It has been a busy morning for the construction crew and crane operator on the site of the new Starbucks store at the corner of NW 53rd St and 15th Ave NW. At approximately 830 a.m. the first of three shipping containers, which will be fitted together to make up the new drive-through and walk up store, arrived on site.
The Ballard store will be 6th in the country to sport this unique design, whereby shipping containers are used to create the entirety of the structure of the store itself. Starbucks built their first container store in Tukwila in 2011 and have since installed them in Chicago, Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Portland.
“We were inspired to create the shipping container stores by the view of the shipping yards from our Starbucks office window in SoDo,” says Starbucks Northwest Senior Designer, and Ballard resident, Brian van Stipdonk. “We believe that they fit with the neighborhood of Ballard and it was an intentional choice to utilize this particular design here.”
According to van Stipdonk, Starbucks focuses on repurposing and recycling materials when they create their new stores. “The great thing about shipping containers is that we can repurpose them, which therefore utilizes less new construction, and allows us to have a positive environmental impact.”
Crews worked carefully to move the 40-foot container from the truck, into the air via crane and back to the ground once more to its final resting place. Two more shipping containers were delivered later in the morning and will fit together, as van Stipdonk puts it, “like Jenga blocks” to create the structure of the store.
The new store, which has been one year in the making, is set to offer a walk-up/bike window and drive through service with no seats inside. There will be a few parking spots up for grabs and also bike racks available for customer use. Although smaller in physical space than some Starbucks stores, the menu will be as big as usual with everyone’s favorites on offer. Six partners will on hand to serve up the hot drinks inside the uniquely designed store.
Now that the containers are in their final positions, van Stipdonk says that the store will be open by mid February. We will update readers with the exact opening date when it is known.
Until then, coffee lovers can get excited in anticipation for this uniquely designed and user-friendly addition to the neighborhood.
I hope all the shipping containers are empty before they install all of the coffee makers.
“…we can repurpose them, which therefore utilizes less new construction, and allows us to have a positive environmental impact.”
Interesting. I was just thinking that the shipping containers are likely to be terribly insulated, meaning that either the workers will be freezing or they’ll be using a ton of electricity on heat. I mean, our electricity is pretty green in Seattle, but still.
Still, one store like this is kind of fun. Twenty would be dystopian, but one is kind of fun.
I don’t know of any coffee lovers that would be excited in anticipation of a Starbucks.
Gurple,
the containers are insulated and are up to building code.
Anon, agreed.
If I wanted to drink mediocre coffee out of a connex I would have stayed in the Army. ;)