Excerpt from Women's Wear Daily:
VENICE, CA – The Stronghold building’s 1920s charm was the ideal place to bring Shinola’s story to a street in Venice, Calif., that has historically celebrated makers and the indie spirit.
The Detroit-based firm — known for its watches, leather goods and bicycles — today holds a soft opening for its 2,400-square-foot store on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, which will be followed by a grand opening on Saturday.
The company, bent on telling its American-manufacturing story at each door it opens, took up the building that previously housed the denim brand for which the Stronghold structure gets its name. To make its stores, Shinola performs small feats unique to each build-out.
“We want to create a unique space in that neighborhood or area,” said creative director Daniel Caudill. “We wanted to keep it a little bit like the neighborhood, with little rooms, and to tell stories so it has some cadence to it. It’s definitely different from all our other stores.”
The structure was gutted, with the walls redone and windows refurbished. The biggest task was the seismic upgrades to bring the building’s structure up to code. The double doors at the entrance to the building were refurbished by Arlington, Tex., company Double K Millwork & Door and received a fresh coat of paint to match the original shade.
“The challenging piece with this project was just the building itself that Shinola chose,” said Vincent Spataro, Southern California region director of construction management firm Shawmut Design and Construction. “The building that they chose is one of the few older buildings on the street…. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes, and underground, and inside the walls, to strengthen the building and bring the space up to code.”