Retail-Entertainment Practice of StoneCreek Partners | AEC

Placemaking “means and methods” are a vital aspect of planning and design, even facility
operations, as a way to meet customer expectations.
Placemaking is an approach to creating, operating, and
monetizing gathering places –whether private or public –an
approach that seeks to optimize the communal and personal
enjoyment of these spaces.
• Great streets
• Retail shopping boulevards
• Shopping malls
• Retail and restaurant venues
• Work spaces
• Mixed‐use retail podiums
• Master‐planned communities
• Town centers and main streets
• Sports stadiums and arenas
• Public parks and plazas
• Other destination places
Developers have found that attention to the details of
placemaking brings in greater footfalls and lengthens the time
people linger at a place. This increased human activity can be
monetized with a little attention to the financial aspects of
placemaking.
An essential aspect of placemaking is design for sensory (visual,
aural, smell, taste, even touch) cues that encourage and then
facilitate guest movement (circulation) to the “next place” in the
Project –a popular notion among tenants of a Project.
Some sensory experiences are multi‐faceted … water features are
particularly engaging since they can potentially involve all five
senses. Yes, even taste since fountains, waterfalls, and the like
that create a spray, mist, or humidity, provide a feeling that one
can almost taste the water that is about. The smell of cookies
and other baked goods, of grilled meats and vegetables, can also
lead a person to a multi‐faceted sensory experience. A retailer's
logo (such as Apple Computers) has an emotional resonance that
can draw a shopper along a retail path. A concert, even a
vocalist with a minimalist keyboard backup, can provide a musical
tease to draw shoppers along a retail path.
STONECREEK PARTNERS
www.stonecreekllc.com
Placemaking
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