The Mission Las Vegas

By: Timothy Boe, NCARB, AIA
www.eco-tects.com

In centuries past, town planning was an organic process. The villagers would build a place of worship and soon other uses would begin to crop up in the surrounding area. The blacksmith’s shop, town inn, tailor, butcher, pub/restaurant, general store, barber shop/dentist, doctor – the proprietors would live above their place of business. Down the street would be the Town Hall where the Mayor, Constable, Sheriff would preside. These uses would line a Main Street, often linked to a Town Plaza and dotted with parks and other public gathering places. Compact and pedestrian friendly, residents would have opportunities to meet their neighbors and thus a sense of community ensued.

After WWII however, this familiar dynamic began to change. The urban areas were abandoned for the promise of a patch of yard with a white picket fence and the phenomenon of urban sprawl began to spread like wildfire. Fueled by the hoards of returning servicemen and the subsequent “baby boom,” the fundamental precepts of urban planning were abandoned, as virgin countryside was plowed under to make way for tract home subdivisions. The Retail Industry, as it must, followed the “path of progress” and opened outlets close to where the people lived. That’s where an unforeseen long term problem started. Today, forward thinking retail planners are trying to come up with new ways to curtail the soaring vacancies in retail centers that are ultimately being traced back to this pattern of urban growth.

Week after week new retail industry reports continue to validate the realization that the current calamity may not go away, even with the restoring of the economy. The magnitude of the malpractice rampant in the financial sector has resulted in many people losing most of what had been invested to help provide for their futures. This kind of devastation will not be easily forgotten. When the consumer public does indeed begin spending again, the patterns are likely to be much different than in recent years. Accordingly, retailers are actively reevaluating their offerings to determine where the consumer dollar will be spent. Because much restructuring, as well as a learning curve is involved, merchants will be operating on slim margins as the revamped industry continues to gel.

Already “upside down” with vacancies, while also swallowing the new terms of renegotiated leases by existing tenants, landlords in many cases are holding on by their fingertips. As many shopping center companies have loans coming up for renewal, the prospect of being at the mercy of an inconsistent financial sector is creating an enhanced degree of uncertainty. Assuming that all the taxpayer dollars that have been poured into the banking industry begin to cause some recovery traction soon, property owners are still left to wonder what the market will look like when it does return.

Standing back and looking at the situation as a whole, no one can deny the complexity of the problem. As is always the case in determining solutions, the overall issue must first be broken into individual segments that may be better understood — each on their own merit. Only then can the situation be seen as a whole, so that the best ways to approach a remedy may be determined. One major aspect, but one that is eminently solvable, has to do with the design of the retail properties themselves.

Going back to the model for urban planning that was employed prior to the current patterns of urban sprawl, many property owners are now looking closely at the premise of mixed-use. A buzz word for many years in the US development community, very little of what is often called mixed-use actually meets the definition. Many projects that are primarily residential, with a smattering of retail have been called mixed-use, but the Urban Land Institute (ULI) definition is – “projects that have three or more significant revenue-producing uses; significant functional and physical integration of the different uses; that conform to a coherent plan.”

In looking at the above definition, many developers and property owners are now beginning to acknowledge that such a description sounds a lot like a profile of the kind of project that has long term promise of viability in the changing economy. Developments that make it or break on the strength of a single industry are becoming the “dinosaurs” of the past century. ”Smart planning” mandates that for projects to be successful in all economic climates, they must have the resiliency of being able to acclimate with the dynamics of the surrounding community as a whole. These “true” mixed-use centers spread out the success or failure of a particular industry segment, through the integration of multiple uses which support the overall success of the center at all times.

For mixed-use projects to enjoy their optimum success they should employ as many of the aspects of this concept as possible. Such properties provide retail to serve residents and workers located at the same property throughout the day. By combining residential, office, and retail in truly balanced proportions, the Center takes on its own life by serving the needs of the community — while simultaneously drawing from the surrounding trade area. This true mix of uses draws traffic throughout the day – not just during the peak hours. Add to the equation access to nearby public transportation and include some additional uses such as government/civic facilities, entertainment, hospitality – the planning logic starts to sound a lot like the approach to pre-WWII communities.

With this premise in mind, consider how the fabric of our urban community might look today had centuries old urban planning fundamentals not been abandoned in favor of subdivision zoning and decentralized downtowns. In a report titled “Job Sprawl Revisited” released in April 2009 by The Brookings Institution, it has been revealed that only 21 percent of employees in the top 98 metro areas work within three miles of downtown. Furthermore, over 45% live more than ten miles from downtown. This trend has resulted in core urban areas that are dark at night and are snarled with traffic going into and out of them during the peak hours.

