Home-grown design

The oldest family-owned supermarket chain in Houston, Rice Epicurean Markets, was looking for a change. The high-end, boutique grocery store had not remodeled its primary store in the upscale neighborhood of Uptown, known for its distinctive architecture and luxurious lifestyles, for nearly two decades.

The food retailer was looking to create a store design that offers a comfortable yet sophisticated place to shop and turned to Houston-based Hermes Architects to create excitement at the point-of-sale and ultimately solidify the store's brand image. "The Uptown customers are the tuxedo crowd; they shop at Saks, Neiman's and Tiffany's," says Mark Volpendesta, principal at Hermes Architects. "The store was very old and hadn't been updated in about twenty years, so we wanted to appeal to the neighborhood street life, and we wanted to visually tie it together by opening up the floor plan."

The store's basic color palette is black and white with purple accents. The store's purple accent can be seen in the signage font, in wall paint and in the delicate placement of purple and black floor tiles in key areas of the store. "They wanted to use purple only as an accent color," says Volpendesta. "Their cashwraps and gondolas are all black so we tried to respect that theme in the tile pattern." Wood tones in the fixtures help bring a touch of class to the store design. "The front of the store is all cherry-stained oak, and it gives the store a very warm feeling. We also opened the ceilings up to give it more visual impact," says Daren Penewitt, Hermes' project architect.

The store's ceiling treatments help define the space and serve as a visual queue to customers, while large curved windows in the front of the store bring in daylight and provide an attractive signature style to the store. "We really tried to celebrate each one of these episodes so it's not all this homogenous texture," says Volpendesta. "You can see that the ceiling is different in the bakery, the floral and produce departments, to ensure that each area has its own character. Treatments along the perimeter of the store are where we devoted most of our effort and include point-of-sale areas along the way that draw in customer's interest."

One of the most intriguing aspects of the design is the signage and graphics program at the point-of-sale and how that image is consistent both at the exterior and interior of the store. On the facade, the store's name is prominently displayed in a shadowed, slightly deco-styled font with a slight curvature of delicate metal accents and two torch lights on either side of the name. When illuminated at night, the torch lights create a sense of excitement from the street. "The exterior was done first, and then we brought that theme inside the store," says John Smith, Hermes' architect. Volpendesta adds, "We wanted to tie the outside and the inside together so the brand becomes very continuous."

Once inside, the same imagery is reflected in the store's aisles markers that appear to float above each grocery aisle. The aisle markers combine aluminum, stainless steel and metal laminate to create a sophisticated alternate to the markers typically used in a grocery store. "There were a lot of struggles with miniaturization to make the aisle markers work effectively in the store and still look like the outside signage," adds Volpendesta. "We ended up using this design in the aisle markers, the courtesy booth, and we even did it for the restroom signs." The signage system also helps soften the store's image. "We carried the curves into the signage to soften the rectangular feel of the store," says Smith. "All of these signs are set up so employees can easily pop in magnetic revisions to the sign."

The creative use of paint on the long wall by the restrooms, courtesy booth, catering office and the grab-and-grow refrigerated case combines gray, white and purple geometric shapes. The decorative paint display offers visual interest to the space as well as guides customers to key areas of the store. At first, the retailer was hesitant to use decorative paint and wanted to merchandise the area instead, but was thrilled with the finished result and let it stand as a visual statement. "It really lightens up the spirit of the store rather than just being a plain white wall and adds great texture to the space," says Volpendesta.

"We tried to modernize the old grocery store image. People probably remember the '50s-style grocery store, which had a lot of black and white tile," continues Volpendesta. "We tried to reflect that history but modernize and update the look." With only five stores, Rice Epicurean Markets has made an everlasting impression in the hearts of the people of Houston. "People really enjoy this store. When people walk in they have a smile on their face and it's a lot of fun to shop here," concludes Volpendesta.