Retail Architects with 30 Years Experience

The foundation of Chipman Design since its inception more than 30 years ago has been a unique focus as retail architects, creating prototype programs for retail chains and restaurant franchises. Although firmly rooted in architecture, their architects imagination is the a fundamental core of all its projects.  

The firm provides a full range of professional services from retail design  through construction administration to occupancy. Through its more than three decades as retail architects, the visionary selection of finishes and furnishings for retail, restaurant, hospitality, golf clubhouse and corporate projects has created a rich history of successful ventures.

Beyond retail architecture and programming, Chipman Design's talented team of design professionals uses its inventiveness to conceive meaningful new uses of space, incorporating the latest in 3D computer modeling and visualization.

Chipman Design believes that its talented retail architects are the firm's greatest resource. As the practice has grown throughout the past three decades, it has nurtured long-standing relationships with staff as well as clients, some of whom have been with the firm for more than 20 years. The firm has recognized that its foremost purpose is to provide exceptional service in retail interior design & planning, restaurant prototype development and branding design. 

Evident in an inspired list of successful retail and restaurant clients, the firm offers unique solutions that respond to demands for inspiration in design, functionality in operation and market responsiveness. 

Branding Design

As retail architects, the firm's expertise enhances a client's image as the brand is expanded from their company identity through a thoughtful translation into their physical spaces.  Chipman Design always takes into consideration development of the brand initiating with a project's  interior spaces, working from the inside out as it creates the commercial exterior facade.  Among the numerous clients whose brands we have developed during corporate expansion programming is Weber Grill Restaurants, Oprah's Favorite Things Garrett Popcorn and Bally Total Fitness.  

Since its founding, the firm has recognized that its foremost purpose is to provide exceptional service in retail architecture & design, restaurant prototype development  and branding design .  
  

Experience in Retail Architecture

Chipman Design Architecture has its roots in the early 1950s when Albert B. Chipman established one of the first professional practices devoted to retail architecture and design. His son, architect John Chipman had been working internationally in the late 1970s when he returned to Chicago to join his father as he neared retirement. He began creating a new direction for his father's retail planning firm and buliding upon an existing base of regional main-street clients, John led the firm into a position of national recognition.

With the firm's expertise as retail architects  solidly established by the late 1980s, he and his new partner, Daryl Adams, began to lay the foundation for unparalleled excellence in restaurant design, a distinction for which the firm now possesses a national reputation. Forming the architecture firm Chipman Design Ltd., John took the business from an initial staff of only three and boldly added developing computer technology geared to a then little-known client Blockbuster Video. National recognition grew along with an impressive list of corporate clients, and in January 2004, the retail architecture firm opened a West Coast office, now located in Pasadena, California. That national expansion has continued with a Manhattan office, establishing its East Coast presence. 

Main Retail Clients:

AT&T Wireless Services

Banana Republic

Blockbuster Entertainment

Bright Horizons Child Care

Carson Pirie Scott

Colorado Technical University

DSW

Dunham's Athleisure Corp.

GAP Inc.

Garrett Popcorn Shops

Great Steaks & More

Indiana University Athletics

Market Foods

Marshall Field's

Neiman Marcus

Niketown Flagship

North Face

Saks Fifth Avenue

Sam's Wines and Spirits

Skechers

Ulta Beauty

Shopping Center Retail Architects for:

Schoolhouse Square

Shops at Oak Brook Place

Spring Hill Meadow Retail Center

TA Bolger Realty

Town Square Center

Prairie Crossing

Westfield

LEED-Accredited Architects for Retail Projects

Whether a client chooses to pursue certification or simply wishes to employ thoughtful sensitivities, sustainable design can positively influence a project and its surroundings.   The firm's retail architects  and designers translate client objectives into a "green" design approach that will not only benefit those who will use its spaces, but more broadly will offer a reconnection to the earth's environment and its natural resources.