A Look at What’s New in Retail and Hospitality Design
Operable Glass Walls
There is a growing trend and interest in designing spaces that seamlessly connect to the outdoors, thus “bringing the outdoors in,” or that allow adjacent interior spaces to open up to each other. Of course, there is also a need for the ability to close off and separate those spaces for weather, security, or other reasons. As a result, operable glass walls that fold or slide to achieve these fully open or, conversely, fully closed conditions are readily available. In retail and hospitality settings, it’s important to use a product that enables the architect to fulfill a design vision but also to incorporate a product that lasts.
Among the things to consider in selecting an operable glass wall, first is to be sure that the product is tested and proven for commercial use. Opening glass walls need to stand up to the daily commercial grind as well as the challenges of wind, water, extreme temperatures, forced entry, impact, and structural load. Independent testing results should be requested and provided for all of these conditions. Further, the specific details of the system should be reviewed. In some, moving structural posts provide exceptional strength in folding systems that meet Miami-Dade County and American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) hurricane ratings. Such a system can also serves as a secure and vandal-resistant storefront for retail applications. Multipoint locking entry doors as well as extra-long, tamper-resistant, dual-point locking rods between panels can be specified to ensure that each system meets or exceeds most forced-entry testing for commercial-grade door panels. STC ratings for sound attenuation are available for select systems and can also be requested if that is a design consideration. During its service life, built-in adjustment and compensation points help with continued ease of operation if building settling occurs.
When considering operable glass walls as part of a design, there are some considerations that can impact different types of retail and hospitality buildings as follows:
- Hotels: An opening glass wall enables the designer to create large, inviting entrances in the lobby area, ensuring a memorable first impression. When open, it eliminates the barrier between the entrance and the lobby to allow a free flow of customer traffic and a direct connection with the hotel’s ambience and entertainment. They can be used in registration, dining, and guestroom areas to allow beautiful views, hotel landscaping, natural daylight, and fresh air inside. Opening glass walls can also be used as interior dividers in hotels and restaurants to allow personnel to quickly and easily incorporate or close retail space, dining areas, bars, and meeting rooms. For example, a breakfast area can be readily separated from the hotel public space after service has concluded. Or private banquet rooms can be created that transmit light and significantly reduce sound transmission. Ultimately, that means the hotel can create more bookable event space by dividing or opening up large areas as needed. Swinging entrance and egress door panels facilitate access and service when the rest of the operable wall is closed.
- Retail: For retail stores, a wide-open entrance eliminates barriers by creating a seamless transition between street (or mall) and store and attracts customers inside, which can lead to an increase in sales. They can also allow retailers to expand display areas by utilizing street fronts, sidewalks, and mall walkways to display movable racks and bins that roll easily through the spacious opening. With expanded display areas, shoppers are enticed and are readily drawn deeper into the store. When it is time to close, the operable glass storefront continues to showcase the interior and provides a secure, energy-efficient, transparent facade that seals tight and serves as a dust-control measure after-hours.
- Restaurants: Restaurants can benefit directly from operable glass walls by boosting revenue from increased seating capacity in outdoor spaces, such as a sidewalks, patios, or balconies. The open walls can also enhance diners’ experiences by connecting a restaurant’s interior to the surrounding outdoor spaces. In cases where a roofed patio or similar condition exists, enclosing the area with an operable glass wall can offer outdoor seating in all four seasons. Where appropriate, operable glass walls can be used across the front of a restaurant as an entrance to make the entire street front a welcoming door. Incorporated properly, they can create unique and memorable indoor/outdoor dining atmospheres for customers to enhance and extend their dining experiences.
Overall, operable glass walls facilitate free-flowing connections between spaces by removing the physical barrier between them when the wall is open. When closed, a visual connection remains through the glass, but it creates an appropriate weather and security barrier otherwise.
Photos courtesy of NanaWall Systems
Operable glass walls can be used to fully open up and connect to spaces directly, or close fully or partially to provide needed separations for weather, security, or other needs.
STOREFRONT CASE STUDY
Photos courtesy of NanaWall Systems
Project: Cotton On Retail Store
Location: The Galleria, Houston
The Project: The Galleria is a hot destination in Houston. More than 26 million visitors yearly grace the 2.4-million-square-foot mall with its 400 fine stores and restaurants, two high-rise hotels, and three office towers, all of which make it the city’s top tourist and retail destination. With banks, swimming pools, ice rinks, children’s entertainment areas, salons, tailors, and even a post office, the shopping center is a mini-city. Modeled after Milan’s revered Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, The Galleria is internationally respected for its architectural panache and its mixed-use urban environment. Not surprisingly, retail spaces here feel pressure to be memorable.
One such store, Cotton On, provides an example of how to transform a limited opening into a remarkable entrance. The Cotton On Group is a retail powerhouse that has been expanding its brand since opening its flagship store in Geelong, Australia. Like The Galleria, Cotton On has become a fashion destination for all types of clothing, footwear, stationery, and gifts. Since 1991, it has been renowned for a winning combination of globally relevant fashion for men, women, and children at affordable prices. It also recognizes that staying relevant requires a retail space that is exciting and innovative.
