Style: Arts & Crafts
Building Type: Commercial – Retail
Year Built: 1907
Location: Cole Valley
CLIENT GOALS
One of San Francisco’s revered community partners, Cole Hardware, reached out to the Centoni Team to breath a bit of fresh air into their flagship retail store. Cole Hardware, located in the heart of San Francisco’s Cole Valley historic district, has been a hard working provider of goods and services to all San Franciscans since 1920.
The original facade was covered up by a temporary structure to support a Volkswagen car commercial nearly 20 years ago. As a temporary structure, the facade suffered considerably from the effects of weather and the extensive use of the building. In addition to its suffering aesthetics, Cole Hardware was missing significant business and merchandising opportunities due to the lack of access to display windows, along with demonstrating (with targeted lighting and signage) the vast array of merchandise and services provided to the community.
A spectacular historical facade was revealed after significant demolition.
The design team at Centoni restored the façade to its original splendor and added new functionality for Cole Hardware.
While a significant construction effort, the Centoni Team designed and built the entire project without any loss of business operations for Cole Hardware, and it’s neighbors. Cole Hardware was open seven days a week from 7:30 am to 7:00 pm during the entire project.
DESIGN SOLUTION
- Decorative custom-made wall sconces were added to the façade to add historic charm and illuminate the sidewalk for evening shoppers.
- Pinpoint directional lights were added to illuminate architectural details of the façade; plaster columns and reliefs and roof line details.
- Signage was realigned and removed to clear the way for more modern company messaging.
- The buildings original walls sconces, long out of service, were rebuilt and restored to make operational.
- Historically styled and hand crafted wood casement windows were added to the façade for quick and easy access, from the exterior, to create their award-winning window displays.
- Interior display boxes, with lighting, were custom built to provide a stable and contiguous ascetic for the displays.
- Historically accurate tile replaced the original, broken and dilapidated materials, at the buildings foundation.
- A paint color scheme was devised to reflect Cole Hardware and Ace brands, as well as highlight the building’s architectural details.
