Kevin Ervin Kelley, AIA’s Post

Seeing Northgate Market’s Mercado concept featured in The New York Times yesterday was unexpected but incredibly rewarding on many levels. The success of Mercado seems obvious now that the store is open and the crowds of people roam through it daily. However, the design of this experimental prototype started during the pandemic, when many experts declared that food delivery services, click-and-collect, BOPIS, and curbside pickup would render physical stores obsolete and a relic of the past. We begged to differ. We believed that people who cared about good food would still want to go to the market, as they’ve done for the last 4000 years, to see, smell, touch, taste, and hear their food being made. We believed that a well-designed store experience still had the power to convene people around the rituals and traditions of breaking bread together as a community. We believed people would want to indulge in the discovery, adventure, and exotic flavors of an authentic Mexican food experience.  But most of all, we believed in our client, Northgate Market. I’ve never met a more caring, hardworking, and humble family. Their courage, conviction, and stamina to carry this game-changing concept through the forest of industry doubt and across the finish line was remarkable to watch and be a part of as a collaborative team! Congratulations to Northgate Market and all the other contractors, consultants, and partners who made Mercado the masterpiece it is today! #grocerystores #supermarkets #foodretail #retail #innovation #storedesign FMI- The Food Industry Association National Grocers Association National Retail Federation ICSC Urban Land Institute The American Institute of Architects (AIA) AIA Los Angeles AIA California AIA North Carolina AIA Charlotte #topretailexpert RETHINK Retail

"You work your tail off for over fifty years, and then when you finally get to kick back, relax, and enjoy life, death comes for you," the bystander lamented as they loaded my dad into an ambulance. My dad started working in the greasy, grimy pressrooms of newspaper plants at an early age and worked day and night for the next fifty years in the newspaper industry. While he found meaning in a hard day's work, he put aside many of his personal dreams, passions, and hobbies to put food on our table. But when his mandatory retirement came at 65, he planned to get back in shape and get his neglected golf game where he always thought it could be. He made good progress on his goals until he confronted an unusually hot day in July while walking the local public golf course. He thought maybe he was hungry, but after taking a shower in the locker room, he collapsed on the floor and went into cardiac arrest with no pulse. He was having a serious heart attack. Over 1,000 people a day in the U.S. have sudden cardiac arrests, in which the heart stops beating, and the person is technically dead. About 85 to 90 percent of those people cannot be revived because resuscitation attempts start too late, and they don't survive. But a simple-to-use $1500 device saved my dad's life that day in the locker room. Because of local codes, the public golf course had just installed a defibrillator in the men's locker room. The staff thought it was highly unlikely they'd ever use that device, but had it not been there, my father wouldn't be here twenty years later. I thank God every day that my dad is still here with us. But I also thank the design engineers who invented the self-talking defibrillators that audibly tell laypeople how to use them when someone goes into cardiac arrest. Defibrillators are required in most public places. But we should place more of these life-saving devices around us, like fire extinguishers, and teach more people how to use them because because every minute counts when trying to revive someone. #heart #health #defibrillator #longevity #family #fathers #parents #medicine #lifesaver

My parents were fairly open-minded about how to raise their kids, but the one inflexible rule they had for my brother and me as high school teens was the curfew. We had to be home by midnight, which infuriated me because all my buddies could stay out into the wee hours of the night. My father was famous for saying, “Nothing good happens between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.,” and as much as I hated to admit it, he was right. So I lay in bed at home like an uncool dork while my tipsy and rambunctious buddies made some of the dumbest, life-altering decisions between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.   Looking back now, I realize that fathers and mothers do know what's best for teens, even when teens object. Many schools nationwide are implementing no-cell phone rules in classes, and students understandably are up in arms about the issue. I'd probably mount a resistance if I were a teen today and they tried to take away my cell phone. But surprisingly, after these rules are enacted, many students realize the benefits of cell phone-free schools. They can now concentrate on learning without dealing with the relentless pressure of constantly being online and knee-deep in social media, texting, face-tuning, and doom-scrolling the whole time. Absent handheld devices with screen distractions, the students exhibit shocking behaviors, such as making eye contact, talking to each other more, and using their downtime to reflect, read, and pursue creative outlets. Our society has tried the social media experiment of allowing kids to carry cell phones in school for over a decade, and we have seen the results: bullying, body image issues, problems focusing, etc. It’s time we try cell phone-free schools as an experiment to see how the removal of these addictive devices might help students learn, engage more, and develop into contributing adults. #school #education #kids #teens #highschool #students #learning #concentration #teaching #societyandculture

