Retail Renovation Competition: First Place
Conversion – Specialty Store, Sales Area under 10,000 sq. ft.
Gnome Grown, Oregon City, Ore.
Submitted by: The High Road Design Studio, Tempe, Ariz.
For Gnome Grown (Oregon City, Ore.), cannabis retail isn’t either medicinal or recreational; it can be both, a duality at play in the store’s design.
Working with two retail spaces, The High Road Design Studio (Tempe, Ariz.) rendered the design before beginning construction. “Once we had the renderings produced, that really started to show how successful this change was going to be,” says Megan Stone, Owner, Interior Designer, The High Road Design Studio. Bright walls and natural wood keep to Gnome Grown’s environmental ethos. A topographic map in the Beavercreek Road store, on the showroom side of the space, tracks the timeline of the client’s early training in organic farming.
BEFORE: Gnome Grown prior to its conversion.
“I wasn’t prepared for the impact that the ceiling feature and the skylights were going to have,” says Stone. “We were just trying to do whatever we could to provide some sense of openness and more natural light in that space. It’s not what people come to the store for, it has nothing to do with the product on the shelf, but it adds this element when you’re in the space that really peaks it for me.”
AFTER | Photography: Richard Cadan, Fairfield, Conn.
One major challenge was the original timeline. “Once the clients secured the Beavercreek location and knew they were going to have a license, they were informed that they had to be open and operating within three months,” Stone says. “The original plan was to build out a small dispensary on what is now the lobby, and then eventually try and combine the two spaces. By the time the build happened, timelines had changed, the city relaxed things, and we were able to move forward with the full 2500-square-foot [space] being built at once.”
AFTER | Photography: Richard Cadan, Fairfield, Conn.
“For this type of project, this is a really elevated experience. It’s a comfortable, inviting environment,” says VMSD competition judge Jim Kelly, Design Manager, Macy's (Cincinnati). “I’d buy my cannabis there!”
To learn more about this year's Retail Renovation Competition winners and honorable mentions, be sure to check vmsd.com throughout the month of September.
To read Bold New Visions, Part I, click here.
To read Bold New Visions, Part II, click here.
To read Bold New Visions, Part III, click here.
To read Bold New Visions, Part IV, click here.
To read Bold New Visions, part V, click here.
To read Bold New Visions, part VI, click here.