LOS ANGELES, Calif. – A colossal 70,000-square-foot, hybrid cannabis retail store meets indoor cultivation facility, is scheduled to open tomorrow, Saturday, August 24th in the Los Angeles Art District. Rousing this new high-end cultural experience for cannabis, and stimulating new opportunity within the design field, is Gi Paoletti Design Lab with the grand opening of the artistically curated Stiiizy dispensary complex. A custom architectural creation inspired by LA’s art scene and today’s cannabis connoisseur, Gi Paoletti’s design offers millennials and shoppers of all ages an elevated, almost art gallery-like, shareable customer experience from entry to exit.
Gi Paoletti Design Lab – known for its full-service exterior and interior design services, complex mixed-use development projects, and prior cannabis grow house design work – was approached by Stiiizy of Shryne Group Holdings with the unique design challenge to combine two spatial objectives: high-end experiential commercial retail & operational warehouse and manufacturing functionality. Paoletti intelligently blends the Stiiizy “self-branded cannabis boutique” (a growing trend in the evolving cannabis marketplace) and adjoining warehouse. The creative combination offers consumers a Neiman Marcus-esq shopping experience, followed by a sense of industry transparency with a peek through the store’s portal windows revealing the behind the scenes world of weed. Patrons leave knowing a little bit more about the journey their cannabis products take to arrive on the dispensary display shelf, courtesy of careful design consideration.
At this flagship Art District location, cannabis-seeking visitors step through a modernized warehouse facade to enter an elegant yet edgy receiving area brightly lit by studio lighting. The reception or ‘welcome area’ is meant to have an art gallery feel with expansive wall space to host local and up-n-coming artists, inspire social discussion and cater to culture-fresh Insta-feeds; all paralleling the shop’s home base surroundings of LA’s Art District. Commanding further social attention is the Paoletti designed, interchangeable Instagram art pod. Next, navigate through the glass doors into the LED-lit ‘illusion tunnel’ for an Alice in Wonderland “down the rabbit hole” experience as you journey from a 15-ft by 15-ft opening to a 9-ft by 9-ft area emphasized by laser display projection art. After the optical illusion of descending downward, you then emerge into a 30-ft ceiling retail level; this marks your arrival to the main store.
Experience the evolution of cannabis retail design. Peruse the overwhelming selection of both Stiiizy and other cannabis brand products neatly packed on to custom display shelving pods architecturally designed to utilize the entirety of the warehouse space, floor to ceiling. Reflecting a hint of Stiiizy brand spirit, is Paoletti commissioned wall art on opposite ends of the store featuring a 30-ft installation by the famous Los Angeles-based street artist Retna. You begin to mentally compare to the dingy, hole-in-a-wall establishments you visited in past, to the “high design” before you. It’s easy to understand the call for high-level design within cannabis retail as you soak in and imagine the wide range of shopper tastes this will initially attract and appeal to.
Once customers have perused, snapchatted and secured their purchases, the design flow leads you past three window portals into marijuana manufacturing, just before one’s grand exit. With complementary street artists surrounding this new establishment, filling the city’s canvases with color and purpose, the Paoletti designed Stiiizy cannabis complex is a sound LA art experience.
Thanks to Paoletti, Stiiizy distinguishes itself from the traditional dispensary. To fully utilize the industrial space potential and with desire for the structure itself to shine attention on allowing in-store customer social communications, Stiiizy knew they needed a design solution where someone could individually craft unique client-inspired, multi-purpose spaces.
With existing cannabis facility construction experience and rapport for commercial retail and restaurant spaces – such as San Francisco’s Tipsy Pig, Mr. Tipple’s Recording Studio, and most recently the Bay Area opening of Homage LTD – Gi Paoletti Design Lab brings a brand’s ethos to life through imaginative interior construction choices and architectural manipulation of the space.
“Many designers or firms either have ‘a look,’ or are quick to repeat design concepts portraying elements of nature – reclaimed wood, minimalism, spa-like atmospheres, neutral color pallets, and the obvious incorporation of plants via moss-covered walls,” mused Paoletti. “Cannabis clients want, and need, a recognizable identity to stand out in a noisy arena, crowded with increasingly more competitors. I don’t have a ‘type’ or ‘look’. Each individual project is approached with fresh movement, drawing inspiration from the client themselves. Everything is an original creation with zero pre-meditated vision or expectation. Gi Paoletti Design Lab owns every step of the project’s development from design, to permitting, to construction administration, to completion; having this comprehensive set of services under one roof helps brands to emerge uniquely, with strong direction and clear identity,” said Gi Paoletti, Founder and CEO of Gi Paoletti Design Lab since 2007.
In addition to the flagship store space, Paoletti created and consulted on five other Stiiizy retail projects all slated to open in 2019. Paoletti aspires to trailblaze further into the cannabis sector of design projects. She gains inspiration from her San Francisco home knowing its historical role and contribution to both the cannabis movement and elevated concept of architectural design, to meet a de-stigmatized retail reality. Gi is eager for wild and challenging future projects to tackle- a mixed-development, mall-like cannabis complex, or a luxury super yacht doubling as a grow house, to name a few on her project wishlist. She hopes to continue spreading inspiration to other designers on the creative opportunities that lie within this young cannabis industry and marketplace.
Design began on the LA Art District Stiiizy project in November 2018. The massive contemporary blank canvas was a mission of functionality and flair, successfully achieved through Paoletti’s design vision to create an environment the refines the cannabis marketplace and provides an inviting dispensary landscape for current and future cannabis users. All while enabling the vertically-integrated Shryne Group cannabis holding company, Stiiizy, to handle the equally colossal task of cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, and retail delivery via a highly operational workspace foundation.
About Gi Paoletti Design Lab
Founded by Gi Paoletti in 2007, Gi Paoletti Design Lab is a full-service interior architecture and design firm providing comprehensive design services from concept through construction completion. Known for mixing a high-level of design with exceptional knowledge in building codes and ADA guidelines, Gi leads her project teams through a unique collaborative process to achieve a greater vision in design. The San Francisco-based firm specializes in exclusive single and mixed-use development projects, including distinctive and eco-friendly hospitality (restaurant, bar, retail, resort) and corporate office designs. With all designs personally produced by Gi Paoletti, the firm has over 27 years of domestic and international architecture, design and construction administration experience. Some of Paoletti’s most recognized restaurant design achievements in San Francisco are Tipsy Pig, Bloodhound, Barrique, Maven, Per Diem, Noir Lounge, St. Vincent, Stock in Trade, Mr. Tipple’s Recording Studio, Cadence, Homage, Scotland Yard and Sushirrito. Other notable projects are Sol Food La Bodega in San Rafael, Rootstock in Los Gatos and a 56-suite private resort in Marin. For more information, visit Gi Paoletti Design Lab’s website.
About Shryne Group
Shryne Group Inc. is a Los Angeles-based cannabis holding company with a fully vertically integrated asset and license portfolio covering the breadth of California, the largest legal cannabis market in the world. For more information on Shryne Group Inc. and the STIIIZY.
