The Impact of Design:
The Importance of Creating Exceptional Self-Storage Facilities
By Elizabeth Ferrin
For the past three decades, self-storage facilities have been known
for their long rows of one-story buildings and brightly painted
roll-up doors. Although these self-storage facilities were built to
be functional and economical, the buildings themselves were often
less than attractive. Today, however, the look of self-storage is
evolving. Rows of single-story structures are slowly giving way to,
multi-story buildings, and developers are incorporating
architectural details like glass block, upgraded tile flooring and
stamped concrete entryways. In short, developers are now focusing on
creating the best design for their self-storage projects.
The Value of Exceptional Design
Industry professionals are coming to realize that design is
extremely important to the success of a selfstorage facility. In the
past, developers have worked to build low cost facilities. Now, they
are more interested in creating a look that will add value to a
self-storage project.
“The philosophy behind this is that if you bring a building of
high-quality into play, people will go to see it,” states Rick
Blomgren, AIA, president of Axcess Architects, Inc. located in
Huntington Beach, Calif., who adds that getting people in the door
is half the battle when it comes to making a new facility
successful. He also points out that quality design is not about
spending extra money on a site without getting a good return.
Instead, a thoughtfully designed project should actually be more
successful and make more money than developing a more traditional
self-storage facility.
“If the perception is that your self-storage facility is of high
quality because of its dynamic design, owners can increase rents
5-cents a square foot over the average market rents in the area.”
says Blomren “That means a good design will pay for itself over
time.”
Other industry experts agree that money spent on design is a sound
investment in a facility’s future. “Clients may pay a little extra
up front for luxury items, but it helps [a facility] rent up
faster,” points out Pavlos Pavlidis, president of Cleveland,
Ohio-based Atekton Architects and Designers.
A well-designed facility gives the project added value to
prospective renters. The upscale look of an architecturally pleasing
facility often gives the impression that renters’ goods are safer
and more secure than they would be in a traditional self-storage
warehouse. “People value design a lot more than they did in the
past,” says Pavlidis. “If I was an owner of a facility and looking
at only the bottom cost dollar, what good is it if I’m only at 20 or
30-percent occupancy? If you value design and quality work, it may
cost a little more up front, but you might be 80 or 90-percent
occupied within the same amount of time.” He goes on to say that
people who value design will make more money and recoup their
expenses faster than the person who just wants to build the least
expensive project.
Changes In Design
With an emphasis on quality design, the face of self-storage is
changing. One of the most important reasons for the evolution of
facilities has to do with the scarcity of land. With both rising
land prices and a shrinking number of prop-erties available for
development, the industry is seeing a trend toward big, multistory
facilities. “Multi-story projects are becoming more prevalent. Two
and three story designs are now common, and we are seeing three and
four story projects with basements,” points out Ariel L. Valli,
president of Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Valli Architectural Group.
“Development sites are getting smaller, necessitating single
building multi-story projects.”
Although constructing massive buildings on smaller pieces of
property is popular, developers should be careful to avoid
overbuilding the project. “One of the most important points to
remember is that you need space to get items into and out of the
building,” says Pavlidis. “Many sites are constructed with too
little space in the parking lots, making it impossible for a
customer with a trailer to back into their space. Many sites don’t
have a proper radius. If you don’t make it accessible people aren’t
going to rent there.” This means that developers should think about
convenience rather than focusing solely on optimizing rentable
square footage.
While the properties available for self-storage are shrinking, the
size of the facility’s office is growing. One of the latest trends
in the industry is centered on emphasizing the retail aspects of a
self-storage facility. “We’re making offices much larger with a
concerted effort and more presentation on the retail side,” explains
Bruce Jordan, president of San Clemente, Calif.-based Jordan
Architects, Inc. “In addition to displaying, advertising and
merchandising of boxes and locks, you’re also seeing kiosks in the
office, workstations, coffee bars and refreshments,” he states,
noting that while offices used to be about 500 square feet, they are
now reaching sizes of 2,000 square feet and larger.
