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Project: Fruitive,
1094 Palmer Avenue, NW, Washington, DC
Architects/Interior Architects: Teass \ Warren Architects CityCenterDC? Answering that rhetorical question is
MEP Engineers: KK Engineering, LLC
Contractor: Battino Contracting Solutions
Palmer Alley, NW—the main pedestrian thoroughfare
of CityCenterDC—with the Fruitive shop at right.
All photos © Anice Hoachlander / Hoachlander Davis Photography JUICY DESIGN
As summer slowly fades into fall in DC, what better
way is there to cool off than to sip a freshly-pressed
juice while a breeze kicks through the alley at
Fruitive, a glorified juice stand at the corner of 11th
Street, NW, and Palmer Alley, the latter a pedestrian
thoroughfare set within the master-planned development
that transformed the former site of the District’s convention
center into a glitzy retail and dining destination. So it’s
no surprise that that freshly-pressed juice will cost
north of $14.
Fruitive prides itself on transparency in terms
of its ingredient origins as well as its processes. The
company’s lesser-known secret? While its staff does
blend some fruits and vegetables in the shop’s compact
kitchen, the bulk of the actual juice pressing is done in
a subterranean, commercial-grade kitchen on the other
side of CityCenterDC. The corner shop serves as a juice
showroom, the same way the Tesla dealership on the
opposite corner shows one or two cars with the rest
manufactured elsewhere. Architect Charles Warren,
AIA, LEED AP, finds the iceberg metaphor an apt one
for Fruitive: The café space is roughly 600 square feet,
the commercial kitchen some 2,500. His firm,
Teass/Warren Architects, designed both.
One of the biggest challenges in a heavily regulated
interior fit-out is the set of existing conditions—what
Warren calls the “vanilla box”—which, in this case,
included mechanical systems and bathroom plumbing,
but also a sizeable structural column supporting the 10
stories above the shop. From the earliest stages, Warren
and partner Will Teass, AIA, LEED AP, sought to
amplify the brand’s focus on natural ingredients.
“When we first talked to them, health was something
we thought was key to their brand,” Warren said. “We
picked up on that, and said we should reflect that in
the architecture of the space.”
Walnut paneling of the shop gives way to a bookshelf
lined with nutritional guides and cookbooks. One of
the original design drivers for Fruitive was the concept
of a card catalogue that would highlight the properties
of each ingredient, and while that specific piece proved
too onerous to materialize, the library motif stuck. But
the flow of the space, or at least the queuing within it,
Warren said, determined much of the programmatic
layout within the limited floor area. The structural
column bends customer pathways around it to the
ordering counter. Digital displays above the counter
list menu items, and are visible from outside the shop
to passersby.
Set within a glass box and boasting a large vitrine
window, the store capitalizes on its prominent position
with elevated, glass-walled refrigerators that put the
product on literal and highly visible pedestals. The
interior is outfitted with natural materials that reflect the
brand’s mission: Carrara marble for the countertops,
slate flooring, and walnut wood panels backed with
marble subway tile add their own rich flavors to
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