• Urban center opens waterfront of major city

    The Wharf has re-established DC as a true waterfront city and added a major destination along with affordable housing. The mixed-use development won the 2020 CNU Grand Prize Charter Award.
    The Wharf is a superbly designed and impressively implemented mixed-use urban center that re-establishes DC’s connection to the water. Between the mid-1940s through the 1970s, DC’s historic waterfront was largely demolished as part of the federal government’s urban renewal program that displaced...Read more

  • Anchors away: Repurposing regional malls to meet new community needs

    The economic effects of the COVID pandemic will accelerate the departure of anchor department stores from regional malls. How can these spaces be adapted to make our communities more resilient in the post-COVID economy?
    For the past two decades, the North American retail landscape has been in a transitional state. Shopping preferences have shifted, to increasingly favor place-based destinations with a mix of uses and design elements rooted in traditional urbanism . Simultaneously, the business model that sustained...Read more

  • After the lockdown, new opportunities for downtown shopping districts

    Main Street areas stand to do well as a result of entrepreneurial activity and market forces in the aftermath of the coronavirus.
    Since the earliest human settlements, the retail experience has evolved to meet the needs of the public. This evolution has taken us from rural markets to towns, cities, suburban shopping malls, big box mega stores, and, more recently, the Internet. But what will retail shopping look like once...Read more

  • Corner stores can anchor a neighborhood

    Corner stores are the smallest and most useful type of retail—here's how to make them succeed.
    The smallest and most useful retail type of center, the corner store holds a special place in neighborhoods. Most corner stores range from between 1,500 to 3,000 square feet in the first level. The store can be sited as a stand-alone struc­ture or built into a mixed-use building, in both cases...Read more