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Downsize Your Retail: 15th Avenue East

There is something particularly special about very small retail spaces. The shops on 15th Avenue East on Capitol Hill in Seattle, especially on the northwest end, are an especially good example of this.

Jeff Pelletier is the Managing Principal and Founder of Board & Vellum, an architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture firm in Seattle, Washington.
Jeff Pelletier
July 18, 2011

Retail is one of my favorite project types to work on. Pretty much every piece of the design work is related to how people, LOTS of people, use the space. We probably all have a lot of favorite retail environments that just feel... right. It is probably hard to put into words but everything just works. It is one of the great reasons why retailers like Target have done so well. Target pretty much nailed on the head the large department store design and made it work. See here and here and here if you want great examples of what Target has done on the design front.

On the smaller scale, there are the great little neighborhood shops. The ones I love the most are typically the smaller shops that take advantage of every square foot they have and add to the character of the neighborhood. Seattle is full of great areas like this including Ballard Avenue in Ballard and pretty much all of the Pike/Pine corridor. One I'm particularly fond of (possibly because I live on the street) is 15th Avenue East up on Capitol Hill. Probably my favorite block of the retail in the whole city is the North Western section of the street. There's just something AWESOME about this space. And you know why? SMALL retail environments that provide a lot of window environments to walk by, narrow sidewalks forcing pedestrians to look into retail windows, and a great mix of retailers.

Probably the biggest lesson for me here is the extremely narrow width of the shops. Wax on Spa and Integra Hair Salon have a super narrow and deep footprint that is my absolute favorite footprint I have seen.

A lot of retailers would shy away from such a narrow footprint, but I think it does a few wonderful things:

  1. It allows smaller footprints so that landlords can rent out space probably still at their standard price per square foot but are still affordable to small independent retailers because they are so small. With a rough economy, more spaces that are more affordable are better than fewer pricier spots that fewer retailers can afford.
  2. More shops equals more variety. This is a very good thing.
  3. Smaller retail spaces that are less expensive allow for small first-time retailers to take hold in a great retail environment. It is less of a risk and therefore more of a chance that a great new shop could pop up that couldn't otherwise afford a larger space.

The other great things about this little spot on 15th have to do with Liberty and the fantastic Flowers on 15th. The owner there does a superb job of window display and spilling the wonderful selection of flowers out on to the sidewalk. Liberty has a great interaction with the street and provides for enough activity in the evening that the street feels alive throughout the day.

Small examples like this can help inspire new retail buildings. Ideas like the recessed door allowing for deeper window displays coupled with the narrower sidewalks and generous plantings help create a lively urban environment that everyone wants to spend time in.

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