A company’s storefront is a key touchpoint in retail. Big box retailers invest in brick-and-mortar locations that resemble their brand and create a fluid experience on and offline. With that said, selecting the right materials to guide this fluid experience can’t be taken lightly.
Photo: Alpolic Americas
Exterior Design
Located in Pickering, Ontario, the Pickering Town Centre was renovated in 2009 with a unique “leaf motif” design featured at each of the six entrances of the shopping center, as well as on the interior elevator. A monochromatic colour scheme creates dramatic contrast with white ALPOLIC ACM leaf cutouts and black panels surrounding the entrances.
Photo: Thudogroup
Three of the entrances are fixed to the facade with a hung panel design system by which the leaf panels are attached to 18” protruding steel rods. The remaining three entrances use a typical standard ACM route-and-return dry joint system. As a result of the protruding design, a stunning venation pattern comes to life as the stucco wall is exposed between cutouts.
As night falls, the already-magical venation pattern of the “leaf motif” design illuminates in six unique colours at each of the malls entrances. Lighting hidden within the cavities of the leaf cutouts light up the stucco wall behind the design enticing consumers to enter the mall and providing a visual reminder of where they’ve parked.
Photo: Thudogroup
That being said, renovations may help get consumers inside the shopping centre, but each company located inside still has convince them to patronize their brand over their competitors who are only steps away.
Interior Design
With renovations taking place on the exterior of the building, it was time for stores on the inside to make updates themselves to keep up with the new modern design. Observant clients such as H&M saw the way the light weight, rigidity, and flat features of ALPOLIC ACM panels turned the once bland exterior of the shopping centre into an art form and wanted to replicate that.
H&M is a world-renown brand for it’s minimalist, modern, and trendy clothing that is affordable without compromising quality and style. Similarly, ALPOLIC ACM panels are also modern, minimalist, affordable, and trendy without compromising quality. Their graffiti resistant finish not only makes clean up and maintenance easy, but provides a clean look that always appear fresh and new.
With that in mind, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the newly renovated H&M retail store in the Pickering Town Centre used ALPOLIC 4mm SAW white, high gloss panels to create a store front that was captivating, clean, and representative of the brand.
ALPOLIC ACM is an extremely versatile product that can be used in a range of projects. If you want to be on the cutting edge of exterior design and to stand out in the retail landscape, ALPOLIC is the material of choice.
Highlights
Location: Pickering, Ontario, Canada
Fabricator/Installer: Cladco Ltd., Ontario, Canada
Architect: Petroff Partnership Architects, Ontario, Canada
General Contractor: Charter Building Company
Panel Manufacturer: ALPOLIC
Products: ALPOLIC 4mm ACM; SAW White, TOB Black
Completion: November 2009