The Shop by Porter, Graham Baba Architects

The Shop integrates hospitality with design, event, office, and immersive retail, serving as a gathering place for the creative community. Part café, part boutique, and part showroom in Seattle, it is created for the local design community with a belief that design creates both experience and connection.

The Shop integrates hospitality with design, event, office, and immersive retail, serving as a gathering place for the creative community. Part café, part boutique, and part showroom in Seattle, it is created for the local design community with a belief that design creates both experience and connection. Targeted at Seattle designers and commercial real estate professionals, the 3,760 sq. ft. space – especially the café – invites the Downtown Seattle community to connect, shop, and refresh during the day. It comprises two spaces that orthogonally intersect at a corner with a thirty-inch elevation change between two entrances. At the intersection of the two spaces, an elevated wood platform houses the design lab and retail lounge and also serves as a focal point for speakers. Located in the heart of the space, the lab is nested as a room-within-a-room with operable partitions allowing for enclosed working sessions or open connections to the larger space. North of the lab, the platform ramps down to the main level and is lined by custom-built ash shelving that displays small wares. Along the storefront, deep treaded stairs with a soft radius are carved into the platform, stepping down to the retail lounge.

On the main level, a curved milestone and quartz counter transitions from café to bar. Three private meeting rooms with glass partitions against the east wall allow quiet co-working spaces. Seattle-based creative firm House of Sorcery collaborated with the design team on custom installations with local flavors, including a large-scale gold mirror installation on the wall behind the bar with a stylized ‘Welcome As You Are,’ and custom rice paper wall covering at the entry. The material palette is simple and restrained to let the products, furniture, and decor shine. Light-colored ash wood with a variety of grains gives it a playful personality, and metal surfaces are painted to retain focus on the products.