Wag Hotels Retail Store

So much for chewed-up tennis balls as the toy de rigueur. It’s estimated that American pet owners spend over $7 billion per year on their pets. So lucrative is this business that hotels, boutiques and spas for pampered pooches and finicky felines have begun popping up everywhere.

Wag Hotels is a chain of modern kennels with a retail shop offering clothing, accessories, toys and just about anything else a “pet parent” could want. The boutique’s design, a partnership between Goren Architecture + Design (San Francisco) and Ritu Raj, co-founder of Wag Hotels, preserves the building’s original structure, including brick walls, stained concrete floors, open ceilings, steel trusses and skylights.

The design challenge existed within the store’s merchandise – a colorful assortment that design architect Leora Goren says “had to be accommodated without overwhelming the customer.”

To maintain a simple, modern-luxury look among open ceilings and concrete floors, designers used a palette of black and copper with oak, aluminum and frosted acrylic fixtures. Custom fixtures by B&N Industries (Burlingame, Calif.) complement the minimalist design and allow for a variety of merchandise display options.

“The style, while somewhat industrial,” Goren notes, “needed to be high-end enough to appeal to the cosmopolitan flair of San Francisco pet owners.”

Client: WAG Hotels Retail Store, San Francisco — Ritu Raj, owner and creative director

Design/Architect: Goren Architecture + Design, San Francisco — Leora Goren, principal

Design: Allyson Kovas Design, San Francisco — Allyson Kovas, principal

Architect of Record: Oris Design, San Francisco

General Contractor: Wag Hotels, Sacramento, Calif.

Graphic Design: Studio Picotee, San Francisco — Heather Landers, principal

Outside Design Consultant: Flack & Kurtz, San Francisco (lighting design)

Audio/Visual: Sentry Alarms, Oakland, Calif.

Ceilings: Armstrong Commercial Ceilings, San Francisco

Fixtures: B&N Industries, Burlingame, Calif.; Five Star Fixtures, Oakland , Calif.

Flooring: RP Coatings, Hayward , Calif.

Furniture: Target, Colma, Calif.; EQ3, San Francisco; CRI, San Francisco

Lighting: Graybar, Sacramento, Calif.

Signage/Graphics: Toll Graphics, Emeryville, Calif.; Ferrari Color, Emeryville , Calif.

Wood Wall Paneling: Five Star Fixtures, Oakland, Calif.

Sliding door hardware: Crown Hardware, South San Francisco, Calif.

Storefronts: Golden Gate Glass & Mirror, San Francisco

Custom Acrylic Shelving: Acrylic Art, Emeryville, Calif.

Photography: Tom Story, San Francisco