The Design Goals: Looking at the stores around Cotton On, it is obvious that traditional design—fixed windows and narrow openings—hampers its visual appeal. The retailer wanted its storefront to achieve three important things. First, to remove the barrier between the common mall space and the store, allowing people to freely enter into the store. Second, to engage and draw customers in with a design that allowed them to see clearly into the store. And third, to create a unique storefront that would stand out from the others around it.
The Design Solution: The Cotton On store uses an aluminum-framed, operable glass wall system to achieve all of its objectives with an opening that is broad, transparent, and variable. Because The Galleria is such a hot locale, using an open or closed glass wall system connects Cotton On with the mall’s infectious energy. Indeed, the glass wall system engages customers by making the space look atypical. Because of the seamless opening, customers scan the displays with a glance and then stream in without jostling a stranger. Just as important, it allows the interior space to be organized in novel ways. For example, it increases the display areas—which is extremely important for a company that has so many different kinds of products.
The folding glass wall provides other benefits too. This floor-to-ceiling system uses an interior installation; the doors fold and stack into the store. There is also an option for single-panel entry, important during off-hours or when the store is understaffed. When fully closed, the sealed and secure facade protects the store from dust, debris, and intruders. The glass walls also have a long life cycle, and if Cotton On ever moves, the space will remain an attractive location to a future retailer.
The glass wall is an effective part of the overall interior design of the store too. Specifically, the glass is intersected with transom mullions, which shift attention down into the store, and the anodized frames pop against the teak entry. This same wood can be found on the arched ceiling, which again directs attention down to the displays. Finally, the mirror above the entrance repeats these dynamics. With these elements as a frame, the interior product imagery becomes a shimmering beacon.
Results: The folding operable glass wall system, with its thin frames and full glazing, opens Cotton On to The Galleria in all conditions of open, closed, or partly open. The daylight that streams from The Galleria skylights also makes its way into the store, further adding to the allure to this impressive storefront.
RESTAURANT CASE STUDY
Photos courtesy of NanaWall Systems
Project: ParkStone Wood Kitchen
Location: Farmington, Utah
Architect: Architectural Nexus and Perkowitz & Ruth Architects
The Project: Utah’s often chilly weather won’t stop patrons from visiting Farmington’s ParkStone Wood Kitchen and enjoying the stylish outdoor amenities. It’s location is part of the success story, as it is located in the more than 1-million-square-foot, growing-bigger-by-the-day Station Park development—a destination that features upmarket shopping, dining, and entertainment among other attractions, including a children’s playground, a mega fountain, and an ice-skating rink.
Design Goals: For the design of ParkStone Wood Kitchen, which features wood-grilled meats and veggies plus a vast beer menu, the owner, California native Allan Gantes, desired an open floor plan. He also desired a “bring-the-outdoor-in aesthetic” with the ability to extend the seating to an outdoor patio that would be usable during three seasons. For Gantes, this was a special project: He oversees dozens of restaurants, but this was the first that he conceived himself.
Design Solution: Designers at Architectural Nexus, architects for the entire Station Park development who worked with Perkowitz & Ruth Architects on the ParkStone project, selected a wood-framed folding glass wall system to meet the restaurant’s goals. The entire patio, which is replete with sofas and a fire pit to give the hotspot a casual, Rocky Mountain vibe, can be enclosed quickly and easily with the system. According to project architect Aaron Arbuckle, AIA, LEED AP, “For this new project, we wanted to expand the restaurant area so it would, in a sense, spill out into the park area. This makes it ideal for three-season dining. We looked at other wall systems but felt ultimately that the one selected was the best for our application.”
The wood and glass folding wall system is integral to the restaurant’s concept—wood-framed panels were a natural choice for the restaurant with “wood” in its name. A top-hung wall system with monumental-sized paired panels made of cross-grained, solid wood construction also made good sense to the design team due to the surrounding park and natural landscape. The openings can range from two panels to as many as 12, with both inward and outward opening panels for maximum flexibility. Each panel can be up to 43 inches wide. The large glass wall can be stacked completely to the side, with an option for the doors to be completely out of sight when open—a seamless transition from inside to outside that seemed ideal to the designers. For Gantes, the folding glass wall was attractive because it is easily operable and weather-resistant, unlike many other solutions.
Results: The patrons of the ParkStone Wood Kitchen are not only treated to oak wood-grilled cuisine, but they are surrounded by an aesthetically pleasing, performance-driven wall solution when Utah fall weather sets in. Double weather stripping is provided for vertical sealing between the panels and between panels and frames, creating an airtight solution along with high R-values. Acoustically, the system performs well with STC 38 laminated glass. Multipoint locking and deadbolt locks round out the features of this successful wood folding glass wall system.
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