The Pulse Group presently serves as the retail consultant to Yale Dining and has provided planning or operational consulting support for the development or redevelopment of at least 10 retail oriented projects on the Yale campus. Several of these projects have received national awards or other recognition for innovation in both design and operations, including the Durfee convenience store, the Uncommon Market, KBT Café and Yale Health Café. In March 2008, The Pulse Group was retained by the university, to collaborate with Foster + Partners, London in the development of the retail and hospitality program for the new 230,000 square foot Yale Business School, now nearing construction completion. Currently, The Pulse Group continues to provide retail development planning support for projects at Yale West Campus, Yale Divinity School and Yale Medical School. As part of our work we have conducted interviews and discussion groups with all segments of campus community and utilized this information along with other operational data to prepare a retail, hospitality and foodservice development strategies for a variety of projects. Our work normally culminates in a written proto-type development program for retail, hospitality, foodservice and conference related elements. These development programs provide a detailed description of the characteristics of each recommended area and provide development parameters, in terms of space sizes and adjacencies. In many instances we have been relied upon to create best practices comparative analyses to support retail planning efforts or work closely with project architects in creating designs that are both market responsive and operationally efficient.
Retail Strategic Planning and Development Programming