Field Paoli Architects Names Mixed-Use Retail Expert Yann Taylor as President

SAN FRANCISCO - Sept. 10, 2019 - PRLog -- Yann Taylor, AIA, has been promoted to president of San Francisco-based architectural and urban design firm Field Paoli.

Known for designs that creatively cross-pollinate retail space and the public realm, Field Paoli is a 2019 BD+C Top 150 Architecture Firm and VMSD Top Retail Design Firm. The firm's projects have been recognized with awards from the International Council of Shopping Centers as well as the Urban Land Institute, American Institute of Architects San Francisco and Silicon Valley Chapters.

Taylor joined Field Paoli in 1993 and became a principal in 2000. An expert in mixed-use urban centers anchored in retail, he most recently completed the award-winning and commercially successful renovation of Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek, California, which wove together an existing mall and historic downtown. His leadership continues the legacy of the firm's founders, John Field and David Paoli, who mentored Taylor to explore new retail prototypes, and who promoted an inclusive office culture.

"John had some radical ideas about transforming retail spaces," says Taylor, "many of which were ahead of their time and are only being implemented today, including the conversion of defunct department store boxes into new uses, bringing mixed-use into retail environments, and thinking about the social aspects of retail and mixed-use settings.

"The firm has always believed that retail has an important social function. We've continued to build on that legacy. It's gratifying to see our ideas, which were somewhat radical then, become part of the retail mainstream."

Bringing new ideas to owners and developers is especially urgent now, Taylor says, as the so-called "retail apocalypse" begins to look more like a transformation of uses of the public realm.

"We are at a turning point, because the old formulas are not working anymore," Taylor says. "Therefore there's a tremendous opportunity to make people rediscover the role of retail in the public realm, to give people a new appreciation of how that can enhance their life and the life of their community."

Taylor succeeds former Field Paoli president Rob Anderson, AIA, who remains as a principal at the firm leading the design and master planning of mixed-use and retail developments.

ABOUT FIELD PAOLI

Field Paoli Architects (www.fieldpaoli.com), is nationally known for its retail/mixed-use developments, urban revitalizations, and community and education buildings. Founded in 1986, Field Paoli has won many awards for innovative building and urban designs that create social and economic value. Projects underway include a new Town Center for the community of Tesoro Viejo in Madera County; master planning a new mixed-use development in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii; and the University of San Francisco Lone Mountain Dining Commons.