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Montauk Sofa Flagship Store
By : Cohlmeyer Architecture
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 15th edition
Discipline : Construction & Real Estate
Categories : Construction / Commercial Construction : Platinum Winner, Gold Certification
The objective was quite simple – to create an urban oasis for both the retail customer and the pedestrian passerby from a 3-storey building that had once housed two separate night clubs one on top of the other.
The challenges were numerous – narrow building with low ceilings, somewhat unstable earth and the premises really an assembly of three different buildings. Each building was built slightly differently, therefore each one had different ceiling height, crooked structure that were attached to the next building and all were constructed with different materials.
To develop the site, 25% of the building was removed to create a “pocket garden”. Fifty-foot columns were secured against the perimeter walls of the garden to replace the removed, original structural beams. The former basement, underneath the new garden, was sealed with a membrane, redirecting any accumulated precipitation to the city sewer system. Ten feet of Styrofoam was then piled high to bring the garden to the desired height and then the Styrofoam was covered with various landscaping materials. Trees and earth were brought into the garden by a crane during the planting process. A series of concrete retaining walls keep the Styrofoam from shifting and also to create a waterfall 9ft in height that falls from the top of the garden down to the basement floor. A glass bridge 10 ft in length is built to transport customers over the waterfall and into the store while also allowing plenty of light to filter into the basement below.
To make up for the lost space due to the removal of 25% of the building, the basement was reworked. The floor was dug down two feet. Unstable soil forced the use of concrete benches 4ft wide by 2ft high and 60ft long to reinforce the south and north perimeter foundation walls. The new glass façade curtain wall stands from the basement floor and rises to the roof bringing ample light into the west side of the basement. On the east side, each floor was pulled back 4ft from the rear facade bringing in lights from the rear facade and at the same time visually connecting each space from the basement to the 3rd floor.
Each level is essentially identical using the same materials – glass guard rails, polished concrete floors, concrete walls and dry wall ceilings. Every conduit and service are hidden in the walls and ceilings that have been built out so nothing is seen. Heating and cooling are done with a rooftop unit sending glycol to 13 different blowers losing the need for large ductwork.
The structure for each floor consists of 16” beams spaced every 8ft that run north/south. To give height to the ceilings, the dry wall is applied to the bottom of each beam and rises to the top of the following beam. It remains on this repetitive sequence on each floor for 50% of the building while the remaining part is a flat ceiling with recessed troughs for lighting. In order to help keep an open feeling, fire rated staircases are completed with the use of fire shutters hidden in the ceilings.
The result is an inviting restfull garden in the middle of busy St-Laurent Boulevard, allowing te pedestrians to enter an oasis, to see 4 floors of retail sofas and to concentrate on the products in a very complicated but simple looking setting.
Collaboration
Interior Designer : Danny Chartier
