RIVERSIDE TOWN CENTER
Typology: Retail Refresh
Site: Urban Business District/ Riverside, CA / Galleria Shopping Core
Size: 53,334 ft2
Completion: Summer 2017
The time had come for the owner to make a bold move to improve their building to attract higher-end tenants to be competitive with the surrounding newer shopping centers recently completed. They contact us for ideas and to see if it were possible to improve the appearance and circulation at the front of the building without disturbing the existing anchor tenant. We we immediately attracted to the challenge and went to work.
Starting with the front facade, it was important to make the building more visible and more distinguishable from the surrounding context. We used a screen strategy to give the building a more dramatic appearance with more depth, translucency and much more pronounced and controlled signage. Strategic lighting at night also makes the building much more visible behind the parking area. The design features exterior structural support and bracing that did not interrupt current tenant operation during construction. This provided an opportunity to bring the building up to accessibility standards and make adjustments to store entrances that eliminate years of poor alterations by past tenants.
More economies were found by designing the facade panels to be removable so that they can be refinished off-site. This keeps the tenants operating while the building owner makes updates as they deem necessary. The panels can also be changed from the galvanized perforated metal to other patterns or materials to re-brand the building if so desired. That is a lot of flexibility without the cost of new structure.
We redesigned to access to the front of the building by connection ti to the bus stop and pedestrian intersection using a safe concrete walkway bordered with plantings. This eliminated the need to walk through a parking area to get to the stores and attracted foot traffic at the larger shopping center across the street. We used the forces of an existing investment to our advantage with well-lit, visible and generous pedestrian connection.
The owner has seen an improvement in the tenant quality, they have commited to longer lease terms and shopper traffic has significantly improved.