Located on a once-bustling commercial corridor, this outdated retail center had reduced shoppers and drifted away from the character that originally anchored the neighborhood. Our team approached the project with a dual mission: honor the site’s layered history while introducing new finishes and functional upgrades that would make the center relevant for today’s community.

Context and Concept We began by researching the site’s past—retail patterns, photographic archives, and oral histories from long-time residents and former tenants. Those stories revealed a rich vein of local culture: public gatherings in the plaza, artisanal trades that once operated here, and distinctive signage and material palettes from mid-century storefronts. Rather than erase these traces, we used them as the guiding narrative for redesign.