If the warehouse message is to be successfully communicated the public, it must be achieved in a design vocabulary people are familiar with and understand.
In order to say "warehouse" (not store) the exterior should refer to traditional building types that the public has come to associate with warehouses. This assumption has guided all of the proposed concept sketches. The exterior elevation sketches are composed of a variety of design elements that refer to traditional factories and warehouses. Mixing more than one reference or building type is intended to make the very long façade more interesting.
While referring to warehouse, however, the proposals suggest that this message should be layered with a second message which supports the product and the image of the retailer as "modern". Therefore the proposed sketches all update these traditional forms with unexpected twists, either in scale, details, or the selection of materials.
The materials of the warehouse portion of the façade are seen as interchangeable and include: unpainted cast concrete, painted metal, galvanized (unpainted) metal, reflective metals, glass, plastic, and cinder block. These ordinary, even unrefined materials express economy, but their juxtaposition conveys something less ordinary.
The entry "icon" presents opportunities to send more direct and up-to-date messages to the consumer. All of the entry forms proposed are intended to have a strong visual impact. Some are clearly modern, some are modernly over-scaled.
The entry element should function in some sense as a beacon. This can be achieved with both artificial and natural light.
Any transparent or translucent drum approach needs to consider the obligation to do something with that transparency. It would be appropriate for Circuit City to use spaces like these to communicate the latest and greatest in lighting technology as a symbol of what it offers. (It wouldn’t hurt if that lighting gimmick was noteworthy and enjoyable, opening up the possibility that shopping at Circuit City is potentially fun.)