The Return of Sustainable Planning

When the green movement first became more prominent on the scene in recent years many property owners and developers began to ask the obvious questions…what good will it do? How much more will it cost? Now that the goals of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) are better understood, it has become apparent that it was largely due to a departure from the logic of sustainability in urban planning that the retail industry is ailing today.

Had zoning encouraged the integration of uses, as had historically been the case, a much different pattern would have emerged. Pockets of residential, next to pockets of retail, separate from the downtown, etc., would never have dictated the planning approach to retail development. The result would be retail centers that are an integral part of an overall larger center that hosts a number of complimentary uses.

A Mixed-Use City Center Concept… as a caption delineate the various uses…Residential – Retail – Office – City Hall – Public Library – Hotel – Conference Center – Theatres – Farmer’s Market – Restaurants – Community Arts Center – Senior Center – Police Branch Station – Outdoor Public Assembly Plazas.

Such uses would contribute to a dynamic of sustainability of the Center as a subset of the larger community – one of a character being similar in kind and quality as that of the general community. Such Centers would exist as vibrant places of interaction, encompassing the many various aspects of daily living – not just a destination for an occasional pastime. In such an arrangement, when the shopping patterns of people changed, the centers would not become functionally obsolete.

Optimization of Resources

Building materials notwithstanding, one of the primary resources used in abundance by Retail Centers is land. Typically surrounded by an ocean of parking, single use destination Retail Centers also contribute to the need for infrastructure in order to gain customer access. In a true Mixed-Use Center, the integration of many uses at a single location significantly mitigates the requirement for roads and highways leading to the Center. If located close to public transportation, a giant step in the direction of sustainability will have been achieved.

Taking the concept to the next level, companies like Found Power LLC, www.foundpower.com are exploring the use of commonly overlooked areas such as parking lots to host shading structures with solar arrays, wind mills, and water capture, recovery/re-use systems. The amount of renewable energy available from such large areas as shopping center parking lots will provide enough electricity to take the Center off the grid during peak hours. The captured water is re-used for watering landscape and as utility water. By shading the parking lots, the release of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere is mitigated. As rainwater is captured, the runoff of contaminates from the parking lot surfaces is eliminated. Plug-in outlets for recharging cars, directed lighting and security cameras mounted on the shading structure are all powered by the energy harvested by the structures themselves.

Regardless of whether the Center is mixed-use, or a conventional retail Shopping Center, the concept of Site Optimization and Energy Capture Systems (ECS) as developed by Found Power LLC,all contribute to lower operating costs and energy independence for the property owner. Grid Free Mixed-Use Centers are the Future– drawing on sustainable planning concepts from the Past. By respecting the human dynamic and desire for community, such Centers take commuters off the roads, reduce the need for the energy grid, harvest sustainable, renewable energy sources — helping to free our addiction on foreign oil, capture water for thoughtful re-use, while significantly reducing the carbon footprint for the combined uses being accommodated in such a Center.

If there is to be a “silver lining” identified in the slowdown of commerce resulting from the “money grab” by a small misguided segment of the financial sector, resulting in the crash of 2008, it will be in the subsequent opportunity to reassess the development industry as a whole. As we sift through the debris and ask what should be thrown out and what should be retained, we are finding that there are much more enlightened ways of achieving the most essential goals of the development community.

New ideas are showing up in the form of “Low hanging Fruit.” These ideas don’t cost anymore, or require any additional effort to implement. They mean that doing things a certain way, just because that is the way it has been done before, is no longer to be regarded as sound logic. The Retail Industry is being offered the opportunity to take a leadership position, based on the virtue of the enormous footprint of such Centers.
Future Centers will need to follow a new paradigm – existing Centers will need to be adapted for re-use. In the end, will be an industry that is more resilient and able to adjust to the tides of change. These “Smart” Centers will show respect for the Earth, as well as the culture of our society, which they are being built to serve.

This is a Win/Win.

Timothy Boe is an architect and founder of BOE ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL. With almost forty years of experience in the design and building industry, Mr. Boe brings a vast knowledge of numerous building types, as well as a considerable body of experience in urban design and planned communities. During his long career, Mr. Boe has been involved in numerous environmentally related projects, including several that have been bestowed awards for thoughtful re-use of “brownfield” properties, innovative planning solutions and adaptive re-use of properties involving lead base paint, asbestos abatement, site clean-up, wetlands enhancements and the creation of wildlife sanctuaries for threatened species. Mr. Boe has also served continuously since 1989 on the Board of Directors for Windwalker International… a sustainable alternative energy company.