We returned to Politics & Prose to help the store expand into the neighboring retail bay that had been occupied by a dry cleaner for over 30 years.
The expansion was designed to build out office space for the store’s 50 employees and provide additional retail space. The owners asked that the new spaces build on the existing ethic of the store—comfortable, welcoming and modest. Opening to the parking area behind the building, the space was stripped to its bare walls and structure, and all existing surfaces were left exposed. The offices utilize the changes in grade of the site from front to back to provide two stories of mixed open and closed work spaces. New windows to the rear and a sky-lit atrium bring light into what had been a dungeon-like dry cleaners shop. All of the woodwork in the new office area was recycled from framing lumber removed from the demolished existing space.
Architect
McInturff Architects
Photography
Julia Heine Photography
