Chicago Roastery Roasting Environment
The Starbuck Reserve Roastery concepts’ chief design challenge was to blend full-scale coffee manufacturing with an elevated, immersive retail experience. Every step of the coffee roasting process was brought into customer view and elevated to theater. In Chicago, the design of the food safe roasting environment spanned floor floors in customer view and a fifth for back of house functionality. Traditionally utilitarian, the roasting equipment was carefully recrafted to sit predominantly in the retail environment and illustrate the full ‘journey of the bean’.
street view into the roasting environment
craft on display
our roasters are able to share their craft with customers on the retail floor
isolated perspective of all roasting environment equipment
customer view of roasting environment on level one
industrial = art
bespoke elements were designed to be functional but also refined to match the level of craft practiced by the roasters
green bean silos being weighed before roasting
the cask, the heart
a design and engineering feat, the 5 story cask is the heart of the Roastery and distributes both green and roasted coffee beans
detail view of cask revealing a coffee ladder / rainstick
a partner only view inside the cask from a service platform
Project Role
As Senior Concept Designer at Starbucks, I designed and coordinated the Chicago Roasting Environment. The Chicago cask design is patented.
All photos are property of Starbucks Coffee Co. Image credit - Matt Glac