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Retail buildings: General resources

Recommended resources on retail building types, past and present, providing location info for print resources and links for digital resources.

Recommended books

Recommended image resources

Search “shopping” in Detail Inspiration

Recommended for all architectural research

Retail buildings A-Z

Christensen, Julia, Big Box Reuse, MIT Press, 2008 (via Ebook Central)

LeCavalier, Jesse, The rule of logistics: Walmart and the architecture of fulfillment, University of Minnesota Press, NA2540.5 .L44 2016

Mitchell, Stacy, Big-box swindle: the true cost of mega-retailers and the fight for America's independent businesses, Beacon Press, 2006 (via Ebook Central)

Sciara, Gian-Claudia, “The impacts of big box retail on downtown,” Journal of the American Planning Association, 2018, Vol.84, #1, p.45-60

Sprawl Busters (Anti-megastore activists)

Bullard, Brittany, Style and statistics: the art of retail analytics, John Wiley & Sons, 2017 (via Ebook Central)

Chunwalla, S. A., Contours of retailing management, Himalaya House, 2009 (via Ebook Central)

Doherty, Anne Marie (editor), Retail franchising, Emerald Group Publishing, 2002 (via Ebook Central)

Gibbs, Robert, Principles of Urban Retail Planning and Development, Joh Wiley & Sons, 2011 (via Ebook Central)

Tiwari, R. S., Retail Management, Retail Concepts and Practices, Himalaya Publishing House, 2009 (via Ebook Central)

Bix, Cynthia Overbeck, Spending spree : the history of American shopping, Lerner Publishing Group, 2013 (via ProQuest Ebook Central) 

​Harris, Daniel, Cute, quaint, and romantic: the aesthetics of consumerism, Basic Books, BH301 .C75 H37 2000

Hilton, Marjorie L., Selling to the masses: retailing in Russia, 1880-1930, University of Pittsburg Press, 2012 (via Ebook Central)

Schor, Juliet B. & Douglas B. Holt, The consumer society reader, The New Press, HC79 .C6 C655 2000

Smiley, David J., Pedestrian modern: shopping and American architecture, University of Minnesota Press, NA6212 .S65 2013 (also available via ebook)

Clausen, Meredith L., “The Department Store: Development of the Type,” JAE, Autumn 1985, p.20-29 (via Jstor)

Department store,” Oxford Art Online

Lancaster, The Department Store: a Social History, HF5465.G73L36 1995

Jaspers, Kristina, “The Adam’s family store,” AA Files, 2017, #75, p.20-27 (via Jstor)

Longstreth, Richard, “Sears, Roebuck and the Remaking of the Department Store, 1924-42,” JSAH, June 2006, p.238-279 (via Jstor)

Uffelen, Chris van, Malls & department stores, Braun, NA6220.U23 2014

Blokland, Tessa, Dress code: interior design for fashion shops, Birkhauser-Publishers for Architecture, NK2195.S89 D74 2006

Ebster, Claus & Marion Garaus, Store design and visual merchandising, Business Expert Press, 2015 (via Ebook Central)

Mores, Claudio Marenco, From Fiorucci to the Guerrilla Stores: shop displays in architecture, marketing and communications, Marsilio, NA6220 .M665 2006

Reznikoff, S. C., Interior Graphic and Design Standards, Whitney Library of Design, NA2708.R49 1986 (Chapter 17)

Visual Merchandising + Store Design

Aloi, Roberto, Mercati e negozi, Hoepli, NA6220.A56 (Italian and English)

Barr, Vilma, Designing to sell: a complete guide to retail store planning and design, 2nd edition, McGraw-Hill, HF5429.B318 1990

Burke, Gene & Edgar Kober, Modern store design, Institute of Product Research, NA6220 .B87 1946

Design, Commercial Expansion and Business History,” Journal of Design History, 1999, Vol.12, #1 (Theme issue via JSTOR)

Esperdy, Gabrielle, Modernizing Main Street: Architecture and Consumer Culture in the New Deal, University of Chicago Press, 2008 (via Ebook Central)

Hewitt, John, “Good Design in the Market Place: The Rise of Habitat Man,” Oxford Art Journal, 1987, Vol.10, #2, p.28-42 (via JSTOR)

Liebs, Chester H., Main Street to Miracle Mile, Johns Hopkins University Press, NA6212.L54 1995

Longstreth, Richard W., City center to regional mall, MIT Press, HF5429.5.L7L66 1997

Marcus, Leonard S., The American store window, Whitney Library of Design, HF5845.M34 1978

Mulliom Cara, Frank Bros: the store that modernized modern, Black Dog Publishing, NK835.C3 F73 2017

Oliver, Paul, Encyclopedia of vernacular architecture of the world, Cambridge University Press, Reference-NA208.E53 1997 vol. 1 (“Typology: Economic, p. 675-99)

Ross, Phyllis, “Merchandising the Modern: Gilbert Rohde at Herman Miller,” Journal of Design History, 2004, Vol.17, #4, p.359-376 (via JSTOR)

Schuhmacher, Adolf, Ladenbau, J. Hoffmann, NA6220.S35 1934

"Shops in Time," Architectural Review, September 1986, p.[58]-63

Wall, Alex, Victor Gruen: from urban shop to new city, Actar, NA737.G78 W34 2005

Black, Rachel E., Porta Palazzo : the anthropology of an Italian market, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012 (via ProQuest Ebook Central)

