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No longer can anyone claim that it’s more expensive to design for sustainability or that “green” materials cost more. With sustainable elements like rapidly renewable bamboo and 100 percent recycled particleboard, this store meets environmental objectives affordably thanks to a design firm with the savvy to select and integrate the right materials and a fixture company with the sources and capabilities to work with them.

Housed on two floors of a three-story building constructed in the early 1900s, the store incorporates signature North Face elements including large graphics, wood surfaces, and red accents. In keeping with the brand's practice, it also imbues the character of its downtown community and site history. Occupied by a department store for most of the century, the space now sports its original cast-iron beams and perimeter columns, brick exterior walls, and massive wood ceiling structure.

Planning for sustainability
“This location marks our first effort to open a store with a commercial interior certified by the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program. We are targeting a Gold level certification,” says Lindsay Rice, vice president of The North Face’s Direct to Consumer Division. The store boasts a wide range of high-efficiency systems, including lighting, HVAC, and a high-tech air filtering system. A re-opened and restored bank of windows that had been closed since the 1950s brings daylighting and passive solar heating to the space. The reworked interior features an airy atrium staircase in place of the large escalators that were removed. The project also involved diverting construction debris from a landfill. “Everything that came out of the space was pre-sorted and recycled—a project in itself,” says Mike Curtis, creative director of design firm JGA.

Green Fixtures & Materials
The Carlson Group, which built the floor fixtures, perimeter wall system, cashwrap, and backwrap, constantly researches materials and processes that are sustainable and eco-friendly, says Design Director Thomas Chisari, IDSA. All metal used in the fixtures is powder-coated, rather than plated. Wood used in the fixtures is Plyboo, a bamboo plywood that complies with the California Air Resource Board’s (CARB) regulations for composite panels. In addition, bamboo is a rapidly renewable resource and Plyboo manufacturer Smith & Fong has received FSC certification for responsible forest management. The cashwrap and backwrap are built from SkyBlend, a wood particleboard material manufactured by Roseburg that has no added urea formaldehyde. SkyBlend is also certified by both the Composite Panel Association (through its EPP program) and the Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) to be made of 100 percent pre-consumer recycled wood fiber.

As with the fixtures, material selection was important to the sustainability initiatives throughout the store’s interior (see sidebar). “Most of the materials fit nicely into the family palette of materials that supports the brand,” says Stephanie Bourdon, JGA color and materials manager. Adds Curtis, “And contrary to most people’s belief that these things are more expensive, they were very affordable, which is important in getting them incorporated into a project.”