I'm a big believer in the future of places. Despite the rise of the digital replacement economy, changing patterns of social behavior, and the pandemic effect, most real estate sectors have come back strong except for one: office buildings, which have historically made up the bulk of downtowns. The hardcore reality is that the office building sector will not snap back in shape for a while, if ever, as many believe the physical proximity issues—that is, being close to your coworkers, factories, vendors, etc.— are no longer as critical to work in the digital age. People can now work from home, in coffee shops, or a hammock in Tahiti. The departure of the Wall Street powerbrokers to exotic and remote (and tax-friendly) locations has proven these individuals no longer have to be downtown to win their big paydays. Faced with these new realities, downtown leaders must consider alternative scenarios in which other proximities, such as entertainment, food, art, housing, universities, innovation labs, and even jugglers, can make their cities more desirable, vibrant, and attractive to different audiences, particularly young, single creative types.  Today, The Wall Street Journal had a great article by Konrad Putzier highlighting how local leaders are trying to reanimate the urban streets with life, fun, and entertainment. As the article states, "Street performers. Once tolerated at best and seen as a nuisance at worst, these entertainers are now in high demand.…Downtown development districts and other nonprofit groups are paying up to $100 an hour for buskers, jugglers, mimes, and musicians, betting their acts can make empty office districts feel safer and less depressing." Our firm does a lot of work with urban districts and global cities, and we're always trying to find ways to shift the meaning of urban life from the dreaded daily commuter ant-march to places you want to hang out in because they're fun, social, and a safe adventure that provides a unique value proposition that suburbia can't provide. Warehousing employees in close proximity can no longer be that value proposition. Do we believe jugglers and mimes will save downtowns? Not singularly. But rethinking the uses of downtown environments and assets is not just a good idea; it's essential to keep them from falling into a negative spiral. #work #officebuildings #office #urban #cities #downtowns #urbanlife Urban Land Institute #commuters

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Fourth of July holiday! My morning started off with a big bang when I found out that my new book, IRREPLACEABLE, has reached the Number 1 position in its category on Amazon Best Sellers. Thank you to everyone who has supported the book and propelled it to the top of the list. #books #businessbooks #architecture #branding #marketing #strategy #retail #stores #malls #grocerystores #supermarkets #orchestras #topretailexpert ICSC Urban Land Institute National Retail Federation National Grocers Association FMI- The Food Industry Association RETHINK Retail The American Institute of Architects (AIA) AIA Los Angeles AIA North Carolina AIA California

I didn't mean to say it; the word just slipped out. As we sat grounded in a small midwestern hotel, unable to fly out or use the internet due to thunderstorms, a young architect and I desperately needed to get some drawing details to a client. Exacerbated, I asked my Gen Z colleague if he'd tried "faxing it,"… And there it was, that strange look of bewilderment as if I'd said answering machine, mimeograph paper, or Liquid Paper (whiteout? Still not getting it?). The fax machine was one of the first essential high-tech devices we purchased when we started our firm in 1992. While we had computers back then, the internet was the slow, noisy AOL dial-up, and terms like PDFs, URLs, links, and attachments would've seemed like medical conditions, not communication tools. While most managers won't admit it today, seeing a future without a fax machine was hard to imagine back then. Even the world's most advanced company, Apple, tinkered with creating an all-in-one office appliance in 1995 that included a computer, telephone, scanner, fax machine, modem, and printer called The Paladin. It looks clunky and ugly today, but it was a futuristic concept back then. What Apple, I, and millions of other business leaders didn’t realize was how emails, apps, and Docusign-like products would render the value of fax machines less essential to business. We were living through a transition. Today, it's hard for many people to imagine a world without cell phones in people's hands and eyes glued to screens, but many experts believe AI voice commands and virtual assistants will take over screens. You can already see attempts at this with watches, glasses, Alexa-like devices, and AI pins. None of them have nailed it yet, but they will continue their march towards "progress" and profits. As cell phones max out their innovation limits of "newness," sales have stalled, and the public is waking up to how addictive and unhealthy these devices are to human interaction. What will take over the tech growth mandate? While Apple's Vision Pro glasses and Meta's Ray-Ban glasses have not replaced cell phones, they're all focusing increasingly on verbal commands instead of screens. The more we can talk to technology "naturally," the more people we'll rely on it because speaking is much easier than writing, clicking, texting, and pinching. The journalist Pablo G. Bejerano of EL PAÍS wrote an excellent story entitled "Is the mobile phone starting to die?" where he states, "We are getting closer to starting a fluid conversation with an artificial intelligence, in the style of Robert Downey Jr. – that is, Tony Stark – in Iron Man, when he is capable of joking even with Jarvis (his digital assistant)." If you don't have access to this article, I can fax a copy over to you. #innovation #business #words #future #language #generations

