How to Restore Storefronts

What are some ways that store owners can restore their storefronts to increase sales in their stores?

Are there guidelines to follow in historic districts?

What do the building codes and zoning laws say about restoring storefronts?



All of these questions and many more practical and valuable information will be shared during my talk at the Main Street Forum this coming Monday, November 8, 2010. Come a day earlier and be a part of the New York Preservation Forum that kicks off at 8 am, Sunday, November 7, 2010 and finishes off with a dinner, movie, and an art show that night.

The fall foliage is beautiful in those parts of upstate New York. While there, drive up to the famous Woodstock concert site and see how that area has been developed into an awesome place that houses on-going top-rated performers.

Just listen to this short 15 minute podcast and find out more details about this event, including how you can grab a FREE and must read checklist that everyone needs to read before they plan their next business move. The title of this podcast is "Save on Your Light Bill and Touring Independence Hall." Be sure to click on the iTunes icon while at the link so you can listen to it at your most convenient time at work or at play. Here is the link... Click Here For the Best Money Saving Architecture Show in the World

To get your ticket to this year's Main Street Forum event, you can go to www.MainStreetForum.com or just click on Give me my Main Street Forum Ticket NOW! - (please)

Seven Proven Strategies to Fill Vacant Office Spaces in Dying Downtowns

Have you started to notice more vacancies in your local office buildings and strip shopping centers?

If you watched one of my latest YouTube videos, you will see me in front of a vacant office/warehouse building that is 720,000 SF. It used to be a major distribution plant for K B Toys before they went out of business in NJ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEH3u7XgS7s

How can we fill our vacant offices in our dying downtowns?

That was the subject that I spoke about last Monday at this year’s Main Street Forum. Although my new book, The Designed Office, will give you invaluable tips on how to find the best office space for your business needs, give you critical design principals to have your architect/engineers/interior designers to follow, how to build-out your new office space on time and within your budget, and many other maintenance and “green” ideas, you won’t hear much from my book when reviewing the DVD of my Main Street Forum talk, “Making Your Work Place Work for You.”

Instead, I spoke about the changes of our economy, challenge the notion that “green” design is of any benefit to the tenant or to the landlord, and I give some strategies that towns can begin to implement now to boost the sales and leases of their commercial real estate within their central business districts.

Here are seven strategies that towns can implement to help reduce vacancies in their downtowns:

1. Create a safe environment. If people have any reason to fear of their safety, any other strategy will not help fill vacancies.

2. Don’t have a blocked up Main Street that forces drivers to park their cars behind the commercial district while creating a pedestrian mall where Main Street once existed. This might have worked successfully in a couple of places in American, but for the most part, the result of this urban experiment was a disaster. People just found other places to shop.

3. Follow the LEED requirements for Existing Buildings if possible. My talk will illustrate how building owners have filled their office buildings faster than their competition while increasing the value of their building’s bottom line.

4. Have a nice variety of stores and offices that compliments, does not compete, and surrounds an anchor store or industry.

5. Resist having Real Estate offices in prime locations of the CBD. Real Estate offices can often afford to lease or own prime downtown real estate. But when they do, they attract on time shoppers who are not interested in mingling around the downtown shops over and over again. They are there to only buy a home that is not even located in the central business district.

6. Have a good partnership between the local government officials and the private sector (merchants, residents, civic groups, corporations). For example, if you have townspeople who have lived there all of their lives and don’t want change while also having young and up-in-coming professionals who want to transform the town, you will be constantly in conflict while the vacancies continue to climb.

7. Good Ambiance. The Main Street must have a soul. This can be done with landscaping, events, sidewalk cafes, street lights, historical references, plenty of parking, and the use of our Experience Architecture design philosophy.

If you would like a copy of the DVD, just email me at info@LaneArchitecture.net to inquire about it.

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Herding People Like Cattle

Why in the world would I post such a crummy photo?

It is to make a point.

Look how all of the fuzzy people are grouped together. Notice that they are all herded roughly along the dark grey line on the floor.

There is no sign that says, “Stay on this side of the line.” There isn’t even a definite traffic pattern that people must follow. In fact, there isn’t anything in this room except for a few stairs and columns. It is a large, open room where people wait until their trains are called out at Penn Station of NYC.

This is another example to show how people are affected by their surroundings. Even if there are subtle color changes on the floor, people will react to it without even realizing that they are doing it.

If people can be so affected by the design of their surroundings by purely accidental design, imagine how powerful it can be if you have an architect that uses the “Experience Architecture” design philosophy with intension!

With “Experience Architecture,” can you see how your customers might want to keep coming back to your store? Can you see how your employees might want to stay at least a full 8 hour day in the office and actually contribute to a full day’s work? Can you see how an entire dying historical downtown can attract the affluent through intentional design?

“Experience Architecture” is POWERFUL! Make it work for you, your business, and your downtown. Here's how:

Come to the Preservation Conference and the Main Street Forum to hear me elaborate on this very important subject. I am going to share some cutting edge strategies that can boost your business and revive your downtowns in any economy. The event will be in Liberty, NY on November 1st and 2nd. Just click on the “Main Street Forum” icon to the right to register.

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How to Fill Vacant Commercial Properties

There is no place you should rather be than in Liberty, NY on November 1st and 2nd this year.

Liberty, NY is the town that was had to lend a helping hand to the wayward hippies that found themselves cold, hungry, and in need of first aid during the famous Woodstock concert.

Liberty, NY is now the destination of many movers and shakers who want to learn from experts how to revive their dying downtowns and create massive profits within their central business districts.

Come join other forward thinkers, NY and NJ state officials, town planners, merchants of downtown shops, architects, and leaders of a lot of townships throughout the east coast to become a leader of progress for your community.

For the third year in a row, I have been invited to speak at the Main Street Forum that is Monday, November 2nd, 2009. My topic will be for advanced thinkers at the Catskill Artists Gallery at 11:00 AM EST.

The title of my talk is, "How to Make Your Workplace Work for You."

As retailers close stores and corporations downsize, what are some new and productive uses for this excess space? We’ll look at new concepts, new uses, and old but half-forgotten solutions that can turn vacant properties into cash-flowing asset during our information packed 40 minute disussion.

You will also learn some key green design solutions that others are doing that immediately puts money back in their pockets for ZERO personal investments, and see successful case studies that will make you want to go make it happen at your own hometown.

Be sure to sign up for this event NOW! Just click on the black and white Main Street Forum icon at the blue column of information to the right of this blog post.

Oh, by the way, we will also be talking about some key proven stategies found in the book, "The Designed Office." Get your copy by clicking on the book icon to the right of this post to get a head start. Then, we can build upon what you already read from the book.

If you like this article and would like to keep informed about other important news of the day, please subscribe to this blog by clicking on the buttons along the right column.

Click on the "ReTweet" button below and follow me on twitter. I am LaneArch there.