10 Guidelines to Consider When Designing Your Next Self-Storage Facility
By JMA Senior Principal, Robin Murphy
Unlike the boxes that are stored within, there’s not a one-size fits all-solution when it comes to designing self-storage facilities. It’s important to be prepared for the unexpected and to team up with architectural firms that approach each project's unique challenges respectfully. In this article, there will be 10 demonstrated factors that anyone in the early stages of self-storage facility design should bear in mind.
#1. Design Guidelines Matter
Get Space Division Street, Portland Oregon
Like all project types, the design review (DR) process leaves its mark on self-storage projects, which may or may not influence a specific site. This process is usually triggered by the scale of the project, the intended use, and the property zoning. The way that design guidelines are often written is to prioritize the pedestrian experience at the street building interface. This is usually defined by pedestrian weather protection, building transparency at the street level, addressing blank walls, modulation requirements, and attention to materials, colors, and textures that are present in the urban realm. It’s not uncommon for these guidelines to result in a homogeneous cityscape of buildings that look and feel very similar, regardless of the intended use. It’s the responsibility of the design team to work with those various design guidelines and create a responsive building that can be read as its intended use. This Portland, Oregon project is a successful example of meeting DR guidelines while being legible as a self-storage building.
#2. Urban Awareness Month
Bolt Storage Ballard, Seattle, WA
It’s generally true that the more rural a self-storage facility, the more likely it would be to have primarily larger, drive-up units and the more urban the facility, the more likely it would be to have smaller elevator units. Urban meets rural, in this vertical drive-through facility in Seattle, Washington. This building has predominantly smaller elevator accessed units on the upper and lower floors, but at the ground level, the project features a climate controlled, high bay drive-through that allows customers to access their storage units directly from their vehicle and out of the elements. This is especially appealing to the underserved urban contractor who requires an environment to fabricate and load their vehicle before heading out to the jobsite.
Ballinger Heated Storage in Shoreline, Washington
#3. It’s All Relative
Sherlock Self-Storage, Duvall, Washington
Architectural form and massing need to relate to the community’s local history. Like all buildings designed for a specific location, self-storage buildings must follow the building and zoning codes, but they should respect the surrounding culture as well. This multi-story self-storage facility is a good example of instilling rural roof forms with modern materials, aligning the building with the idyllic feel of the area. This project would likely not fit in an urban environment, but it’s right at home in Duvall, Washington..
#4. Use Less, Get More
Get Space Johnson Creek, Portland, Oregon
It’s frequently a smart development decision, in addition to being good for the environment, to adapt and repurpose existing building stock. This 3-story, 91,000 square foot (sq) facility in Portland, Oregon was initially a single-story tilt up manufacturing warehouse. That warehouse was tall enough to allow two stories within the original envelope, but not three. For this project, the solution was to brace the walls and remove the existing roof. A new roof was constructed 5 feet (ft) higher, along with a modern glass tower element, and an accessible loading area. The new floors were isolated from the original tilt up walls through a seismic gap. The result is a slightly larger building footprint that leverages the bones of an existing industrial facility. This solution was not only sustainable, but saved the client time and money as well
#5. Sky is the Limit
Get Space York Street, Portland, Oregon
The obvious solution to develop a high value/tight urban site is to go with vertical construction. However, this impressive 6-story, 120,000 sq facility in Portland, Oregon did not come with such an clear solution. At the time, the Oregon Structural Specialty Code did not allow multi-story self-storage buildings to exceed three stories. To get this approved, an alternate materials and methods (AMM) request to allow a 2B (construction type) over a 1A building was submitted. The successful argument, in this case, was that the future edition of the International Building Code (IBC) would allow such a building. The AMM resulted in several conditions applied to the final building. These conditions included increased sprinkler density, and improved communications in the stair wells for firefighters. Also, it’s not uncommon to add fire walls, but in this case, that was not necessary.
#6. Such a Square
Interbay Self-Storage, Seattle, Washington
Creative designs to fit awkward development sites are rarely constructed as an ideal 30,000 sf square shape. This self-storage facility, located in Seattle, Washington, is long and rectangular. Such a configuration can make loading and travel distance difficult to resolve. The solution was determined to create two loading zones, one at each end of the building. The primary loading area is adjacent to the office and two elevators. The secondary loading zone is at the far end of the building, adjacent to a third elevator. This configuration kept the distance traveled from any elevator to about 140' in walking distance.
#7. Know What’s Below
Premier Self-Storage, Everett, Washington
Site constraints, such as challenging topography, may not be immediately apparent. This Everett, Washington self-storage facility has an existing cellular tower on site. The utility easements needed to be carefully considered in the building, site, and fire access design. This condition helped determine the ultimate building layout. This location also included some interesting topographic challenges. Various alternatives were studied three dimensionally and the final solution was selected early in the design process. This resulted with precipitous drive access and the office being in the basement of the building. The site constraints also resulted in a second, 2-story storage building being located near the cellular tower. This resolution was the result of the utility easement and access constraints.
#8. When You Can’t Choose Just On
Rainier Work Lofts and Storage, Seattle, Washington
There are properties that inherently have more constraints than others. There are also building programs that have more complexities to solve than straightforward self-storage use. This project located in Seattle, Washington had both! A 9-story, self-storage, and urban work loft structure included a building program that has constructed parking, a caretaker’s residence, office, and storage users that needed to be segregated for security reasons. The project also needed to be expandable at parking levels for a phase 2 extension. The property is adjacent to a major highway, and situated on a sloped site where the existing access road was modified to access multiple levels of parking. It was also built on piles located in a liquefaction zone and positioned over a 9' diameter utility tunnel. Due to its height, the facility is also classified as a high rise.
#9. Unchained Melancholy
Ballinger Heated Self Storage, Shoreline, Washington
It’s our contention that no building typology should be designed to appear to be another use, although this does not mean that a self-storage building, designed for obvious storage, needs to be a vast and void box. Through careful use of glass, massing, and material moves, a self-storage facility should be well designed to fit into its context as well as be readable as a storage building. This Shoreline, Washington self-storage facility features two tower elements that are primarily transparent, which help to balance opaque walls. When viewing a building in its entirety, it should be dynamic as well as balanced, as such in this example.
#10. Curb Appeal 101
CubeSmart Self-Storage, Seattle, Washington
Corner urban lots are held to a much higher standard than mid-block lots. Many design guidelines are structured to enhance corner elements as definers of the urban fabric. This Seattle, Washington self-storage facility is a good illustration of that. The 4-story, 106,000 sf building features a drive-through with internal loading that required an AMM to fit into Seattle's building code at the time. To help navigate the DR process, the corner element was given a special hierarchy using brick, glass, and its height. It’s set off from the rest of the opaque building with recessions in the facades called "hinges". This commercially zoned property is adjacent to several single-family properties, so special consideration was given to privacy and security concerns.
Designing a self-storage facility doesn’t have to be a cumbersome project with cookie cutter results, nor does it have to have a negative impact on the built environment. By literally thinking outside the box, that box can be used not for not only its intended purposes but appreciated by all who share its space within the community it serves.
Robin Murphy is owner and principal of Jackson | Main Architecture, which has designed hundreds of self-storage facilities in rural, suburban and dense-urban areas. He’s a licensed architect in 15-plus states, with 24 years of experience in the self-storage industry. He’s a LEED-accredited professional, and member of the American Institute of Architects and the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. To reach him, call 206.324.4800.