car wash blog

We recently had some photos taken of the Fashion Square Car Wash by photographer Sergio Garza - www.SergioGarza.net.

Sergio shot these for his portfolio, so we didn't interfere and advise him of what we wanted. He had free range to express his artistic point of view. We are pleased with the results. They capture the essence of the place, a busy car wash that is only closed (except for rainy days) one day a year. We also like that he took some pictures of just the landscaping.

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza

Photo by Sergio Garza - www.SergioGarza.net

The Fashion Square Car Wash, located in Sherman Oaks, CA (Los Angeles) was remodeled extensively in 2009 by the following team:

Update September 2009

While we continue to go back in time and add posts of the entire Fashion Square Car Wash architecture and construction process, I thought we'd show a few recent pictures to hold you over until we send in the professional photographers.

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The new waiting area

And, just to remind you, the old waiting area and main building

A close up of the new canopy

Canopy detail

We also designed all the new signs

The old sign

New drought tolerant landscaping along the street

The sign and landscaping at the corner

The simple and "clean" graphics

The welcome car wash ordering area

Before picture of the welcome area

The vacuum area beyond is about to be rebuilt with a new structure and graphics (Sept. 2009)

Path to the lobby

The card area

We brought a similar graphics theme to the store interiors

Stay tuned as posts will be added in the coming months to show you more of the architecture and construction process.

Some renderings of the (screen) concept to match the previosly developed study model. We've found that moving back and forth between physical and digital modeling works well for us. Digital modeling is fast while the physical modeling allows us to see the entirety of the design at once and forces us to determine a level of buildability in the architecture.

View from the street

The car wash ordering area

The waiting area

The ever critical car wash store is much more than just a place to pay for your car wash. If the architecture and interiors are done correctly, it can turn the chore of getting a car wash into a pleasant shopping experience.

This first round of design for the car wash store interiors was intended to reflect the concepts used on the exterior (see previous post): the screen, simple signs, and improved flow.

The cabinetry is composed of stacked pieces of wood of various widths that provide different shelving depths, dramatic shadow lines, and visually relate to the screens used on the exterior. Storage areas just below the display areas are intended to ease the merchandise stocking.

Simple, one word signs such as "write" (cards) and "give" (gifts) were intended to provide a customer with the essence of what was available in that portion of the store.

A birds-eye view of the store layout.

The floor plan of the store before the proposed remodel.

Several layouts were explored and flow diagrams created to see how to improve the customers experience of moving through the store.

These initial interior layouts included a take-out style cafe.

Although the client was very happy with these concepts for the store, the final constructed design of the store is fairly different, matching the reduced scope of the overall car wash project.