieces.  All foam products used at Global are 100% free of chlorofluorcarbons and the company is initiating the use of soy-based adhesives to reduce petro-chemical uses.

Global Industries was started by Canadian business icon Saul Feldberg in 1966.  By the 1980’s Global was seriously engaged in the pursuit and application of recycling and environmentally sound manufacturing to make next generation products.  Today, the group of companies is interwoven in form and function, yet each one must maintain its own profitability.  I was perhaps most impressed by the dedication Global Group demonstrates to manufacturing as much as possible in North America while providing well-managed, living-wage jobs to a wide diversity of employees.

Most of the finished products we saw would be considered mid-range and are less expensive than many designer options, yet they are well designed and very well made.  I feel good about specifying products from these companies.  –

Nicole and Megumi in the Chairman's chair

Nicole Cecil, ASID, LEED AP ID+C, provides interior design and consulting to clients looking for both a great look and a healthy working environment.  To read about Global’s environmental practices visit

http://www.globaltotaloffice.com/gi_2012/control.php?ref=environment

CSHQA Concrete Pour - Last Look at the Radiant Floor System

Radiant floor system before the concrete pour.

Last week the second of two concrete pours covered the final section of radiant floor system at CSHQA's new offices at 2nd & Broad and marked a major milestone in this 5-month construction project.  Crews started at 6:30 am and by 10:30 the initial pour was nearly complete (to be followed by many hours of detailed finish work.) 

The yellow, lego-like substrate of interlocking panels provides built-in spacing and fastening for the PEX tubing, plus insulation for heating and cooling functions.  The system extends throughout the entire office except for a few spaces such as walls and the entryway foyer.  Nearly 5 miles of PEX were covered by approximately 2-7/8 inches of concrete.

Once connected to Boise's geothermal system the radiant system will provide low-cost heating; in warm months cold water will be pumped through for cooling.  This comfortable, energy efficient system completely replaces convential furnace and forced-air systems and the operational savings are expected to be significant. –



Pre-cut sub-structure boards are used as guides for an even pour.





Using their boots the crew works the concrete into the panel system. 



Smooth floor wall to wall.

Integrated Design + Six Tactics for Saving Energy

Energy Saving Tactics in Integrated Design

Energy efficiency has become a pre-eminent theme and yardstick of value for today’s generation of architects, engineers and builders.  Private, government and institutional owners alike are demanding buildings that exceed code, achieve energy certifications and deliver ever lower operating costs. 

The graphic above simplifies energy saving into six tactics.  In reality these tactics overlap, interact and can even be counter-productive when designed incorrectly.  The real strategy is Integrated Design. 

Integrated Design has replaced the traditional hand-off from discipline to discipline with an approach that features multi-disciplinary collaboration from concept to completion.  Although listed separately, the following tactics are each part of an interdependent system.

Reduce / Manage Loads

Consciously reduce the day to day energy demands.  A simple technique is set point management:  Set the heat a little lower and the AC a little higher.  Combine this with computerized management (much like the digital thermostat at home) and you can also manage start of day and end of day settings as well as weekends and holidays. 

Common sense lighting design with the appropriate watt/sq. ft. applied in each space reduces loads, as does the right building envelop.  Low-emissivity (Low-e ) windows, quality insulation and well-designed wall/roof/ceiling systems are required.

Passive systems

Passive systems are built into the building.  Daylight harvesting through skylights and light tubes brings in natural light and reduces the demand for artificial light.  Reflective roofing lowers cooling costs.  Better insulation reduces heating costs.  Natural ventilation often improves air quality and reduces air handling.

Active Systems

Each component of the HVAC system is evaluated for its energy efficiency rating.  Electrical systems including lighting controls and occupancy and daylight sensors help manage energy consumption.

Energy Recovery

When a by-product of energy use is a further source of energy, we call that recovered energy.  An example is the work station.  Computers use energy to function and to operate a cooling fan.  The heat expelled via the fan can be used to warm incoming air and reduce energy used for heating, or exhausted to reduce the cooling load.

Renewables

Solar, geothermal, bio-mass, wind and hydro-power energy.

Other

An example for our desert climate is the nighttime purge during hot weather.  Summer temperatures often become quite comfortable between 3 and 5 am, even after a hot day.  Automated purging, bringing in the cool outside air, pre-cools a space before the workday starts.

CSHQA began designing for energy efficiency long before it became standard ops.  It helped that we had clients who demanded buildings with low operating costs (grocers in particular); it also helped that we’ve always sought ways to design better buildings.  As CSHQA converts a 56-year-old warehouse into our new Boise office (See 1.31.13 post), check back for in-depth posts on these tactics as we learn from architects and engineers on the project.–