Urban Retail Placemaking

This course seeks to introduce students to the thinking and techniques required to locate and design physical retail experiences that create desirability for the retailer with its customers and the total marketplace. Participants will experience first-hand the impact retailers and the urban environment have on one another in space and over time. They will learn about retailer identity- as well as community placemaking strategies and how the desire to create attractive offerings by both sides can clash or synergize. Based on this understanding and their own fieldwork, students will develop a placemaking strategy for a retail client. The course leverages New York City as a living laboratory. Important Note: Students will spend as much or more time in the streets and stores of the city as they will in the classroom. In order to make this work, participants need to commit to join treks and fieldwork organized outside regular school hours on at least four days - usually on Fridays.