Las Vegas (March 10, 2010)—The Association for Retail Environments (A.R.E.) celebrated the 39th anniversary of its awards presentation on Wednesday, March 10, during an awards ceremony in the Venetian Hotel. The presentation, held the end of the first day of GlobalShop, presented 60 awards to 47 projects for the innovation and quality of their retail environment designs, including best individual elements and sustainable environments. Jennifer Beesley, Vice President-Director of Visual Merchandising for Cost Plus World Market Inc. served as master of ceremonies.

Store of the Year
The Store of the Year was awarded to Barbie Shanghai, Shanghai, China. A.R.E. members—Chute Gerdeman Retail, Columbus, Ohio; Slade Architecture, New York; and Kingsmen Shanghai Co. Ltd., Shanghai, China—contributed to the project. In addition, fifteen stores and shops were presented with Grand Prizes onstage and sixteen Outstanding Merits received their awards after the ceremony.

Special Elements
There were eight Store Fixture Awards, four Visual Presentation Awards and five first-time Special Element Awards for flooring, in-store communications, lighting, and wall treatments. In addition, the Fixture of the Year was awarded to designer member Ruscio Studio in Montreal for Mark’s Walk-in Freezer Lab in the Outerwear/Workwear Department in Edmonton, AB, Canada, and the VMSD Visual Presentation of the Year was awarded to visual member Coloredge – Retail Visual Group in New York for Apple Stores’ Hanging Apps Display.

Sustainability Awards
The Sustainabile Project of the Year was awarded to Whole Foods Market Lincoln Park, Chicago. A.R.E. Regular Member Commercial Design Systems, Inc. (CDS) contributed to the project. Winners ranged from sustainable retail pioneers to first-time green builders. Click here for more information about the 2nd Annual Sustainability Awards.

Judges were Mitch Abbott, The Rockport Company; Kristin Godsey, VMSD Magazine; Danette Kroll, Foot Locker Inc.; Brad Lenz, Liz Claiborne Inc.; Alison Embrey Medina, DDI Magazine; Robert Ruscio, Ruscio Studio; Charles Sparks, Charles Sparks & Co.; and Marianne Wilson, Chain Store Age.

For full coverage of all of the award-winning projects, including project descriptions, photographs, lists of contributing companies, and awards each has won, visit www.retailenvironments.org and click on the A.R.E. Design Awards movie. To search for winning companies and projects from the past decade, visit the A.R.E. Design Awards site and click on Awards/Search Past Winners.