The retail market is changing. This year alone, we have seen major announcements, like Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods, that will surely bring more change to the industry. Ecommerce is the biggest driver of change in the retail sector, but demographic shifts, aging millennials and multiculturalism have also had an enormous impact on retail center development and tenant mixes. Obviously, investors are responding to these changes by developing new strategies, but architects are also approaching retail design differently. Today, successful retail environments create a sense of place and drive people out of their homes to gathering spaces. We sat down with Greg Lyon, owner and design director at Nadel Architects, to talk about retail design and how he is responding to the disruption.

GlobeSt.com: How have you changed your approach to retail design in response to all of the disruption in the retail industry?

Greg Lyon: Retail in general is always changing. There are always different factors affecting the way that we design retail destinations. For example, before the recession, there was a big push for lifestyle centers. When the recession occurred everyone went back to basics and focused on the grocery-anchored retail centers. Then, developers discovered that we needed to create terrific environments that people will go to even when there are changes economically. At the same time that the recession occurred, there was also the change to ecommerce. Post-recession, there has been the continued development of online shopping. It has developed over several years, and we are only starting to really feel the impact of online shopping. We need to always evolve retail design to the changing habits of shoppers.