B e l m a r  R e t a i l  P r o t o t y p e  4 - B 3

Sited between large “big-box” retail buildings and smaller scaled Live/Work units, this 20,000 square foot one-story structure is designed to mediate the scale in the overall urban design context of Belmar between these two building types.  By allowing pedestrian movement through an open air “paseo” or passageway punched through the building, the structure is transformed as an urban device that facilitates and encourages the movement of people from the automobile scaled off street parking lot to the pedestrian scaled environs of the new Belmar street.    

The building is an object within the new urban landscape and is viewed from all four sides. The front and ends of the building, adjacent to and across the street from the Live/Work units, is scaled down with a low, continuous metal canopy configured to define the space and scale of the pedestrian on the street.  Above the canopy translucent fiberglass panels are used to both define and obscure the massing of the building and provide visual interest to the façade.

The back of the structure is a series of tall concrete panels broken only by the paseo. This facade establishes a relationship with the adjacent “big box” retail. Primarily built with a modified tilt up concrete method, the structure is finished in exposed polished concrete. The concrete is contrasted against clear aluminum metal panels and details, tinted fiberglass panels and clear glass in aluminum storefronts.  The addition of blade signs and graphics to the screen and canopy composition help to create a depth to the facade thereby distinguishing the overall structure from the usual flat, two dimensional compositions commonly found in this type of suburban retail building.

Completed 2002