Contract Magazine - March 2018 - 40

PHOTOGRAPHY: AARON LEITZ PHOTOGRAPHY

The store boasts a
micro-shop concept, with
designated areas for different
outdoor activities, surrounded
by industrial-style design
elements (right and below).
A courtyard area was designed
to allow natural light into the
space and provide inspiration
for customers to dream
up their next adventure
(opposite).

Key Design Highlights
The Uline Arena is a brick
masonry structure with
a concrete barrel-vault roof.
Original seating from the arena
was incorporated as a wall
installation and wood panels
used to cover the ice hockey
rink during basketball games
finish the east interior wall.
The space takes cues from
indoor marketplaces with
separate merchandise and
service areas.
An interior courtyard contains
one of the arena's original flying
buttresses.

Metropolitan Branch Trail, wanted a convenient place to get their
tires pumped up, check gears, put some oil on the chain, and get going
again. "Biking is really important," Dowd says. "The community told
us they wanted this, and now the bike shop is right in the front."
When it came to design elements, REI and CallisonRTKL
opted for reductive finishes. Basketball court flooring previously used
to cover the ice rink was meticulously stacked and stored, acquiring
decades' worth of patina; these were cut into four-foot squares to clad
a community meeting room toward the back of the store. And the team
installed T1-11 siding on a bias for another micro-shop's wall, creating
an over-scaled herringbone pattern.
Bringing the outdoors inside
When REI and CallisonRTKL first began their work, the site was
in a state of relative abandonment, having existed through iterations
as an ice manufacturing and storage facility, a host to the local
music scene, and waste transfer facility before being relegated
to covered parking. During the first site visit, Alex Shapleigh, senior
vice president for CallisonRTKL, recalls discovering a sliver of light
coming from a door eight feet off the ground: "I climbed up and
40

stuck my head through the door opening, and saw a garden in
this little capture of space," he says. The idea: "What if we made this
an indoor/outdoor courtyard?"
The discovery, while modest in square footage, is one that
adds big value to the REI store. Lined with murals by local artists, the
courtyard brings daylight into the ground level while celebrating a pair
of the arena's original flying buttresses. Shapleigh calls it a "community
give-back," as it's open to the public, providing a pocket of tranquility
where visitors can dream and scheme their next adventure.
"It was a challenge to balance our desire to showcase what's
really a unique piece of architecture but not overwhelm what needed
to be a great shopping experience for consumers," Shapleigh says.
Telling the story of the building's history, while still bringing forward
the stories of REI, the space was designed to connect with Washington,
D.C.'s fast-growing outdoor community. c

contractdesign.com

MARCH 2018
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Contract Magazine - March 2018

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