Contract - July/August 2011 - (Page 124)

smaller, sustainable retail (continued from page 122) The second trend is the growth of sustainably developed retail environments. Retail has historically lagged in adopting sustainable building practices due primarily to the focus on upfront store development costs, short-term leases, and a general lack of understanding of sustainable building practices. In recent years, however, inspired retail companies have been providing the leadership to develop such environments. Bassett in Pineville, NC 29,000 SF Cabela’s in Arborough, ME 150,000 SF Cabela’s in Grand Junction, CO 75,000 SF Bassett in Falls Church, VA 8,000 SF Joseph P. Nevin, Jr. is senior principal at Bergmeyer Associates, Inc. in Boston. The ﬁrm specializes in retail, restaurant, commercial, corporate interiors, housing, and institutional building design. As leader of the ﬁrm’s retail specialty, Nevin leads teams of experts in strategic planning, branding, identity development, merchandise planning, visual presentation, and store design and implementation. TD Bank is building new branches that are designed to be more sustainable than their older locations. The TD Bank (above) in Johnston, Rhode Island, has solar panels embedded within the drivethrough canopy. L.L.Bean stores (right and far right), being built to be certiﬁed under LEED® for Retail, are implementing natural daylight and state-of-the-art energy management systems to reduce overall energy consumption. 124 contract july/august 2011 www.contractdesign.com Photos by Brian MacDonald (le ); Richard Mandelkorn (bottom, le and right) Companies like L.L.Bean embrace sustainability Simple diagrams indicate the approximate in their core corporate values. TD Bank, as ﬂoorplate sizes of typical Bassett (above) part of its environmental strategy, is achieving and Cabela’s (right) stores before and a er its carbon neutral goal by building greener downsizing for each chain. buildings, lowering its energy consumption, and making a signiﬁcant investment in renewable energy from sources like wind, solar, and low-impact hydro power. Retailers such have resulted in more than 20 LEED-registered and three certiﬁed as these are building sustainable environments not just because it projects, including two LEED Platinum projects and one LEED Gold. is part of their core values or because it exempliﬁes good corporate citizenship. It ﬁrst and foremost must make sense ﬁnancially and All of these projects feature improved indoor air quality, increased provide a justiﬁable return on investment (ROI) for its investors and daylighting and daylight harvesting, state-of-the-art energy shareholders. Short-term payback and reduced long-term operating management systems, and reduced energy consumption. Materials in the buildings are high in recycled content, repurposed materials, and costs were the prima basis for proving the ROI. FSC-certiﬁed woods. Both L.L.Bean and TD Bank went through rigorous processes to develop their approach to creating environmentally friendly retail These two trends, downsizing and sustainability, not only aﬀord locations. L.L.Bean participated in the U.S. Green Building Council environmental and economic beneﬁts, but also create signiﬁcant (USGBC) LEED® for Retail pilot program, resulting in 10 certiﬁed design opportunities. Stores can do more with less by tightening their projects obtaining two LEED Gold, six LEED Silver, and two LEED invento and their belts, and curbing their energy appetite thereby Certiﬁed projects. Similarly, TD Bank’s research, investigation, and reducing their carbon footprint. Retailers can be nimbler, less limited testing resulted in its commitment to sustainable building and energy in their leasing requirements as a result of their ability to ﬁt into more use strategy in a new prototype that would target the highest levels varied-sized spaces, and more enticing in their oﬀerings as they are of the USGBC’s LEED certiﬁcation program. To date, TD Bank’s eﬀorts forced to weed out weaker merchandise to ﬁt into these smaller spaces. These changes are positive for the retailer, as well as the customer and the environment. http://www.contractdesign.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract - July/August 2011

Contract - July/August 2011
Contents
Editorial
Industry News
Product Focus: Change it Up
Product Focus: Angling for Attention
Product Focus: (Good) Writing on the Wall
Product Focus: Come Together
Best of NeoCon® 2011
Making a Marc
Becoming Kate
Ray of Light
True Blue
Nature Speaks
A New Home
Bloomie's New Edition
Shring to Fitness
Practice: Smaller, Sustainable Retail
Trends: Retail Retrofit
Designers Select: Fabrics
Sources
Ad Index
Perspectives

Contract - July/August 2011