Sweden Meets the Southwest
By Scott Blair

How often do you get to build a structure that people are so excited about, they camp out in front of it for more than a week in anticipation of opening day?

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That was the good fortune at IKEA, a home furnishings mega-store that recently opened its first Southwest store in Tempe.

"This building is so much more than the usual big- box retail," said James Suft, president of Suft Construction of Phoenix, the general contractor. "Everything on this project is on a gigantic scale."

IKEA opened its first store in the United States in 1985, and for the last 20 years it has had a gradual growth pattern that led to only 20 U.S. stores being opened. However, the pace is picking up, with several major stores opening this year, and several more planned for next year.

Each store is the result of careful research and planning.

"The Tempe store location was chosen for three main reasons: visibility, accessibility and timing," said Doug Greenholz, IKEA's real estate manager. IKEA located the Tempe store so that the distinctive colors of the brand can be seen clearly by motorists, while providing easy access from several major highways located nearby.

"The timing allowed us to open the Tempe store in only 17 months from the first negotiations with the site owner to the first customer's purchase. That is one of the quickest build times of any IKEA store in the U.S."

Al Consoli, senior associate at Greenberg Farrow of Somerset, N.J., the architect of record, said the 17-month schedule was extraordinary. "It is even more impressive when you consider the building is three times the size of an average Home Depot," he added.

The architecture firm also designed the recently opened stores in New Haven, Conn., and Philadelphia, as well as upcoming locations near Atlanta, Boston and Chicago.

While the store's construction is of a larger scale than the average big -box, it still shares some of the structural characteristics, such as exterior walls formed by tilt-up panels on a concrete-poured foundation. "The main difference in the design of the West Coast stores is that there is a greater emphasis on tilt-up construction," Consoli said.

"Tilt-ups are more cost-effective in this climate, whereas insulated metal wall panels are the most cost-effective choice in the Northeast."
Suft said: "Concrete is everywhere on this project, including the parking lot.

The lot is built to last forever, and was placed using a laser screed lay-down machine, similar to what would be used for freeway construction."

The concrete foundation features an 11-in. slab on a 240,000-sq.-ft. footprint for the 342,000-sq.-ft. store. The mezzanine level consists of a metal deck with 4 in. of concrete, and houses the store's 'vignettes,' where sample apartments and rooms display the company's furniture and accessories.

A total of 28,000 cu. yds. of concrete was used on the entire project.

Greenholz said the company's standards of design eliminate any wasteful or unnecessary embellishments on >> the structure. For example, the interior features an exposed ceiling with duct-work and other skeletal features visible to underscore the customer's impression that they are getting more value for their buck.

The same IKEA design principals used for IKEA's retail products are reflected in the architecture of its stores. "Most retailers spend the money on designing the front exterior of the store with as much visual impact as possible," Consoli said. "This is because they are usually in a shopping center or mall with stores on either side of them.

"IKEA, on the other hand, uses stand-alone buildings, and it wants the whole structure to be a complete package. When you drive up to an IKEA, you will view it from many vantage points, and from each side the IKEA-branded image is instantly recognizable."

Since early in its history, IKEA has adhered to a specific color scheme in all of its stores worldwide. "Samples of the IKEA blue, yellow and gray were transmitted to Sweden for IKEA to spectrographically analyze each sample for quality control," Suft said.

Suft Construction set up a special Webcam with a camera pointed on the construction site 24 hours a day. While the camera proved useful for eager customers to follow every step of the construction, its real purpose was to allow IKEA staff in Sweden and Pennsylvania, as well as the architect in New Jersey, to monitor the project's progress.