Instead of using the office just for accepting rents and orienting
new tenants, developers are creating user friendly buildings to
serve their customers. Indus-try professionals are not only becoming
aware of the additional revenue they can realize from the sale of
moving and storage items, but they also see the value of offering
clients services above and beyond what they would normally expect
from a self-storage facility. This provides owners with a secondary
source of revenue and it helps to separate the self-storage facility
from its competition.
Municipalities are also coming to realize the revenue that
self-storage facilities can generate through the sale of moving and
storage items like boxes, packing tape and disc locks. “Cities are
trying to emphasize the retail component,” says Jordan. “Retail
sales give city sales tax revenue, which traditional self-storage
doesn’t provide.” He explains that emphasizing retail sales benefits
both the city and the self-storage facility owner.
Unique Designs
Municipalities are also encouraging self-storage developers to
create interesting and attractive facilities. Currently, there is a
trend toward moving self-storage facilities out of industrial parks
and onto the retail areas of Main Street. With a less than
attractive image, developers must work especially hard to get a
self-storage project approved for zoning in a retail area. “We want
to be on sites in retail areas and with that much exposure, there is
more review and scrutiny by neighbors,” says Bob Liebling, project
design manager for Seattle, Wash.-based Shurgard. “Since they were
bad looking in the past, jurisdictions are getting stricter about
the designs of self-storage. They are requiring buffers and a better
quality of design, especially when exposed to residential
neighbors,” he states. Instead of accepting plans for a less
attractive rows of buildings, cities are coming to realize that
self-storage facilities can be attractive and they are holding out
for well designed projects.
Since they are becoming more visible, self-storage owners are
putting a great deal of thought into creating a unique facility.
“When you’re project is highly visible on a freeway or busy
intersection, then you can use the building itself as a sign,” says
Blomgren. “When your self-storage facility is noticeable, it helps
tremendously in getting clients, so we add architectural punch into
the office or the portion of the site that’s visible from the
freeway so drivers do a double take,” he explains.
Blomgren recalls a self-storage facil-ity he designed that had a
window wall facing the freeway. Clients could rent a space with the
window wall that could serve as a display window as well as a
self-storage unit. “We rented one to a man who made retro cast iron
cars and he quadrupled his business,” Blomgren proudly states.
Another important trend resulting from self-storage’s move to Main
Street is the project’s need to fit in with its surroundings.
“Design-based community integration continues to be important,”
observes Valli. “Selfstorage design needs to integrate nicely into
the surrounding area. Residential areas necessitate low profile
projects that blend in with regards to mass, scale, forms, textures
and colors. Commercial areas necessitate quality design themes more
commonly associated with office buildings, often incorporating
high-quality materials such as glass,” he explains. Often, fitting
in with the architecture of the area is required by the municipality
as part of the planning and zoning approval process.
Liebling agrees that it is important to design a self-storage
project that is architecturally in harmony the environment in which
it’s being built. “In retail areas, self-storage facilities should
have a lot more windows, more modulation, and ins and outs to break
up the surface mass,” he states.
Although it’s best to fit in with the area, it can be challenging.
Liebling recalls a Maryland facility that had to match an historic
area. To be in harmony with the environment, he constructed the
facility with brick and added several details to make it look like
the surrounding historic buildings. In Florida, he developed a
facility in an area with tight zoning regulations. To blend in with
the community, he made the four-story self-storage facility look
like a three-story residential apartment building using lots of
glass and windows. “It’s part of being a good neighbor to make the
project look like the rest of the neighborhood,” he says.
Technology Driven Changes
Technology has also brought about changes in self-storage facility
design. With the advent of new technologies, security systems have
become more power-ful and advanced, giving customers a feeling of
ease when it comes to storing their goods. These new security
systems can do everything from monitoring all movement in and
outside of the facility, informing managers when a unit door is
opened and when it is closed, calling the police directly in case of
a break-in and notifying managers or officials in the event of a
fire or flood. Since security is an extremely important selling
point, self-storage offices must be designed to showcase a site’s
high-tech security features. “Offices often have display areas with
monitors coming out of the ceiling. It’s much more like an upscale
sports bar presentation rather than a traditional self-storage
facility,” says Jordan.
