It’s always interesting to me when some concept I thought was completely understood inside my own head pops back up as a huge electric question mark. The feeling is both inspiring and unsettling. To help describe it, imagine walking past a really spooky unkempt hallway that has a strange glow emanating from the end of it, the problem is that you’ve walked past this place a million times and never saw it. Was it always there but your were too busy looking down at your iPhone screen or are you just selectively blind? Either way there is NO WAY you can ignore it so here is the latest unkempt hallway of my experience here on earth.

We have been assembling the ingredients for some really interesting development projects (I’ll post about those in the future) and the Mills brand. Through a story I will forgo I ended up asking a really simple question. What makes something feel cheesy? You know the kind of cheesy you feel when you walk into a new space that has all the right pieces but the emotion you get is not settling it’s wince inducing. For me this place is everywhere now but think modern hotel lobbies or a Crate and Barrel store. Well I’ll say it, it’s Authenticity. Here’s the rub: no doubt someone talented spent a lot of time thinking out those spaces and products. They are built very well, the pieces are aesthetically pleasing. Those are similar goals for our projects. How on earth did they miss the mark? If they can miss the mark could we do it too? I will write about what I have learned since asking the question in the next post. Until then, I would love to hear your thoughts on what makes something “feel” authentic, and what the process is to get there. Message or post on our FB page. You can always email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Until next time,

NM