Camp, John M., The Athenian Agora, Thames and Hudson, DF287.A23 C365 1986

"Flea and antique markets," Oxford Art Online

MacDonald, William L., Architecture of the Roman Empire, Yale University Press, NA310.M2 1982 vol. 1 (Chapter 4, “Trajan’s Market”)

Market, covered,” Oxford Art Online

Anderson, Stephen & Lynne Mesher, Retail design, Bloomsbury, NK2195.S89 A53 2020

Ebster, Claus & Marion Garaus, Store design and visual merchandising: creating store space that encourages buying, Business Expert Press, 2015 (via Ebook Central)

Fernie, John, Online Shopping, Emerald Publishing Limited, 2005 (via Ebook Central)

Thain, Greg & John Bradley, Store Wars: the Battle for Mindspace and Shelfspace, Wiley, 2012 (via Ebook Central)

GENERAL

Geist, Johann Friedrich, Arcades: History of a Building Type, MIT Press, NA6218.G4313

Lange, Alexandra, Meet me by the fountain : an inside history of the mall, Bloomsbury, HF5430.3 .L36 2022

Shopping centre,” Oxford Art Online

 

1950s, 60s, 70s

Gruen, Victor, Centers for the Urban Environment, Van Nostrand Reinhold Corporation, HT166.G76 (Chapters 1 & 2)

Gruen, Victor, Shopping towns USA: the planning of shopping centers, Reinhold Publishing Corporation, HF5429.G75 1960

Rouse, James W., "Must Shopping Centers Be Inhuman?" Architectural Forum, June 1962, p.104-107, 196

"Shopping Centers," Architectural Record, September 1957, p.205-232

"Why Aren't There More Good Shopping Centers?" Architectural Forum, December 1956, p.127, 166, 170, 174, 178, 184

 

1980s & 90s

Chung, Chuihua Judy and Sze Tsung Leong (editors), Harvard Design School guide to shopping, Taschen, NA2543.S6 H37 2001

"Downtowns Revived," Architectural Record, September 1989, p.96-97 (Building types study)

"Reshuffling the Deck," Architectural Record, April 1990, p.97-111 (Building types study)

"Retail Facilities: Reworking the Mall," Architectural Record, March 1993, p.84-93 (Theme issue)

"Shopping and the City," Architectural Review, September 1986 (Theme issue)

"Small Centers for Shops," Architectural Review, May 1985, p.109-[123] (Building types study)

 

2000s

Birdsall, David, "Outlook for shopping centers: how are shopping centers adapting to the new retail landscape?" Urban land, January/February 2017, p.40-43

Jeffery, Kyle, et al, “Online shopping versus in-store retail – designing for the next generation of shoppers,” Urban Land, Summer 2018, p.62-65

Lim, Nartano & Widari Bahrin, Sand to spectacle: the Dubai Mall, Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers Limited, NA6218 .L56 2015

Mirgani, Suzi, “Designing the shopping mall,” in Target markets: international terrorism meets global capitalism in the mall, Transcript Verlag, 2017 (via JSTOR)

Newton, Matthew, et al., Shopping mall, Bloomsbury Academic, HF5430 .N49 2017 (also available via ebook)

Patchett, Merle, Strip appeal: reinventing the strip mall, CRSC University of Alberta, NA6218 .P38 2012

Sheikh, Arif I., Mall Management, Himalaya Publishing House, 2008 (via Proquest Ebook Central)

Uffelen, Chris van, Malls and department stores, Braun, NA6220.U23 2014

Bowlby, Rachel, Carried away: the invention of modern shopping, Faber, 2001 (via Ebook Central)

Bradley, Kimberly, “Super values: the design of a Berlin supermarket addresses the needs of an aging population,” Metropolis, June 2007, p.46, 48

Bridger, Jessica, “Control, lifestyle and the supermarket,” Volume, 2012, #33, p.126-129

California Retail Food Code (“The structural, equipment, and operational requirements for all California retail food facilities”)

"Civilizing the Supermarket," I.D., January/February 1967, p.80-99

Deutsch, Tracey, Building a housewife’s paradise: gender, politics, and American grocery stores in the twentieth century, University of North Carolina Press, 2010 (via Ebook Central)

Longstreth, Richard W., The drive-in, the supermarket, and the transformation of commercial space in Los Angeles, 1914-1941, MIT Press, HF5429.5.L7 L663 1999

Alternative Keywords

Arcades, Big box stores, Book stores, Boutiques, Clothing stores, Convenience stores, Drugstores, Dry goods stores, Duty free stores, Florists, Electronics stores, Festival marketplaces, Franchise stores, Furniture stores, Galleries, Gift stores, Hardware stores, Jewelry stores, Liquor stores, Mail-order shopping, Malls, Marketing, Men’s wear stores, Minimalls, Minimarts, Online shopping, Outlet stores, Pet stores, Record stores, Retailing, hoe stores, Sporting goods stores, Strip malls, Supermarkets, Telemarketing, Toy stores, Video stores, Women’s wear stores

Please note

  • These guides are intended to provide initial orientation, and suggest a variety of different lines of investigation—not take the place of individual research.
  • All the resources cited here--print and digital--are available through the Kappe Library at SCI-Arc.Items not available at SCI-Arc are not included.
  • Surveys covering multiple projects are preferred over monographic studies focusing on specific works or individuals.
  • Resources on Los Angeles and Southern California are stressed.
  • Proprietary digital resources (Avery Index, Oxford Art Online, ArtStor, etc) can be accessed on-campus at SCI-ARC via any SCI-Arc internet provider. Off-campus they can be accessed 24/7 via the Kappe Library proxy server, and a valid SCI-Arc Network username and password.

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