Spacesmith completes adaptive reuse project for Talbott & Arding

Hudson, NY Spacesmith designed a new shop and catering hub for a growing cheese purveyor and gourmet food producer in Hudson Valley. With their efficient, welcoming adaptive reuse of a former clothing factory, Spacesmith created an adaptable commercial venue for the company, Talbott & Arding.

Working with its 7,500 s/f industrial space, Spacesmith’s team conceived a solution embracing the same values of purveyors Mona Talbott and Kate Arding. Their food starts with simplicity and quality, most fresh local ingredients, and then it is beautifully and unpretentiously presented. The store was designed to reflect this and convey a sense of wholesome abundance.

An existing oversized glass garage door became the main view into the shop, with separate access to the store and delivery pickup adjacent. Inside, concrete floors and painted wood counter fronts, along with naturally finished custom wood shelving, complement countertops of slate and marble, all reclaimed from the retailer’s first store. Self-service cases offer customers quick picks and freezer items, and the new shelves display dry goods and specialty items near the checkout zone. Beyond a prepared-food case, where delectable salads are sold by the pound, are windowed views into the pastry-making area.

“Transparency and openness are central to the solution,” said architect Katy Flammia, AIA, IIDA, LEED AP, design director for Spacesmith’s local office. “Unlike other high-end food purveyors, Talbott & Arding prepares most all the food displayed in their cases. We wanted everyone to see into the kitchens and experience the movement between the retail and production sides.”

“Highly visible, the kitchen area creates a sense of theater,” said Misty McGee, director of business development at Spacesmith, which has completed other gourmet food spaces for Ladurée Paris and Aquavit in Manhattan. “The close connection between customer experience and food preparation reinforces the farm-to-kitchen-to-table ethos of the owners.” New offices and an event space activate a mezzanine level.

Enjoying new business growth, Talbott & Arding’s team hears frequent praise for their new shop. The Financial Times described it as the “8,000 s/f former children’s clothing factory from the 1940s with a big production kitchen, a retail space and room for seating, so people can stop in for lunch or a coffee before picking up fresh pasta or bread or dessert and heading home.”

According to Spacesmith’s Flammia, “It’s how we assist our clients to express their differentiator from their competitors in their built space. We don’t just make it functional and pretty, our design helps our clients sell and tell their story.”

Other recent projects by Spacesmith include Upriver Studios, the massive new film and television production facility in Saugerties, created from a former printing factory by a team including founder Mary Stuart Masterson.

Spacesmith is a nationally prominent, women-owned business enterprise.