Reviews for Renzo Piano

The average rating for Renzo Piano based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-04-05 00:00:00 Matt Britt "Planning is everything. Screw that up, and a retail development will never realize its full potential. Get it right and everybody wins." (A. Alfred Taubman, Threshold Resistance, Page 40) Written by billionaire A. Alfred Taubman: Developer of malls, owner of A&W and auction houses, and jailed for price fixing. Threshold Resistance refers to the psychological barriers that stand between your shoppers and your merchandise. He says, "It's the force that keeps your customers from opening your door and coming in over the threshold. I think we can reduce all that with...new design." He begins this book explaining how he proposed an idea to his boss, the founder and chairman of Petrie Stores Corporation, on how to overcome the customers threshold resistance in new stores they were designing. He was a young draftsman at the time and his boss's reply was "This better work, kid. It's your ass if it doesn't". Needless to say his idea worked! He then started his own real estate development business two years later after a stint in a construction company after he gained more confidence. In this book, he discusses how he designed stores to attract customers. Most of these malls were developed in the suburbs, and he used "anchor stores" as he called them to give his malls credibility. An "anchor store" is basically a well-established department store, that he would lease to, that would attract customers to the less-established stores. Near the end of this book he discusses why he didn't think the Internet would cause customers to buy everything online. He says, "The technical limitations of computer screens make it impossible to effectively communicate such important product characteristics as fit, color, and feel. There are no fitting rooms or tailors in cyberspace. And the more expensive an article of clothing, the more critical it is that it fit well. There are an infinite number of colors and shades, and each works differently for each individual, depending on hair color, complexion, and eye color-even with high-quality print catalogues, the four-color process cannot match the exact color of a garment. There are no tactile experiences in cyberspace; at least not yet."

Review # 2 was written on 2008-04-04 00:00:00 Bridget Sessa Had some good historical points, but the author is very much a name dropper and wants you to view him in rosy light. This is especially telling when he talks about going to prison and the events surrounding it. Had this book in hard form as a gift and will be donating it today. I finished it only to say that I did.