The owner of a portfolio of community and regional malls believed an attractive 900,000 SF, three-level urban mall they acquired in a recent multi-property transaction had pedestrian circulation problems, causing diminished sales revenues for line tenants. Our analysis showed most stores with weak revenues were located along spatial-visual gaps, discontinuities, and odd transitions in spatial patterns affecting pedestrian movement. These were linked to the locations of the vertical circulation systems and to a large and visually attractive but spatially segregating atrium. We worked with the client and architects to show how a redesign would reconnect pedestrians with shops. After a major redesign that addressed these problems and updated the image, the mall now thrives.

The founder of one of the largest media companies was going to build a unique 25,000-square-foot great house, stables, hangar, manager's house, and landing strip in one of the most scenic but undiscovered areas in the West. After interviewing several architects, he chose one in the closest town, a place under 100,000, whose background included extensive project management experience on large institutional buildings.

After a little more than a year, there were delays and fee and cost increases, and after almost another year, the main house was barely started. The owner fired the architect. The architect counterclaimed for unpaid bills and to prevent his designs from being used. We showed the architect was poorly  qualified, with neither academic training nor work experience designing such a house. The case was settled beneficially for the client.

An earthquake hit the United States territorial island of Guam shortly after a so-called luxury hotel and condominium resort had opened. Because value was one of the issues, we were asked to determine whether the hotel's design placed it in the luxury class. After comparing how the rooms, public spaces, and visual quality of this hotel affected the experiences of seeing, touching, and movement with several well-known luxury hotels both on and off the island, it was clear this particular hotel did not qualify as a luxury hotel.

Known as "the city’s cursed retail block" for so many problems with developers, the 290,000 SF retail portion of Block 37 is a functional failure even with direct access to Chicago’s pedway and CTA red and blue lines. The images don’t tell the real story. The street entrances are not inviting; elevators and escalators block visibility in the atrium; and routes to leasable spaces are cul-de-sacs. The retail space recently rose to 65% occupancy after several years of just 30% occupancy. The Detroit architecture, planning, and interiors firm that designed the retail area claimed the mall is filled with heavy daily pedestrian traffic. It's not.

A two-mile segment of one of the longest commercial streets in the United States was directly next to urban neighborhoods with some of the finest and most vibrant early 20th-century single-family dwellings. But commercial property values on this street had fallen far behind the values of residential properties just around the corner. Though they could easily walk there, nearby residents rarely frequented the street’s merchants.

We showed how problematic uses, crossing street discontinuities, transit stop locations, spatial-visual configurations, and ownership patterns limiting assemblage limited the intelligibility of the street and diverted middle-class pedestrians from it. We developed materials illustrating how redevelopment could proceed, and within five years, the average value of properties on the street increased by almost 250 percent.

The functional utility of a building with a historically designated shell in a limited-stakes gambling town was one of several matters at issue in an unjust enrichment suit. A designer-contractor disputed the claim by his client that the layout of the casino, when finished, would be similar to that of small casinos that had marginal success and be substantially different from successful ones, meaning that it would be functionally obsolete.

We distinguished external (economic) from functional obsolescence by identifying the impact of decreased demand on overall real estate values. Our financial break-even model, equating fixed costs with real estate values and variable costs with casino operating costs, developed base-line value measures. Our analysis showed that the design and construction of the building on completion allowed an already contemplated assemblage with adjacent property substantially similar in functional utility to larger, successful casinos. After the trial court decided in favor of the designer-contractor, the Colorado Supreme Court agreed with the facts but reversed, saying unjust enrichment must involve wrongful conduct.

A company wanted to change the layout to improve collaboration and lessen awareness of noise distractions and interruptions. Key objectives were that the changed layout would

increase the quantity and relative value of collaborative interaction;

stimulate more chance encounters;

promote psychological ownership of collaborative space.

The new and larger layout increased the number of work spaces by just over 15 percent while slightly decreasing overall workplace density.

But research findings showed

collaborative interaction, and its quality decreased;

The number of chance meetings decreased;

Employees believed they were less productive.

Our analysis showed why: a significant increase in spatial complexity caused a decrease in movement and relocated the most accessible zone from the center to an edge.