Often, a self-storage facility’s office will be designed to showcase
all security features in one place, eliminating the need for
managers to ever leave their desks. “I did a project that had
21-inch monitors broken up into three screens showing all people
entering the facility. It also had a sample key pad and models of
our five most popular units,” says Blomgren. The office also had two
work-stations giving clients the ability to use a computer, fax and
telephone while at the self-storage facility. In short, all of the
facility’s amenities were in one centralized location, so managers
were always there to deal with customers, rather than showing new
renters around the property in a golf cart.
Since high-tech security amenities have been on the increase, the
need for traditional, on-site resident managers has declined. Once
there to provide additional security, many customers now find
security cameras, alarms and monitoring systems superior to live-in
managers. “We’re seeing a substantial disappearance in on-site
resident managers. In fact, the percentage of onsite managers
continues to decline,” observes Valli. “Fewer than one-third of our
newly designed projects contain a resident manager’s living unit, as
large spacious retail-oriented offices with a hi-tech presentation
have become increasingly popular.”
Upgraded Components
New technologies are not the only innovations affecting self-storage
design. Improved building materials are also changing the look of
mini-storage facilities. In the past, developers often used the
cheapest materials for the job. Today’s self-storage architects,
however, are bypassing less expensive woods for more durable metal
components. “You’re seeing materials that give customers a better
sense of security, like concrete block and steel structures versus
wood,” observes Liebling.
Avoiding wood building products also helps to decrease the risk of
fire damage. “In the past, facilities were made out of combustible
wood products. Now, we’re using non-combustible steel trusses, metal
roofing and metal siding. We try not to design with wood products at
all if we can help it,” says Pavlidis, adding that the cost for
metal products is declining because of increased competition. He
believes the added cost is well worth the investment since metal
products are easier to care for than their wood counterparts.
“Shingle roofs last 15 to 40 years, but a metal roof lasts forever,”
he points out.
New design trends have also changed the outside of self-storage
projects. Facilities that were once surrounded by endless dirt or
asphalt are now encircled with lush landscaping and accent lighting.
“People are paying attention to landscaping and lighting to make the
facility look more prominent and upscale so people in the area will
remember it,” states Jordan. The chain link fencing and razor wire
of the past has all but disappeared, being replaced by attractive
vegetation and block accent walls “It’s a considerable upgrade from
what we used to see,” he says.
The majority of today’s new self-storage projects include some type
of outdoor landscaping. “More facilities are putting in bushes and
trees. It appeals to the average person because they see the overall
building as enhanced,” says Pavlidis. He adds that many
municipalities require landscaping at self-storage facilities to
make the site more attractive and help the building blend in with
the area. “It’s these details that make the project a beautiful,
well-designed facility where clients will want to store their
items.”
The design of self-storage facilities has definitely evolved over
the past three decades. While the less attractive designs of the
past gave the self-storage business a black eye in the architecture
world, today’s creative, well thought out designs are helping to
repair the industry’s image. And while these welldesigned facilities
have been relatively rare, they are becoming more commonplace today.
Since attractively designed self-storage facilities tend to
outperform the more traditional looking projects, it is clear that
the industry will come to place increasing value on good design. In
the future, self-storage design will likely be equal to custom home
and upscale office building architecture. In fact, architecture
students who study masterpieces like the L’Ouvre and the Sistine
Chapel, just may swing by to examine the neighborhood self-storage
facility.
Elizabeth Ferrin is a freelance writer in Oro Valley, Arizona, and a
regular contributor to the Mini-Storage Messenger.
(Reprinted with the permission of Mini-Storage Messenger
magazine)
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