6 Simple Gestures

Personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Most of our modern commercial buildings are indistinguishable - watered-down versions of a template, repeated across America.

These are everywhere and could be anywhere:

The designs are functional but they’re predictable and they lack personality.

We real estateurs have in our power the ability to create personality with our buildings, and - properly delivered - make buildings far more valuable.

We do it with simple gestures.

Here’s six of them:

1: Color

Because most of the built environment is bland, colors create differentiation.

What a wonderful blue:

There’s no question is memorable, even if the value is suspect:

2. Contrast

Instead of painting the town beige, we can take small parts of it and make them stand out.

As simple as a striped awning.

Or as bold as a grand marquee.

Even simple chairs can create contrast.

3. Graphics

This building becomes a bike shop because of the graphics.

This peace sign changes everything - the forgettable becomes memorable.

A simple building brought to life.

4. Shapes

Most commercial buildings are rectangular. Adding shapes, whether curves or angles, creates personality.

I love this little building.

and its simple curves:

Curves on a grander scale.

Shapes of all sorts can disrupt the rectangular world of buildings to create personality, like my friends Steve Radom and Scott Arnoldy did with MKT in Houston:

5. Plants

Plants make for the best architecture.

A grand gesture.

One can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much bougainvillea

6. Scale

Instead of monolithic heights, we can add stair steps of building heights.

The office building behind becomes more interesting because of the kiosk in front:

A variety of heights, clustered:

Or in a single building.

The building behind becomes more interesting because of the building in front - and vice versa.

We can use these gestures at scale across large mixed-use developments. The wonderful Music Lane in Austin incorporates all six:

Or we can incorporate all of them at a small scale, with a small budget, within a single building - as with the wonderful Alpine Inn in Portola Valley, California (order the meatballs and burrata).

If you’re reading this, you might be one of those obsessive types working to create wonderful places.

Whether you’re a property owner looking to bring a property to life, or a retailer, designer, restaurateur, or hotelier who can make it happen, Automatic is the place for you.

Join us on October 1 & 2 in Atlanta to find your people.