Heritage Heroes, Part VI

CONVERSION – DISCOUNT/MASS MERCHANT

Target
Streeterville, Chicago

Submitted by: TARGET, MINNEAPOLIS
Photography: GILBERTSON PHOTOGRAPHY, SHOREVIEW, MINN.

Home to Chicago’s Navy Pier, the Streeterville neighborhood on Lake Michigan’s shoreline is no stranger to renovation. Since the district’s sordid beginnings in the late 1880s, it’s hosted warehouses and factories, as well as the Ogden Slip shipping canal, which were foundations of the city’s booming industries. The Pugh Terminal Warehouse, built in 1905, was one such location. In recent decades, however, Streeterville has become one of the Chicago’s most expensive neighborhoods, considered prime real estate.

Target, Streeterville, Chicago / Photography: GILBERTSON PHOTOGRAPHY, SHOREVIEW, MINN.

Seeing an opportunity to embrace the neighborhood’s past while serving a modern metropolitan clientele, Minneapolis-based Target’s 23,000-square-foot, flexible-format Streeterville store seeks to be “a personalized, locally relevant shopping experience,” says Joe Perdew, vp, store design, Target. Catering to urbanites, the location provides fast online pick-up options and a Starbucks Evenings location, which serves small plates and aperitifs on the waterfront.

Target, Streeterville, Chicago / Photography: GILBERTSON PHOTOGRAPHY, SHOREVIEW, MINN.

The shop’s exposed brick walls remain true to the site’s industrial heavy timber architecture, and are juxtaposed with up-to-date elements such as contemporary fixtures and linear lighting. “The design maintains this original character while inserting modern Target standards like a playful and welcoming entry, modern lighting and fixtures, clear organization of merchandising and wayfinding,” says Perdew. “The contrast of old and new create a rich and authentic designed environment.” The brand’s trademark bull’s-eye logo, adapted in white film graphics, adorns walls and harkens back to historic signage, but with a clean, contemporary feel.

Appreciating the reimagined use of the retailer’s iconic elements, Renovation Competition judge Amanda Sarver, interior designer, Kroger (Cincinnati), said, “It’s still totally Target, but redone in a great way that speaks to the brand.”

View Parts I, II, III, IV and V of this year’s competition.

To enter VMSD’s 2017 Retail Renovation Competition, stay tuned for the announcement of the call for entries, early next year.