Information on commercial design for business, including offices, restaurants, retail stores and other spaces.

Repurposed Buildings: Great for Business, Communities & the Planet

Repurposed buildings are having a moment. A few weeks ago, I identified repurposed buildings as a commercial architecture trend for 2019, and now I’d like to expand on why they’re becoming a more important part of the architectural landscape and why I think they’re a great choice for business owners. What Are Repurposed Buildings? A

Solar Energy for Your Business: 6 Tips from an Installer

Installing a solar energy system for your commercial building can be a great choice, with both financial and environmental benefits. I recently spoke with Taylor Poff, a project manager with solar installer JBL Solar Energy, a Sonoma County company with extensive experience in commercial installations, who passed on some important tips for business owners considering

Get Through Your Commercial Building Project Without Losing Your Mind

A commercial building project is complex. It often involves a large team of people with different skills, time pressures and communication styles. When you add the worries any entrepreneur has when building a new business or revamping an old one – local competition, market changes, permitting issues and environmental requirements, to name just a few

Design Ideas to Make Your Cannabis Dispensary Stand Out

Last week, I wrote about the essentials of cannabis dispensary design. Today, I want to dig a little deeper into how you can use design-based branding strategies to differentiate your business from the competition in this growing industry. Design for the Clients You Want In any retail business, it’s important to understand your client base

Cannabis Dispensary Design Essentials

Since California voters passed Proposition 64 in 2016, running a state-licensed cannabis dispensary has become a legal business. Dispensaries are burgeoning in areas that permit them, including Santa Rosa and San Francisco. Marijuana Business Daily estimates that there were 358 licensed retail cannabis dispensaries dotting the state as of August 22, 2018. If you currently

Church Design: Ideas for Creating Flexible Worship Spaces

Church design presents challenges and opportunities that both stretch the imagination and test an architect’s skills. The modern church is much more than a place of worship. It's a place for community, for education, for entertainment, for public service – so church design must be flexible enough to accommodate all these and more. A good

How to Use Human-Centered Design in Your Retail Store

Human-centered design is a process that focuses on human needs and problem-solving. In the architecture field, it is a collaborative undertaking, a partnership between architect, client, and the client’s end-users that takes into account multiple perspectives to create spaces that are functional and inspiring. Benefits of Human-Centered Design A central goal of human-centered design is

Retail Design Planning to Maximize Your Business’s Sales

Retail design is the art of creating a space that makes customers want to engage with and purchase your products and services. A thoughtfully designed space can help increase your sales, while a poorly designed one can lose you both current and future sales. Focusing on a few key elements during the planning stages