Record-breaking Retail Design Competition Announces Winners

Chicago - Fifty-one project teams rocked record-breaking competition to become this year's retail rock stars. Recognized last night by the Association for Retail Environments at the Hard Rock Café in Chicago, the winning teams beat out the highest number of entries ever to take home a total of 72 awards in 23 categories.

New York stores took two of the top three awards: Store of the Year for Tiffany & Co.'s new SoHo location and Visual Presentation of the Year for a Wolverine Company Store neighborhood shop. JanSport Retail Kiosk in Buford, Ga., rounded out the big winners with Fixture of the Year. In addition, 18 stores and shops were presented with Grand Prizes onstage including two Sustainability Grand Prizes, and 16 Outstanding Merits received their awards after the ceremony.

New this year was a Window Display category and a Storefront/Exterior category, added on the fly by judges because they were so impressed with several entries. Three projects in each of these categories were among the 35 winners of Special Elements honors.

U.S. retailers account for half of the wins, while Canadian stores also produced many hits with the judges. Winning projects can be found in multiple countries throughout Europe, Asia, North America and Africa.

Judging the overall competition were: Sherif Ayad, id&design international; Tony Camilletti, Design Fabrications (D|Fab); Tracy Dillon, Retail Environments Magazine; Robert Higgins, Fossil Inc.; Steve Kaufman, VMSD Magazine; Alison Embrey-Medina, DDI Magazine; Marc Riera, Nike; and Marianne Wilson, Chain Store Age. In addition, judges for the Sustainability Awards included: Bob DeGroff, LEED Green Associate, Miller Zell Inc.; Nancy Everhart, AIA, CDT, NCARB, LEED AP, Little; Michael Payne, AIA, NCARB, CSBA, Callison; Richard Shelley, LEED AP, Fetzer Architectural Woodwork; Rick Troxel, CSI, Roseburg; Wesley Woelfel, Greneker; and Lisa A. Wynne, LEED AP BD+C, EDAC, EcoScapes Sustainability Solutions LLC.

For full coverage of the winning projects as well as A.R.E. Design Awards logos, please visit www.aredesignawards.com. For high-resolution photos of the projects, please contact Teri Carden at [email protected].

Source: Association for Retail Environments (A.R.E.)

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