Marty's Music Store is like a carefully arranged composition: There's a lot going on, but everything flows together.
Based in Annvi1le, Pa., the 11,000-square-foot store has been designed from the inside out to accommodate the concept of flow--from the way customers move within the full-line operation’s many departments to how the building's sweeping architectural lines blend in with the rest of the area's historic rural landscape.
Resembling a turn-of-the-century schoolhouse, or possibly an old Dutch-style barn, Marty's Music Store is the kind of place where form meets function. The family-owned company moved out of nearby Lebanon, Pa., where it had been operating since 1946. The new superstore opened in February 2003, and it has helped Marty's nearly double its annual sales--from about $1 million to $2 million. "That’s what design win do for you," said David Moyer, general manager and co-owner of Marty's Music Store, recalling the cramped conditions of the previous 5,000-square-foot location in downtown Lebanon. "Design makes a big difference on not only how your product appears to the customer, but how the customer feels when [he or she] enters the store. If you design it correctly, people will be drawn to you.
"Sometimes customers can be overwhelmed by the mass of products and lower ceilings in retail stores. To a musician, that might be great, but to the average person who might be buying a gift or the parent who's looking for something for their child, it's not. Whereas if you can create something that's designed more open and free and inviting, they're going to come back again and again.”
WIDE OPEN SPACES
With a 44-foot-high ceiling, complemented by five towering cupolas, Marty's Music Store breathes with a wide-open feeling on the inside, giving staff the ability to know what's going on in all departments at all times. Windows are everywhere, allowing natural light in.
When customers walk through the front door and I approach the octagonal "command central" counter, it's a no-brainer for them to find their bearings regarding where to turn for everything from guitars and print music to drums, pianos, band instruments, pianos and keyboards, and even high-definition televisions. And the sales floor is directly accessible from all of the offices and storage areas, so salespeople are never disconnected from the customers they aim to serve.
Marty's displays merchandise in a wide-open manner that brings out the aesthetic beauty of the musical instruments.
"The nice thing about having a big, open volume is that all of your product is actually signage," said Kip Kelly, president of Nest Architecture, who designed the building and oversaw most of its construction. "That's why we ran windows all the way around the store, even around the corners. We have this big panoramic sign with all of the contents acting as the advertising. Everywhere you look, there are beautiful curving lines. That's part of what makes it work, the shapes and colors of the guitars, pianos and drums that inhabit the space.”
THE WAREHOUSE MODEL
Built almost entirely out of conventional warehouse materials--from the all-metal support structure to the roofing, siding and internal fixtures--Marty's Music Store went up quickly and inexpensively.
"This whole thing is a big puzzle, said the 41-year-old Moyer, who can also monitor the entire store from banks of closed-circuit video screens in his office. "It came in a big kit, and they threw it up—unbelievable. There are five or six different colors and textures on the outside of the building, but it's the same as a big warehouse. It's just one big box in the center, and then it has wings off to the sides. On every wing, the towers stand up and stick out so it doesn't look like a prefab building.”
The whole project was completed for about $1.3 million. "We hit at the right time, and were able to do it for a steal," Moyer said, noting that' the same project would cost more than $2 million today. "It was a time in the economy when interest rates were dropping, and banks were very interested in any type of commercial investment. And I knew that even if our sales didn't increase one bit in the new location, we could still afford to do this.”
In Kelly's opinion, the warehouses that local contractor Arthur Funk & Sons were accustomed to building didn't create a space that was conducive to a retail operation like Marty's. So he chose a variety of available materials and started exploring ways to tweak many of the standard construction parts without spending extra money.
"I wanted to be sure to take it to the next level,” Kelly said. "There are some flat panels, some corrugated panels, even perforated corrugated panels. When I reviewed the brochure, I picked out the colors I liked the best and then wove them into the design in such a way that they complement each other and work together. They organize so things don't seem too chaotic With this size of a structure, all the different textures and colors allowed me to break down the mass so it didn't feel like such a behemoth of a thing. We were able to come up with an assemblage that resembles a piece of music, where everything connects."
MARTY'S EXTRAS
A 70-seat music venue called The Loft, located upstairs and accessible from the outside, provides the finishing touch to the building's warehouse vibe. The space doubles as a clinic room; Moyer frequently books appearances by artists who endorse the major manufacturers be does business with. Bluegrass music is especially popular in Central Pennsylvania, so Marty's will often hold banjo and ukulele clinics featuring regional players up in The Loft, as well.
Like The Loft, Marty's music school occupies a part of the building that can operate as a separate entity, with its own heating and cooling system and easy after-hours access for teachers and students. Located just inside the schoolhouse-looking entrance, underneath a genuine (and fully functional) old-fashioned school bell, the music school includes five lesson rooms plus a larger classroom facility for digital piano and organ labs. Between 200-250 students come through every week, along with some 25 teachers (all of whom are independent contractors). Music lessons can go as late as 10 p.m., long after Marty's has closed the sales floor for the day.
THE BIG THREE
Nest Architecture and Arthur Funk & Sons did such a fine job of taking the design and construction to the next level that Marty's Music Store was recognized last year by Metal Architecture magazine as the most innovative metal building in the United States. The two firms were also honored by Varco Pruden Buildings, a manufacturer of metal buildings, for their work.
Now that the new building is up and sprinting, Moyer has set some new goals for the future of Marty's Music Store, especially regarding how it relates to competition from Guitar Center, Brook Mays and scores of independent retailers in the region.
"We'd like to be one of the top three players in the area, anywhere from Harrisburg to Reading,” Moyer said. "I think in about five years we will be at that level. If our sales continue to grow the amount they are now, we'll be right there with all the rest of them. We want a reputation of service and quality, with an efficient and concentrated staff who really know their product, to be our mission statement.
“Retailers out there are moving little locations around and trying to break into other markets. But we've decided that rather than go around and create a chain of these stores, let's create the most efficient store we can, with a destination type of ideology. That's really what's happened