When Killian Pacific began work on its Grand Central development in Vancouver, the firm set out to create an environment where people not only shop, but meet with friends, enjoy the neighborhood and pass the time.
Anchoring that development is a Fred Meyer store uniquely designed for the site.
The development is positioned to serve the 101,082 people living in its trade area, the 79,000 people working at nearby businesses and commuters passing through Vancouver on state Route 14 and interstates 205 and 5. The trade area includes the region between state Route 500, I-205, Northeast Columbia Boulevard and Vancouver Lake, according to Portland-based MBM Properties, the development’s leasing company.
The trick was giving that regional audience a neighborhood shopping atmosphere.
In the neighborhood
Grand Central is designed for a slower pedestrian pace and might eventually connect to a jogging path on the Vancouver National Historic Reserve to encourage longer and more frequent visits – and of course, shopping, said project architect Rick Tiland, of Portland-based Tiland-Schmidt Architects.
“We wanted to establish a neighborhood gathering place,” he said. “The features we brought to the site are to encourage people to feel comfortable staying for a long time. You park once and make better use of the parking area by visiting multiple locations.”
The site has pedestrian paths that help create a neighborhood feel, Tiland said, along with planters, wooden benches and smaller, low lying light fixtures.
Regional appeal
The Fred Meyer store is in a unique position, because it is visible from the freeway, Tiland said. To take advantage of that and attract drivers, he split the exterior design into varying segments with vertical and horizontal articulation.
“We broke it up visually with materials rather than just depending on paint colors,” Tiland said. “We tried to change it in design and form.”
To keep the eye interested, the building includes a copper parapet, colonnades, sloped roofing and a variation of brick, wood and stone in the walls.
“The materials, textures, colors, articulation of the building and roof line and design are unique elements that allowed Fred Meyer to illustrate that a large format retailer does not have to look like a ‘big box’,” said Don Forrest, Fred Meyer’s real estate manager, in an email.
That was no accident. Developer Lance Killian said his firm makes a point of designing developments to fit well within their context.
For Grand Central – the former light industrial site of Jantzen Swimwear and neighbor of the Vancouver National Historic Reserve and the waterfront – that context combined the natural and industrial, modern and historic. To reflect that, the structure includes wood, black steel and stone, and the landscape features kinetic sculptures that move in the wind.
The site also has its share of green features. Killian made a point of recycling 95 percent of the concrete from the Jantzen Swimwear facility and using it in the new development. There’s also water-permeable pavement in the parking lot and highly reflective roofing to decrease heat transferred into the building. Builders used sealants with low volatile organic compound levels, and local building materials when possible, Tiland said.
Looking in
Inside Fred Meyer are more sustainable features. Skylights cast a natural light throughout the store, even on overcast days, and require less artificial lighting. The company switched to energy-saving compact florescent light bulbs and is recycling the old bulbs as they die out.
The freezers and refrigerators are more energy efficient than in the past, and the store’s concrete floor doesn’t require chemicals for cleaning, said Melinda Merrill, Fred Meyer’s spokeswoman.
Those types of features have gone into about a dozen Fred Meyer stores recently, she said. The company will have its first LEED-certified building in 2009 with the remodel of its Hawthorne Boulevard store in Portland.
“Energy efficiency is something we’re doing in all of our new and remodeled stores,” Merrill said.
NEW DIRECTIONS
About 70 percent of Grand Central’s 196,000-square-foot site at Grand and Columbia House boulevards is occupied by the new Fred Meyer store. It is one of the Portland-based grocery chain’s 129 stores and fills what developer Lance Killian called a “dire need” for a grocer in the neighborhood.
He expects about 25,000 visitors at the store weekly.
Fred Meyer at Grand Central was the third store the company opened in three months. The new store keep’s Southwest Washington’s number of stores at seven, because it replaced a smaller store at Grand and Fourth Plain boulevards. The company’s president, Michael L. Ellis, hails from Vancouver and was instrumental in opening the Fourth Plain location in 1967.
“It was a really hard decision for us to close that store,” said Melinda Merrill, the company’s spokeswoman. “It was not performing – it needed to be turned into a full-line Fred Meyer. But that land wasn’t big enough, so we had to look elsewhere.”
Merrill said the company is in negotiations to sell the Fourth Plain property, though she did not name potential buyers and said a deal has not yet closed.
Along with groceries, the new store includes a drive-through pharmacy, U.S. Bank, Peet’s Coffee, a garden center, electronics, photo developing, specialty deli, dining space and apparel.
Surrounding Fred Meyer at Grand Central are about 15 retail spaces in buildings of 3,500 sq. ft. to 11,000 sq. ft. Tenants that have signed lease agreements include Lapellah restaurant, Martel’s Wine Shop, Above and Beyond Dentistry, The Hasson Co. Realtors, The Barbers, FedEx Kinko’s, Panda Express, Subway, T-Mobile, The Rock Wood Fired Pizza and a branch of Columbia Credit Union.
CREATING A LANDSCAPE
A parking lot is a unique place for plants to live, and at Vancouver’s Grand Central development, it was Steve Koch’s job to make it work.
“We tried to artfully compose a planting design that reads well from the highway with broad bands of plants with contrasting colors and textures,” said Koch, owner of Portland-based Koch Landscape Architecture.
Landscaping was important to the development’s design, which was meant to reflect the Pacific Northwest’s ties to nature.
To keep Grand Central’s greenery thriving, Koch used as many Northwest-native materials as possible, including shore pines, flowering red currants and incense cedars. But to withstand wind, rain and traffic, the site also needed hardy plants such as New Zealand flax, blue oak, blue fescue and miscanthus grasses.
To cut down on watering, Koch chose drought-resistant plants, drip irrigation and water-wise irrigation, which monitors rain levels and waters accordingly.
Koch also had to consider neighboring airports in the design and avoid plants that attract birds that could get in the way of passing planes.
Along with the greenery, Koch’s firm was involved in choosing the site’s lighting, stone wall materials, plaza layout and kinetic sculptures, which move with the wind.
“We thought we would take advantage of the windy nature of the Columbia River,” Koch said of the sculpture choice.
The use of Montana moss stone in the development’s walls and other accents like the Fred Meyer building’s copper parapet give the retail site a cohesive look, he said.
“This (design) fits the place,” Koch said. “It goes with the historical aspect of the site as well as the real nature of the site, which is windy, flat and well-draining.”
Koch was able to be creative in landscaping Grand Central because of collaboration between his firm, Killian Pacific and the landscape installer, he said.
“It’s been one of the most refreshing projects to work on,” Koch said. “The developer is open to new ideas, and the installer is extremely capable and willing to work with us to get the job done in the best possible way.”
Charity Thompson can be reached at cthompson@vbjusa.com.
