Robust Reinvention, Part V

First Place in VMSD's Renovation Competition
Conversion – Specialty Store, Sales Area Over 10,000 sq. ft.
Pirch, Glendale, Calif.
Submitted by: Fitch, Columbus, Ohio

“Trying to describe this experience is like trying to describe the color red,” says Joanne Putka-White, design director, Fitch (Columbus, Ohio), of the Pirch store conversion. Indeed, where else can you find a showroom with a trained barista, hospitality-style meeting rooms and functioning fixtures in every vignette?

Formerly a department store, the space featured an awkwardly placed escalator. And, unlike Pirch’s other high-bay locations, this luxury mall environment lacked high ceilings and a clearly defined space due to sporadically positioned columns.

A big challenge for the design team was activating the displays. Putka-White says 496 penetrations had to be made through the concrete slab floors and ceilings to run all the utilities: “This isn’t just fixtures on the floor – it’s highly complex.”

Pirch customers, according to Putka-White, enjoyed browsing the showroom but longed for something physical to take home. The solution? Fitch created the Live Joyfully Boutique that features a curated collection of about 250 domestically sourced home products.

For more first place winners and honorable mentions from VMSD's 2014 Renovation Competition, please check vmsd.com throughout the month of September for parts VI-VII.

For the full article in VMSD's September issue, click here.

Click here for Part I.
Click here for Part II.
Click here for Part III.
Click here for Part IV.