Black Flag Building Workshop

Building Workshop

Local Roots Market & Cafe

A new home for Wooster's community-owned food cooperative: a full grocery of local and regional producers returning to downtown, with a cafe and, later, a shared commercial kitchen for area food businesses.

The cooperative's return to downtown Wooster is permitted and out to bid, with the market opening in 2027.

Location
Wooster, Ohio
Years
Opening 2027
Status
Out to bid
Partner
Wooster Local Foods Cooperative
The single-story brick building at 146 W. South Street seen from the corner, a dark standing-seam canopy running the length of its storefront glazing, under a blue sky with scattered clouds.
PL. 01 146 W. South Street, Wooster, September 2026.

Local Roots is Wooster's community-owned local foods cooperative. This project gives it a permanent home: a phased renovation of a 12,000 square foot downtown building into a full grocery of local and regional producers, with an in-house coffee shop and, in later phases, prepared foods and a shared-use commercial kitchen open to area food businesses.

The design works with the building rather than against it. The existing wood joists and roof deck stay exposed under white paint, daylighting brings natural light onto the sales floor, and ductwork runs overhead in a simple, durable palette. Energy performance runs through the whole project: a reflective roof membrane, high-efficiency remote refrigeration, and LED lighting throughout, supported in part by USDA Rural Development and Healthy Food Financing Initiative funding.

The work is sequenced so the co-op can keep moving as funding and construction allow, with the building partly occupied the whole time. The roof replacement and interior demolition are complete. Permit drawings for the market build-out are submitted, and the work is out to bid. A future addition will house the commercial kitchen and cafe. The co-op is targeting a 2027 opening.

Process

From the building as it stood, to a hand sketch, to a drafted plan, to a set of diagrams that pared the market down to three zones. The permit set is now out to bid.

  1. The existing interior: a large open room with a dropped ceiling and fluorescent lights, filled with rows of bicycles, a bright green accent wall at the back.

    Existing conditions

    The building as a bicycle shop: dropped ceiling, fluorescent light, one open floor. The shop stays open through construction.

  2. Hand-drawn floor plan in black ink on cream paper: an open market floor with structural columns, a tenant and flex market space at one corner, cooler, freezer and dry storage along one wall, and offices, restrooms and a coffee counter along the other.

    Schematic plan, by hand

    First pass at the market floor. Cold storage along one wall, offices, restrooms and the coffee counter along the other, a tenant and flex market space held at the corner.

  3. A drafted floor plan with orange annotations labeling the market floor, checkout, customer service, a coffee bar, walk-in refrigerator and freezer, drystock storage, offices and a tenant and community room.

    Market fit-out, drafted

    Measured and drafted. Refrigerated merchandising, checkout and customer service placed; the corner space becomes a community room.

  4. Diagram on yellow trace: the floor plan divided by red lines into zones labeled Hearth, Field and Service, each zone hatched in a different direction.

    Distillation, study 1

    The market reduced to three zones: hearth, field, service. Hatching turns direction zone by zone.

  5. Diagram on yellow trace: a pink-shaded hearth at the top, a central field, and service bands along both long sides and the bottom, with dashed red grid lines.

    Distillation, study 2

    Service pulled to the edges, the field opened in the middle, the hearth held at the head of the room.

  6. Diagram on yellow trace: dark graphite service bands along the sides, two pink hearth squares stacked at the center, and dashed red lines marking aisles.

    Distillation, study 3

    Heavier tone at the edges, a second hearth in the field, dashed lines for the aisles.

The building's dark painted side wall with an exterior stair, an open lawn and sidewalk beside it, and downtown Wooster's brick apartment block and parked cars beyond under a partly cloudy sky.
PL. 02 The side wall and the open lawn beside it, downtown Wooster beyond. September 2026.
The interior after demolition: dropped ceiling removed to expose wood joists and a steel beam, a clear concrete floor, a work table and equipment staged in the open room.
PL. 03 After interior demolition, August 2026. The original wood joists and roof deck stay exposed in the finished market.

← All work