Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Suzan Lami stands in the New Balance section of Gordon's Shoes at the Waterfront in Homestead. The section is designed with a different style than the other parts of the store. Click photo for larger image.

Suzan Lami doesn't really like shopping but she loves going into stores and trying to read the messages: Where does the store designer want customers to go? Why is the cash register right out front? What's the point of those lights?

"I like to follow the path that someone wants me to follow," said the Lami Grubb Architects partner whose Edgewood firm has worked on Aeropostale and Rue 21 stores all over the country, as well as hometown shops such as Creative Kidstuff at the Pittsburgh International Airport and the new Steeler Sideline Store that just opened at South Hills Village.

The mix of theater and attention to detail appeals to her, as does the immediate feedback of sales results. "In a retail store, you create the entire space."

At Lintons women's clothing store at the Waterfront shopping center, Ms. Lami points out a sort of metal-framed gazebo draped in textured cloth panels that hangs from the ceiling and helps set an elegant tone without costing a lot of money. A heavy drape hung at the dressing room entrance extends the sense of luxury, while faux wood molding at the base of a curved wall has been chosen to resist chipping by employees busy vacuuming.

Just around the corner, the Gordon's Shoes site offered her firm the challenge of building two stores in one because the Pittsburgh retailer paired its offerings with a New Balance athletic shoe shop.

The architects placed a storeroom in the center so it could serve as a divider and cut the time salespeople take to find the right size.

Every retail space has to handle merchandise shifts. At the beginning of a season, racks of hanging clothes may be full. As they empty, the walls might adapt to hold shelves or make the most of a shirt on a hanger. Color choices in carpet and paint can't clash with the latest fashions. "Flexibility is really important in retail," said Ms. Lami.

Architects hoping to create something for posterity should be aware that in retail, change is not just embraced, it's required. Some of Ms. Lami's clients' leases require their stores be remodeled every five years, whether the existing design was a good one or not.

While that may seem to offer a bit of job security, she has seen how fast economic swings or national crises can affect retailers, particularly those at the nation's airports where she does a lot of work. "I think we had 11 jobs canceled the day after 9/11."