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A Director's
Chair: Designing Our New Store
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| We have a design for the
new store! |
by Jim Monsonis
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Most of our readers know
that Honest Weight has outgrown its space and that the membership made
the decision last spring to build a new store. After many months of
conversation between the architects, the managers of the present store
(Collective Management Team) and a committee of the Board (the
Facilities committee), this group has reached a tentative agreement on
what it thinks the store should look like and an idea of how it might
be laid out. If the membership approves— and a meeting will be arranged
as soon as all the final design tweaking and the finances are in
place—we will soon be underway (see timeline below).
In this article I’ll try to present a verbal portrait of the design and
discuss timelines. In the next Coop Scoop article we’ll discuss what it
will cost to build and how you can help.
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1.
The Site
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The
location is in Albany at the northwestern corner of Watervliet Avenue
and Watervliet Avenue Extension, on a CDTA bus line and convenient to
the Everett Avenue exit off I-90. Currently a warehouse is there, but
after careful consideration (and membership approval) we’ve decided
that building cannot meet our needs and will be demolished. (Much of
the materials from the demolition will be recycled into the new
building.) The store itself is to be located at the southwestern end of
the site, facing north. This allows for about 170 parking places, many
times more than we currently have.
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2.
The Building Shell
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It
will be a two-story building with retail and warehouse space on the
ground floor, and offices, meeting rooms, member worker spaces and
community space on the second floor. The total retail area (“retail”
meaning anywhere the public might go to buy goods, but not including
the warehouse) is about 16,400 square feet, out of a total of just over
30,000 square feet, or about 67%; the industry standard is 70%, but the
industry as a whole doesn’t try to provide community space). This is
almost triple the retail space of the present store before the recent
expansion, and double the current space that includes that expansion.
A part of the roof, over the entrance, will be a green roof. There is a
large area in the back that could be a green or living roof also, but
is too expensive for the budget at present. But we will include the
infrastructure for a green roof there so that it can be added at a
future time if we have the funds.
Much of the building will be flooded by natural light coming through a
large semi-circle of south- and west-facing windows. There will be
extensive windows on all sides so that we can do a good deal of
“daylight harvesting” and minimize the use of electricity. We will have
plantings that climb the east and west walls and present a “green” face
to the neighborhood.
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3.
The Retail Floor
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You
can enter the store, having dropped off your recyclables at the
recycling bins outside near the front of the store, at either of two
front entrances. The left one as you face the building leads to the
cafeteria (around 50 seats) and deli area, for quick lunches and
prepared foods and the coffee bar — you can come in, partake and leave
without getting caught up in the general grocery shopping and check
out. Or you can sit in the outdoor terrace on the east side in nice
weather, and have a coffee or tea while you wait for your work shift to
begin.
The right-hand entrance carries you in a large sweeping semicircle,
past Produce, Bulk, Wellness, Meat and Cheese, and Specialties, to the
deli and cafeteria on the left end. Within the enclosure of the
semicircle lies Grocery. All of this is lit by two stories of natural
light, highlighting the wooden beams that carry the roof. Wander at
will and then check out at the front — 9 cash registers! — and go back
out to the parking area. Every department has expanded retail space,
and with so much more shelf space the stocking process — we hope — will
be painless and invisible, not the aisleblocking process it currently
is.
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4.
Upstairs
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Honest
Weight is a special “grocery store,” unlike Price Chopper or similar
stores, in many ways—not only in its ownership, its governance, etc.
but also in the importance of member workers and in its community
mission. Upstairs there will be a generous space for members to “do
their thing” in comfortable quarters, not squeezed in wherever they can
find room. We have planned for several meeting rooms of various sizes
and, especially, a Teaching Kitchen and sizeable space for classes so
that we can do so much more with the community. All of these areas are
accessible from outside (stairs and elevator) without going through the
retail store, so we can do things in the evening if/when the store is
closed.
We hope we can expand our member- based community mission significantly
with this facility.
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5.
Timing
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We
are shooting for a demolition-of-the- old/groundbreaking-for-the-new in
April 2009. Construction should take about a year. The critical issue
is to get the shell up and heating, electricity, etc., installed by the
time cold weather comes in the fall of 2009. Then we can finish the
interior, stock up and open sometime in spring of 2010—a soft opening
to make sure all systems work, then a Grand Opening when we’re ready:
We want to set a new standard for Albany!
Those of us who have worked on the design are excited about it, and we
hope the membership, and those who shop here but are not members, will
be also. We’ve tried to develop a building that is relaxed,
comfortable, warm and efficient—we are shooting for a LEEDS golden
award as a “green” building, one that will last for a long time. Some
have asked whether, in these uncertain economic times, it makes good
sense to do this. Our answer is a confident Yes. Sales are up and
continue to rise (and each year recently seems to be better than the
previous). We’ve completely outgrown our present space and cannot
continue as is. The cheap rent of that space that we now enjoy will
come to an end in 2011. The parking problem is insoluble. Our
membership base is growing at an amazing rate. And the one bright spot
in the economic downturn is that it makes construction cheaper than it
will ever be in the future.
This is the time to build. We hope we have designed the building that
we want and need.
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