{"id":34448,"date":"2021-04-12T17:02:04","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T17:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-swa-2019.pantheonsite.io\/?post_type=stories&p=34448"},"modified":"2021-04-27T21:32:42","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T21:32:42","slug":"reimagining-retail","status":"publish","type":"stories","link":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/stories\/reimagining-retail\/","title":{"rendered":"Reimagining Retail"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1601499616638{margin-bottom: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Reimagining Retail<\/h1>\n

With an eye toward the future, Landscape Architecture Magazine asked a handful of professionals \u2013 including SWA Houston Principals Kinder Baumgardner and Natalia Beard \u2013 to reimagine urban retail through the lens of the past year. SWA\u2019s contributions, including some striking graphics, made the cover.<\/h3>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”34444″ img_size=”full”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row gap=”20″][vc_column width=”1\/6″][vc_single_image image=”30176″ img_size=”200×200″ onclick=”custom_link” link=”https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/principals\/natalia-beard\/”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

We asked SWA Principal
\nNatalia Beard<\/em><\/a>
\nfor the back-story:<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”5\/6″][vc_column_text]How did you all approach the question?\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

When we were asked to participate in this effort, we looked at it as an opportunity to explore why we loved shopping.\u00a0 (I love to shop and if I\u2019m stopping, everyone else is too.)<\/em><\/p>\n

COVID hastened what seems like an inevitable decline of retail and, with people sheltering in place, restaurants and street life in Houston collapsed.\u00a0 It was so disappointing because we\u2019ve made such an investment in downtown\u2014we moved our office in to the urban core and have been working on helping the Downtown Management District enliven Avenida Houston, Main, and other streets.<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019re strong advocates for street activity and we wondered how could the city maintain some sort of physical presence for sellers, without the insurmountable rents, and an opportunity for street life for shoppers?\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

When we thought about it, we saw shopping less as a transactional activity of \u201cbuying\u201d and more as a reflection of people\u2019s fundamental need to be together, to be connected\u2014to each other as well as to culture and fashion.\u00a0 It\u2019s why kids go to a mall\u2014they aren\u2019t buying anything of substance; they want to be with their friends.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t take ourselves too seriously.\u00a0 We had fun with the question:\u00a0 When you go to a city, what do you love?\u00a0 What would younger audiences love?\u00a0 We imagined different groups of shoppers and what might appeal to them. How could we include an idea of participatory street performance? \u00a0How can you maintain urbanity?\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

We came up with some ideas, kind of goofy, but they address those fundamental needs for human expression, connection, performance and exchange.<\/em><\/p>\n

What surprised you? <\/strong><\/p>\n

What surprised me most about the exercise was how quickly and easily we were able to deploy non-standard graphic language.\u00a0 We could let go of the earnestness of traditional representation and embrace a kind of 1960s grooviness– happy colors, fun forms.\u00a0 We were completely liberated from client- or budget-driven design decisions and could just be experimental and whimsical.<\/em><\/p>\n

What do you think will stick? <\/strong><\/p>\n

We were strategic in choosing Houston\u2019s Dallas Street because we think that street can lift downtown to the next stage of livability.\u00a0 We liked that our thinking was a way of conveying to our friends on the street\u2014in retail, restaurants\u2014that we support them.\u00a0 The ideas we came up with had some humor, but the main thing is we are advocates for urbanity.\u00a0 We\u2019re sticking with it.<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"featured_media":34429,"template":"","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReimagining Retail<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/stories\/reimagining-retail\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reimagining Retail\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1601499616638{margin-bottom: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text] Reimagining Retail With an […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/stories\/reimagining-retail\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SWA Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/swagroup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-27T21:32:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/swacdn.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/06230250\/LAM_Snout-Final.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SWAgroup\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/stories\/reimagining-retail\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/stories\/reimagining-retail\/\",\"name\":\"Reimagining Retail\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-12T17:02:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-27T21:32:42+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/stories\/reimagining-retail\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/stories\/reimagining-retail\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/stories\/reimagining-retail\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Reimagining Retail\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/\",\"name\":\"SWA Group\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"SWA Group\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/live-swa-2019.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/live-swa-2019.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/logo.jpg\",\"width\":137,\"height\":75,\"caption\":\"SWA Group\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/swagroup\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SWAgroup\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/swagroup\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/swa-group\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Reimagining Retail","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/stories\/reimagining-retail\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Reimagining Retail","og_description":"[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1601499616638{margin-bottom: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text] Reimagining Retail With an […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/stories\/reimagining-retail\/","og_site_name":"SWA Group","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/swagroup","article_modified_time":"2021-04-27T21:32:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":700,"url":"https:\/\/swacdn.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/06230250\/LAM_Snout-Final.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@SWAgroup","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/stories\/reimagining-retail\/","url":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/stories\/reimagining-retail\/","name":"Reimagining Retail","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-04-12T17:02:04+00:00","dateModified":"2021-04-27T21:32:42+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/stories\/reimagining-retail\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/stories\/reimagining-retail\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/stories\/reimagining-retail\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Reimagining Retail"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/","name":"SWA Group","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/#organization","name":"SWA Group","url":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/live-swa-2019.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/live-swa-2019.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/logo.jpg","width":137,"height":75,"caption":"SWA Group"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/swagroup","https:\/\/twitter.com\/SWAgroup","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/swagroup\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/swa-group\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/34448"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/stories"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}