In Culver City, Sprouts Farmers Market <br> pulls the plug on Circuit City’s old look

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Sprouts Farmers Market, the Arizona-based supermarket chain, is expanding in Southern California this year, adding new locations in Thousand Oaks, Pasadena, Valencia and San Diego. But it is perhaps the new Culver City location that presents the most interesting design challenge.

A Culver City store will occupy the building that Circuit City vacated on Sepulveda Boulevard near Slauson Avenue. The L.A.-based Nadel architecture firm and in-house Sprouts designers must transform the sprawling, 32,000-square-foot concrete building into a cozy, old-fashioned farmers-market setting that is the company’s look.

Outside, the designers are reworking the exterior of Circuit City’s red-tiled box entry into a wood-paneled, faux grain silo. Inside, the store will have lots of bulk food bins that look like barrels and wood crates for baked goods. To further the rustic vibe: farm tools and hand-drawn chalkboard signs on the walls.

The Culver City store will be the chain’s first LEED-certified market and its second using refrigerant technologies that will qualify for the EPA’s environmentally friendly GreenChill certification.

-- Alexandria Abramian Mott

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