Caffe Nero

CAFFE NERO

EMBRACE THE CAFFE NERO HISTORY

Caffe Nero, a growing establishment of 20+ years across the UK as master coffee roasters and coffee houses, had an opportunity to introduce their signature blend and one of a kind meeting places to the U.S. one store at a time. They called upon UPLAND ARCHITECTS to make their vision a reality. Upland rose to the challenge to develop these stores in the Boston and surrounding areas at first, then eventually branching out to other areas. The result is a thriving restaurant brand, recognized in the area as a leader in quality Italian coffee, pastries and sandwiches, providing a creative relaxing setting in which to enjoy food, beverage and the company of others.

DESIGN, TRANSLATE, ELEVATE

Upland Architects works with Nero’s in-house designers to develop their original concept and layout in a way that maximizes potential and utilizes limited, precious and expensive leasable floor area. Upland maintains communication with Nero’s team throughout the design process, meeting site specific challenges and making designs conform to local building code regulations without sacrificing the environment for which the cafes are known.

FROM CONCEPTUAL TO PRACTICAL

An aggressive project schedule is developed with the client’s construction manager and adhered to, throughout each location’s active duration. Key milestones are met through constant communication and coordination with kitchen equipment vendors, MEP and structural engineers and then back to the client to ensure a smooth process of construction documents.

Upland has an active role and involvement in every aspect of design preparation, document development and construction phases. Services are provided to the client are as follows:

Initial site survey and existing conditions documents.
Preliminary design layout and building code review.
Project milestone scheduling.
Construction Document production.
Kitchen Vendor and Engineer coordination.
Meetings and communication with client, landlord, building inspectors.
Distribution of Bidding documents to GCs.
Construction administration: Addressing RFIs and material submittals by the GC.
Additional site visits throughout construction phases and at the close of the project.

MAINTAINING CONSISTENCY

While each Caffe Nero location has their own distinctive character. There has been a need to have a level of uniformity, and a well-defined set of documents that provided the same high level of detail in a reliable format that kept the design deviations of each location easy to identify and quantify by the contractors and client alike. Upland has worked with client to develop a list of postmortem lessons learned after the completion of each project, to continuously improve the quality of the documents for future locations, achieving a balance between individuality and prototypical elements.