Completed 2021
8,000 SF Retail Store
Building Renovation | Commercial fit-out

Formaggio Kitchen, a specialty food shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a food lover’s paradise. Located for more than forty years at 244 Huron Avenue in the City’s Huron Village neighborhood, owner’s Valerie and Ihsan Gurdal jumped at the chance to expand to a larger space when the old Fresh Pond Market was put up for sale in 2019, just two blocks up the street. The beloved market was an institution in its own right, but the aging building was in rough shape.

Decades of ad hoc repairs and renovation, combined with years of deferred maintenance, made for a daunting task to bring the existing building up to current building and energy code as well as accessibility and life-safety standards. In addition to programatic considerations, including the need to accommodate Fomaggio’s robust back-of-house food preparation operations, significant structural repairs were included, along with new mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems. Moreover, the building’s street facade incorporated a new storefront window system and a new accessible entrance.

As the design process went on, the history embedded in the old building was revealed through a series of exploratory demolition exercises. Given Valerie and Ihsan’s desire to retain as much of the character of the old building as possible, the market’s original details, such as subway tile with inlaid mosaic lettering hidden behind walls, and hardwood floors discovered below layers of linoleum were salvaged, restored and ultimately showcased in the new store.