Starbucks Reserve Roastery, Chicago
RETROFIT TEAM
DESIGN: Starbucks and Perkins & Will
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Pepper Construction
ARCHITECTURAL MILLWORK: Parenti & Raffaelli Ltd.
MATERIALS
The Roastery, which is seeking LEED Silver Certification, boasts LED lights and low-flow fixtures, as well as VRF units to supplement spaces that require additional cooling. It also captures and refeeds hot water instead of using additional electrical. The following is a sampling of materials used in the project:
- CURVED AND LINEAR ESCALATORS: Mitsubishi Electric
- CUSTOM LED LIGHT FIXTURES: Delta Light
- BATHROOM PENNY TILES: Ann Sacks
THE RETROFIT
Located on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, the 35,000-square-foot facility fills every inch of a former Crate & Barrel store built in 1990. The Starbucks Reserve Roastery Chicago takes cues from the original architecture of the largely glass and stone department store. In fact, Starbucks involved Crate & Barrel founder Gordon Segal in the design of the Chicago space. The roastery boasts plenty of natural light within the 5-story interior thanks to the building’s existing rotunda and floor-to-ceiling windows. The exterior of the building has been virtually untouched and the Starbucks stamp is minimal.
At the center of the space, spanning all five floors, is a towering coffee bean cask made of eight cylindrical chambers. It stretches 56-feet tall from the ground-floor upward and is surrounded by a spiraling escalator that guests can take to the second floor to watch conveyors drop roasted coffee beans in the cask to cool. One of the most unique features is the curved escalator, the first in the Midwest. The existing structure needed to be modified precisely to accept the curved escalator, which was planned as a showpiece in the finished space.
PHOTOS: Starbucks