Louis Schump of Gensler | The Westside Pavilion in Los Angeles | The Future of Retail
Courtesy of Gensler
The Future of Retail
Today, I’m joined by the creative director at Gensler, Louis Schump. Louis has spent his career making progress in proving, demonstrating, and advocating for interiors to be on equal footing as exterior design. His design philosophy is rooted in defining problems and creating unique solutions, which is on full display in his work with the Westside Pavilion.
The Westside Pavilion is a former shopping mall located in West Los Angeles, California that is being repurposed into an office complex for Google. You might recognize the location from Clueless, but like most shopping centers, it’s been on a steady decline since the introduction of the internet. Louis breaks down how both malls and technology companies have changed over time, and what makes the Westside Pavilion project particularly unique. We discuss the challenges and advantages that the space presents, and Louis shares some details about the design vision and finishes.
We also talk more broadly about the downfall of malls. I give a brief history on the suburban staple and we chat about some potential solutions: Converting them into senior housing, offices, or constructing an intermix of industrial, commercial, retail, and residential functions. We round out the conversation by talking about Louis’ predictions about the future of brick-and-mortar retail and the role that augmented reality has in that.
“Change is inevitable. We need to grow as a city. If we keep on having children, we need to allow those children someplace to live and not a labor under the myth of the ever expanding frontier, where the next generation can just go out and populate whatever that thing is out there. We’re on the west coast, there is nothing out there. We’re at the edge.”
Courtesy of Gensler
About Louis Schump
Though Midwest born and raised, Louis Schump, creative director at Gensler, has spent the last 35 years in San Francisco. Over his career, designing buildings gave way to designing interiors, which was enhanced by furniture and experience design. He has worked at NBBJ, HOK, and Rapt Studio. As a creative director at Gensler, he is responsible for growing the firm's portfolio, cultivating client relationships, and mentoring talent.
Courtesy of Gensler
Episode Timestamps
2:38 – You recently returned in a new role as creative director. I'm so fascinated by this process, so walk us down this path and what you learned in each step.
8:58 – Looking across your work, how has the concept of what a technology company actually is changed over time?
11:20 – Let’s talk about San Francisco, particularly the challenges that it faces in terms of homelessness and the very tight issue of affordability. How do you think of that as a designer in terms of identifying the problem and starting the solution.
16:27 – The Westside Pavilion project is located in the Rancho Park neighborhood and LA. Tell us about this area and the site in particular and what makes it unique.
18:48 – The property is owned by Hudson Pacific and Macerich and is being leased by Google.
What was the prompt that they gave you and how did you go about putting together a design strategy in response?
22:37 – Walk us through the site to get an understanding of what that inside would be.
31:00 – Could we talk about some of the malls that stood out for you in your research process?
39:48 – What happened to malls?
48:54 – What do you see as the future of retail more generally?
Connect with Louis Schump:
Courtesy of Gensler
About your host:
Atif Qadir is the Founder & CEO of Commonplace, a technology company making it easy for commercial real estate professionals to find and use the $100B of real estate incentives given out every year in the US.
His work has been covered by Technology Review, The Real Deal, Commercial Observer, and Propmodo. He’s also a frequent speaker on the future of buildings and cities on popular industry podcasts and at conferences, including this past year at the Commercial Observer National DEI Conference, Yale AREA Conference, Columbia Real Estate Symposium, Open Data Week NYC and Austin Design Week.
About Commonplace
Commonplace is a founding sponsor of American Building. It is a 100% minority-owned, real estate technology company founded in 2020 to make financing social impact development projects across the US easier. It is funded by venture capital investors Hometeam Ventures, Park West Asset Management, New York Ventures and Shadow Ventures.
About Michael Graves
The world-famous design firm Michael Graves is also a founding sponsor of American Building. Its namesake, the iconoclastic designer Michael Graves, FAIA was a fierce advocate for people-centric design. His work defines a generation of American architecture and includes the Portland Building, the Humana Building and the Denver Public Library. The 1st season of American Building was filmed live at The Warehouse, his historic home in Princeton, New Jersey:
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