| Photo: Curbed |
| The clean lines inside SPARC delighted the judges of an international interior design competition. |
A San Francisco medical marijuana dispensary has won a prestigious interior design award for its clean, smartly used space.
The International Interior Design Association awarded the San Francisco Patient and Resource Center (SPARC) in the 19th Annual Will Ching Design Competition, reports RJ Middleton at NBC Bay Area.
The pot shop’s retail space features minimalist oak tables and benches, showcasing “vaguely bong-shaped lights,” steel shelves holding the cannabis, and a sales counter “made of local oak, with inset glass-topped drawers exhibiting buds, salves and edibles like snickerdoodle cookies and ‘cosmic caramels,’ ” according to Sarah Firshein at Curbed.
But what may have really made SPARC a big hit is the “cascading grid of steel and glass patterned loosely on marijuana’s DNA and peppered with clear aquamarine panes.”
That design was reportedly inspired by a gay bar in San Francisco that was the first of its kind to have clear windows when it opened in the 1970s.
“It lets people know we’re not afraid of anything, that there’s no shame in it,” owner Eric Pearson said.
Pearson said he wanted to “remove the stigma around cannabis and make people feel marijuana is normal.”
“What does it tell people, though, when their go-to weed distributor is prettier, more stylish and overall way more awesome than their actual home?” Curbed couldn’t resist writing.
“Innovation and excellence in design were at the cornerstone of the winners of this year’s IDC/WC awards,” said Viveca Bissonnette, president of the IIADA, who oversaw the judging process, reports Dexigner.