Ocean Beach People's Organic Foods Market

Human scale elements, greenery, and operable windows at grocery main facade	A.I.A. design award panel	Building main entry
Upper level balcony shelters main entry	Building main entry	Looking across interior, from back toward entry
Upper floor deli area	Building entry connects to public sidewalk as well as to parking area	Shading trellis at front facade
Ground floor interior, looking back toward entry	Food displays, main floor interior	Upper floor balcony
Looking across main interior	Staff administrative work space	Staff administrative work area
From bridge across toward deli area	Generous daylighting in checkout exit area	Looking across toward deli area, wide
Looking across toward deli area, close	In meeting room, looking down facade	In meeting room, ceiling fan
Stockroom	Exposed steel frame, with ductile notches	Grocery area
Grocery area	Bridge over vegetables	Bridge across grocery
Main doorway	Cosmetic and specialities area	Sundries display
Cooler area, simple materials overhead	Street view	Grocery aisle
Upstairs deli sitting area	Public stair in front corner	Conversational bridge
Looking across grocery space	Looking across grocery space	Staff work area
Corner office	Staff kitchenette

Interior Panorama, from Deli Area Pan by Dragging - Zoom in with Shift key - Zoom out with Control key Requires QuickTime.

Interior Panorama, from Bridge Pan by Dragging - Zoom in with Shift key - Zoom out with Control key Requires QuickTime.

"Sustainability fits the mission of the co-op, which is member owned. One of their missions is to develop and nurture practices that have to do with living well and living lightly on the planet. Projecting these ideas into the building itself was very natural for them.

"You get a greater sense of place from being able to see time pass through the lights and shadows, and that's also true for being able to feel the air from outside. If you go to work in a hermetically-sealed building with artificial light, you kind of feel like you don't have a say in anything. You're doing time until you can get out. But when you're in a building where if you're warm you can walk over to the window and open it, or if it's too dark you can open the blinds, you have more control over your sense of place.

"Budget was definitely a challenge. But again, the client was open to dealing with that creatively. On the interior we were hoping to use a lot more demonstrative products, like boards made out of wheat and straw, or recycled glass for tiles. But because those were just finish items and weren't absolutely necessary, they got pushed out. At the same time, there were a lot of other items that weren't completely necessary that we kept in. The building has a lot more insulation than it was required to have. It's also got dual-paned glass windows.

"One of the biggest challenges early on had to do with the structural system of the building. A goal early on was to have a column-free marketplace, so we came up with a structural system to achieve that. Then the first round of costs came through, and they were higher than we wanted them to me, so we had to start making cost cutting decisions. We talked about making the structure of a traditional grocery store, with columns and beams. But ultimately it was retained, and it turned out to be one of the really outstanding features of the store. The roof is holding up the mezzanine, and the roof itself is held up by the perimeter wall."
— Jim Gabriel, interviewed by Brian Libby for ArchitectureWeek

Details

Address: Ocean Beach, California

Design Team

Architect	Hanna Gabriel Wells
Mechanical Engineer

Search the RIBA architecture library catalog for more references on Ocean Beach People's Organic Foods Market
 

Ocean Beach People's Organic Foods Market — at the architect's web site

Ocean Beach People's Co-op Goes Green — at CooperativeGrocer.com

Ocean Beach People's Organic Food Co-op: Sustainable Building — at the State of California

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