The retail base is largely transparent providing visual access into the store interiors. The storefront is contained, framed by piers clad in cast stone and a strong storefront cornice in cast stone. The first floor is clad in cast stone to frame and anchor the retail, separating it from the brick clad office floors above. The sign band and transom provide a continuous datum, but are articulated in several different ways to reinforce the sense of an assemblage of buildings. This composition partakes of a tradition of retail architecture where the interior story is framed and the transom extends visibility into the interior.
Awnings provide texture, color, signage and participate in the language of retail use.
West elevation of High Street Looking south from campus, the corners at High and 11th and High and Chittenden are celebrated and transparent allowing the retail and restaurants uses to visually spill onto the street. The Gateway Tower at 11th and High is visible in this view as is the cinema marquee serving as a visual anchor at 9th Avenue. The massing of the east side of High Street steps up from two floors at Chittenden and 9th Avenue to a density of five floors at 11th Avenue, with a set-back at the fifth floor, responding to the height proposed on the west side of High street. Again, there is continuous retail use at the street with restaurant, retail and entertainment uses occupying both the first and second floors. Tall floor to floor heights, transparency to retail interiors, storefronts framed in brick and cast stone piers and a traditional bay rhythm define this retail corridor.