Thank you, Rob Hall, Marketer, for the wonderful comments, analysis, and breakdown of my new book, IRREPLACEABLE. As one of the smartest marketing practitioners I know in the business, getting your support and endorsement means everything. #marketing #branding #business #design #retail #food #malls #developers #developments #supermarkets #grocerystores #stores #cpg #topretailexpert FMI- The Food Industry Association National Grocers Association National Retail Federation RETHINK Retail The American Institute of Architects (AIA) AIA Los Angeles #irreplaceable

Yes, my lecture starts in five minutes, and I should stop noodling around. But who can pass up an opportunity to sit in a meatball chair? I had such a wonderful time at The Fancy Food Show. Bravo to Gretchen VanEsselstyn, Christy Schmitt, and the rest of the amazing team at Specialty Food Association for another delicious year of food enlightenment! You’re the best! #food #groceries #supermarkets #retail #restaurants #gourmet #topretailexpert FMI- The Food Industry Association National Grocers Association RETHINK Retail #cpg #brands

After showering, shaving, and dressing each morning, I dig through an old leather tray in my sock drawer, debating which watch to wear. I don't really need a watch since my iPhone tells perfect time, wakes me up to an alarm in different time zones, and keeps track of my schedule. But I like the look and feel of a watch on my wrist, not to mention the mechanical engineering and design of a timepiece. While the sophistication and quality of smartphone cameras are impressive, I went out of my way many years ago to special order a Fujifilm X100 with a vintage-inspired camera body. Like my watch, I love how the camera physically feels, sounds, and clicks. I also like the weight and how it hangs on my neck. But the nostalgic picture quality is the best part! Call me old-school, but I'm not alone in this appreciation. Fujifilm, the 90-year-old company that once overtook Kodak in sales in 2001, saw its business dwindle as smartphone cameras replaced cameras. Business got so bad they pulled back on cameras and focused more on healthcare, but the Instagram, TikTok, and 20-something social media crowd loved the retro-themed X100 digital cameras so much that the company is enjoying record-high profits. Fujifilm keeps selling out of the cameras and can't keep up with the demand. Technology promises to eliminate friction, but according to W. David Marx, a Tokyo-based culture writer and author of "Status and Culture," a key concept in retro tech is "friction," where the user is joined with the product through physical touch and interaction. "Smartphones make it so easy to take photos that photos have been devalued…By having physical cameras again, and having to develop film etc. (with some cameras), it adds back friction, which adds back a sense of value to casual photo taking." This idea of touch, feel, and friction also applies to places. Just because we can deliver everything to our homes faster, easier, cheaper, and with less friction doesn't always make them better. It often devalues them and makes the products we consume less meaningful.  Young people are often blamed for our tech-obsessed society, but they are the driving force bringing back malls, old-school barber shops, live events, and main streets because they recognize how this friction and human interaction adds a layer of value, meaning, and texture to life they seek.  #societyandculture #connection #touch #feeling #consumers #business #retail #food #cameras