Wawa Inc. is more than doubling the size of its headquarters complex in Chester Heights, PA. The existing space will undergo renovations, and the addition will include a test kitchen, innovation-and-design center, and additional parking.
The 200,000-square-foot expansion, designed by JacobsWyper Architects, surrounds Wawa’s iconic gray stone house called Red Roof. One of the primary design objectives of the expansion was to fit everything around the house, which remains Wawa’s corporate symbol. The new space will expand the building to the right, balancing a previous addition and centering Red Roof once again.
The Lighting Practice worked with JacobsWyper Architects to illuminate the new headquarters addition for Wawa. The team was tasked with enhancing the new headquarters with energy efficient lighting that reinforced the design goals of collaboration and innovation. TLP Principal Al Borden and Lighting Designer Jonathan Cook designed the lighting system for the Annex 5 project, which includes 98,000 square feet of new office space connected to the Innovation & Design Center and parking structure.
A recent article in Philly.com notes that the addition will allow Wawa to “expand and innovate” in order to support its 730+ stores, while new features showcase the company’s history and culture.
Wawa doubling its headquarters (Update)
Philly.com | August 31, 2016
After workers started pouring concrete last spring, crews have been hanging iron this summer in the woods south of U.S. 1 in Chester Heights, west of Media, where Wawa Inc. is more than doubling the size of its headquarters complex, around the gray stone house Wawa calls Red Roof.
The 200,000-sq. ft. addition, including a test kitchen, innovation-and-design center, parking, plus renovations to existing space, lets Wawa “expand and innovate” to support more than 730 stores in the mid-Atlantic region and Florida, and add “special features that showcase our history and culture,” said Michelle Walsh, Wawa’s Director of Retail Implementation. The headquarters sits at the heart of properties developed and still partly occupied by members of Wawa’s founding Wood family, across the highway from Wawa’s more than 100-year-old dairy, trucking and warehouse center, which processes more than 23 million gallons of milk a year.
“They are bringing everybody to the campus. It will be large enough for 900 people,” says Terry Jacobs, a partner in JacobsWyper Architects in Center City. The firm has worked with Wawa since 1984, when cofounder Jacobs helped the consulting firm Touche Ross design Wawa’s computer building. “We made it look like a carriage house,” to go with the estate theme, he said.
Check out the full article on Philly.com.