1st Place: Calgary Co-Op Quarry Park Centre Calgary, Alberta
The Calgary Co-op Quarry Park Centre supermarket is the newest addition to a chain of more than 23 food stores. As part of a 5.7-hectare regional shopping center in southeast Calgary, the new store is the greenest in the Calgary Co-op grocery chain and includes several environment-saving technologies encompassing equipment, LED lighting and comprehensive recycling programs. In addition to its grocery offerings, the store also features an in-store pharmacy, mezzanine-level café seating and a children's play area.
While the initial design strategy sought to depict the interior space as a modern design, the architect's exterior renderings captured a more classical European façade reminiscent of historic Canadian architecture used for grand hotels.To harmonize disparate architectural themes, King Retail Solutions (KRS) created a unique “modern chateau” design concept that fused old and new architectural design concepts under one magnificent roof.
As making a small store look bigger was among the biggest challenges of the design process, the KRS design team employed several techniques to enhance the small space.
Energy-efficient natural lighting played a big role, although it was a challenge to integrate natural-lighting elements with electrical lighting, as color balance and illumination values differed greatly. Dramatic up-lighting of perimeter walls provides focus on supergraphics, which are modeled after 19th-century classical designs. However, to lead shoppers effortlessly through the various perimeter departments, careful consideration was paid to the use of supergraphics, materials and wall finishes. Perimeter wall design elements are juxtaposed to provide a modern interpretation of a classical concept.
Designers opened the center area of store through exposed trusses and ducts, and a second-level mezzanine dining room was added, where customers could look out over the supermarket space.
The “modern chateau” concept aims to delineate spaces that provide customers with a unique journey. Lit like the ballroom of an elegant chateau, the grand entry conveys a sense of arrival and public gathering.
The store's produce and foodservice sections, meanwhile, are also treated like the grand ballroom of a chateau featuring contemporary, chandelier-like clustered rings that serve a dual function: to conceal overhead lighting and make the area into a focal point. As customers navigate the grocery aisles, lighting levels drop to be more intimate and private, yet more effective, on product illumination.
The overall sleek, innovative design of the Calgary Co-op Quarry Park Centre has not only been met with positive acclaim by store team leaders and associates, but also, most importantly, customers, who relish the captivating shopping environment.