Candy Land: New Sarris factory store unveiled
For Emma Cline, creativity, collaboration and a healthy dose of fun are the keys to sweet success.
Leading the tight-kit Fukui Architects team that designed the new Sarris Candies factory store in Canonsburg was a “fun, full-circle moment” for the Bethel Park native, one she will savor for the rest of her career.
“It was fun to bring my skills that I learned somewhere else into a space that means a lot to me,” Cline said, “I mean, who doesn’t love the Sarris name? It’s such a big part of every South Hills persons’ life.”
Converting the historic former Fort Pitt Bridgeworks property on Meadow Lane into a state-of-the-art chocolate factory and retail space was no small feat. According to Sarris CEO and President Bill Sarris, the goal was to design a structure that would allow people to visit and view the production facility to see how the company’s iconic chocolate products are made.
“I think they always knew they wanted a retail store in the front,” Cline said, “they really wanted something fun and funky and different.
Cline said that “modern Willy Wonka,” served as the starting point for the design brief, which allowed her team to begin brainstorming potential creative direction for the project.
“It makes it easier when they want something funky and different,” she said.
The team, which includes firm founder Felix Fukui and architectural designer Isabella Bolaños, generated a range of renderings depicting different options for the project, drawing inspiration from other retail spaces, candy stores and even a zoo.
“Nobody works in a vacuum, we’re always looking at other projects that we like, taking tidbits and creating them for our space,” Cline said. “It’s a lot of trial and error.”
Cline said that the Sarris team were eager collaborators in the project, which helped keep the creativity flowing.
According to Sarris, “we had a number of meetings as the project moved forward, each step in the process made it a lot easier to imagine the final result.” As the project progressed, Cline and her team refined the creative direction until they arrived at the final design after dozens of iterations.
“I think we got really lucky that (Sarris leadership) were so on board to do something weird and different,” Cline said, “there’s a lot of fun details we were able to work through that were really incredible.”
Striking the right balance between functionality and fun was critical.
The new retail space is decorated like a larger-than-life box of chocolates, with larger than life models of Sarris’ signature pretzels and other details.
Cline said that she focused on designing a space where people of any age can experience that “kid in a candy store” sense of wonder and excitement as they explore the space.
This includes several custom-made product display shelves that curve, giving an immersive feel to a patron standing in the center.
One of Cline’s proudest contributions is the incorporation of 1960s chocolate molds that were used by late company founder Frank Sarris in his Adams Avenue factory.
“I told (Bill Sarris) we have to use these and put them up, it’s so cool to have the history be a part of your project,” Cline said. “I think it turned out really well.”
The molds were powder coated bright candy colors and mounted behind the checkout counter, providing a tangible link between Sarris’ past and present.
“So if you’re checking out, you can look up and recognize some of the molds,” Cline said. “I recognize the Easter bunny ones my grandmom used to get me.”
“It’s one of my favorite details,” Store Operations Manager Lizzy Henry added.
The Fukui team also hid a number of miniature decals of Sarris’ mascots Franky Twist and Coco the Chocolate Bar in discreet spots around the store, giving young visitors even more reason to explore.
“And if you go up the stairs, you see that the anchors for the handrails are little chocolate covered pretzels, which was touch from the person who installed that,” Cline said, “that’s the beauty of a project like this, everyone is so excited that they put their own personal spin on it and do what they can to make it special.”
Cline credits this pervasive, productive collaboration for the project’s overall success.
“A project like this could have been incredibly stressful … a headache and a half, but the Sarris team was so willing to get crazy, do fun stuff, and the builders were so easy to work with. It really was one of the most fun projects in my 12-year career,” Cline said.
Sarris said he is “extremely happy” with the final design.
“You know the saying, it takes a village to raise a child, well, it took a village of people to make this happen. I would love to list them all, but I’m afraid if I missed one, I would regret it, so I will stick with the village,” Sarris said.
Tours of the space have been in high-demand since the new factory store opened earlier this month.
Henry said that the response from the public has been “fantastic, so far it has been overwhelming in the most positive way.”
“It’s incredible seeing how chocolate brings people together,” she said.
Interested parties can book a 45-minute tour of the new factory and retail space five days a week at https://sarriscandies.com/products/public-group-tour.