Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Edward A. Shriver Jr., talks about one of the "J. Crew" buildings he worked on in Shadyside at the corner of Walnut and Bellefonte streets. He is the founder and 2006 chairman of the new American Institute of Architects Retail and Entertainment Committee. Click photo for larger image. Related article Inside stores, it's all about the 'message'.....

Edward A. Shriver Jr. stood outside a Shadyside coffee shop and pointed at the garage door-style window that, when rolled up, allows in fresh air, street sounds and even people who sometimes step right through.

"I love it," said the Pittsburgh architect who works in retail but was not involved in the Coffee Tree Roasters design. "It's really effective at breaking down barriers."

The chic, small Walnut Street space seems light years away from the designs that have dominated American retail architecture in recent decades. The words "new shopping center" typically bring to mind boring huge white boxes constructed in a sea of asphalt.

But retail architects see clients' growing interest in more interactive spaces and in urban settings such as Shadyside as a sign that even results-driven merchants are recognizing that better store design -- inside and out -- can contribute to better sales.

It's not just funky computer retailer Apple's experiments with a stainless steel exterior on Walnut Street and a huge, clear glass store on New York's Fifth Avenue that signal change. Even Wal-Mart, which has been dogged by groups trying to block out its mammoth boxes, has begun trying to tailor store architecture to particular neighborhoods.

"Better things are coming ... Bear with the damn white stores a little while longer," said Russell Sway, an Atlanta architect who serves as international chairman for the Institute of Store Planners.

Retail and commercial space accounts for about 10 percent of revenue reported by firms in the American Institute of Architects, making it the fourth-largest category behind educational facilities, office buildings and health-care sites.

That's not to say it's by any means among the sexiest or most lucrative work architects pursue. Indeed, those who work on retail accounts say the fees don't come close to those paid by major developers looking for signature office buildings. While the field can be addictive with the constant challenge of keeping stores fresh, architects generally strive for something more than an assignment to adapt the same, square box to different terrains.

Still, retail architects wouldn't mind getting a bit more respect from their peers, and with a growing number of chains starting to come to the conclusion that design matters, they may soon get it. Mr. Shriver admits he indulged in a Rodney Dangerfield moment two years ago, complaining to a friend that retail architecture didn't get much attention. She suggested he put up or shut up. Now, in a way, he is.

As the chairman of the American Institute of Architects' new retail and entertainment committee whose members include an architect with Walt Disney Imagineering and Midge McCauley, a Washington, D.C., consultant who spent some time working on Downtown's Fifth and Forbes retail district, Mr. Shriver is helping set a sort of new agenda for retail architects.

As a practical matter, the realities of tight budgets and the transient nature of retail still mean store architects rarely get to create the next Guggenheim Museum. But at a roundtable discussion the new AIA committee hosted last June in Los Angeles, the general agreement was that, as one participant reportedly observed, "the bar is pretty low" in the United States.

Among the new group's goals is to look at how retail design can affect the sense of community and create livable spaces. More pragmatically, it also wants to promote research into practices that help the client's sales.

Mr. Sway, who is not involved in the AIA group, agreed that last point is critical. "All of us who design would not have a job if not for the customer. That's reality."

The store models that people find so easy to criticize do have advantages. The technique of using architecture as both a brand and an efficient expansion tool may go back to Howard Johnson's, which put orange roofs across the landscape to assure traveling families they'd recognize the menu there.

Another architectural innovation that produced many a boring structure was the enclosed mall, which pulled a roof over the old shopping street and allowed developers to simplify construction and design. Malls quickly turned into boxes with smaller boxes inside.

Mr. Shriver worked on department stores such as Kaufmann's back when many were freestanding buildings tailored to particular sites. When those moved to mall settings, the design focus turned to efficiency and consistency. "To this day, I can walk into a department store and tell you where the bathrooms are in two minutes," he said.

The uniformity trend both inside and outside of the malls accelerated in the 1990s. "Not only did the merchandise begin to look the same, but the stores looked the same," said Mr. Sway.

Retail mergers and the ease of rolling out prototypes took such a toll on work available to members of the Institute of Store Planners that the group's Pittsburgh chapter closed a few years ago and the national group had some shaky moments.

But things began to change toward the end of the '90s, led by specialty retailers seeking to create both exclusive merchandise and compelling stores. The long rows of flat, glass windows that dominated mall interiors received a jolt from such places as The Disney Store and anti-establishment teen retailer Hot Topic that created unusual entrances to wake up passers-by.

Abercrombie & Fitch went further and broke up the entire facade with beach house fronts for its Hollister stores, complete with small decks. American Eagle Outfitters is now experimenting with a dramatic wooden wall entrance in its new Martin & Osa chain.

The architectural community hopes that larger box retailers such as Macy's, J.C. Penney and Kohl's, which have been fighting back against speciality retailers with new product lines exclusive to their stores, will take the next step and make their buildings unique, too. Target already is receiving praise for trying two-story urban stores that break its traditional mold.

Mr. Sway, who turned to overseas assignments when work in the United States thinned out, noted the Fine Living cable network has a show called "Opening Soon: By Design'' that follows retail store openings. He's looking for new ideas to come from an influx of international retailers and designers such as Giorgio Borruso, who was featured in last week's show following his work on a flagship Fila store in New York City.

He's also glad to see the growth of the new lifestyle centers that emulate old town centers, such as The Waterfront in Homestead, or with a mix of retail, office and residential like The SouthSide Works. The creators of a signature lifestyle project near Columbus, Ohio, have built structures that can allow new users to make dramatic changes.

Not everyone is enamored of the streetscape projects crafted by a single developer trying to get the feel of a small town. "That's an attempt to make a mall look like a real main street, but it usually feels fake and instantaneous rather than authentic and incremental," said Douglas Kelbaugh, dean and professor of architecture and urban planning at the University of Michigan.

It cannot be a true main street if the private owner controls all the buildings and makes all the rules, including a ban on such things as political protests and non-sanctioned public gatherings, he said. But Mr. Kelbaugh thinks there could be a place for mass retailers such as Wal-Mart on a real main street if the company is willing to adapt to its surroundings. The world's largest retailer has already tried some new looks and is experimenting with different formats.

The challenge of designing for urban settings was partly what drew Mr. Shriver to move away from department stores and into his work as a principal in Downtown architecture firm S+rada, which works on retail but also handles other types of projects.

Mr. Shriver has worked with various developers trying to revitalize the retail district along Fifth and Forbes avenues, and is now involved in the conversion of the former Lazarus department store into a mixed-used development. His firm designed the J. Crew store on Walnut Street and he's been back to help re-configure spaces inside the Galleria at Mt. Lebanon, a former Kaufmann's store.

He's learned there will always be a balance between ambitions and budget realities. "A lot of architects don't understand the economics of retail," he said.

But while demographics mean an architect can spend more money on a building on Walnut Street than on one in Coraopolis, Mr. Shriver is convinced that doesn't mean the less expensive store has to be a blight on the landscape. "You don't have to abandon design to build concrete block boxes."

If budget concerns come with the territory, so does a certain loss of control that architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, known for telling clients where to put their furniture, might not have tolerated.

Mr. Shriver glanced over at the sleek Banana Republic store up the street from the coffee shop. He didn't work on the clothing store but he believes the big, street-level windows were part of an architect's design to open the store up to passers-by. "It would be nice if they put something in the windows besides sale signs."