cannabis dispensary design

Berkshire Roots was an early dispensary design in Massachusetts. This design is leading to other dispensary projects.

It’s interesting how our business evolves and develops: our attempts to plan and forecast over the years didn’t anticipate cannabis dispensary design–possibly because dispensaries just didn’t exist in our region. But since our successful completion of the Berkshire Roots design in Pittsfield, MA, we’ve attracted three more dispensary design projects and a number of inquiries.

By applying our hospitality, commercial and residential design sense at Berkshire Roots, we were able to create an effective interior that brings the Berkshire outdoors inside.

Dispensaries are striving to offer positive, aesthetically appealing customer experiences: smooth-moving interior traffic flow, tasteful displays, happy employees. Product information displays, customer consulting areas, building security, product security and back-end operations — all are crucial to effective dispensary operation.

Outside, dispensary owners want to be good neighbors in their communities and convey professional responsibility and discretion. Our firm provides seamless support for interior and exterior design. 

Recently, the owners of  Nova Farms in Attleboro, Mass., were so impressed with Berkshire Roots that they hired us to design their dispensary, one of two they will operate in that region. Below, interior and exterior renderings, on the boards, building on the Nova Farms brand.

“The big things for us are an aesthetic appeal, look, feel and flow,” said our client, when we asked about his design priorities for Attleboro, and a second pending project in Framingham.

We are also designing Calyx, a dispensary planned for downtown Great Barrington, Massachusetts. We are also talking with the owners of a Westfield, Massachusetts project. 

Could it be that — with our unique, site-specific, stylish designs, and our knowledge of the strict rules, regulations and security requirements for dispensaries–that we are becoming early experts in this budding field of design for the consumer cannabis industry? Could be!

But our appeal for dispensary companies also stems from the broad scope of our work over the past 30 years: designing spirited and stylish interiors for hotels, spas, corporate interiors, retail, and, of course, hundreds of residential projects. William Caligari Interior Design is the designer of the Canyon Ranch spa resorts in both Lenox, Massachusetts and Tuscon, Arizona, among other high-end destination resorts — in which interior design is part and parcel of the visitor experience.

As the industry take a broader hold in our state, one thing is certain: Dispensary owners are eager to present dispensary interiors that validate their products. They aim to balance style, discretion and respectability with state-mandated security and safety requirements, in a setting where customers can’t pick up and handle the products! Melding those restraints and business goals with strong, creative design results in a powerfully effective business model.

Rendering of Calyx, planned for Great Barrington

What I find most interesting about our current and past projects is the speed of this cannabis evolution. We have been designed dispensary interiors for clients whose products don’t yet exist, their packaging isn’t developed yet and the graphics and branding are in their infancy. Imagine the challenges presented in designing an effective interior–but we are delivering the solutions.

Every new dispensary project brings advancements in product offerings and reveals more about how the cannabis shopper will interact with the retail environment. Clearly, owners are eager to include an educational component in their design, to help them define and differentiate their products, to building brand loyalty and convey a sense of individuality and brand.

As our neighbors in New York and Connecticut navigate the likely, eventual, legalization of marijuana, we anticipate more consultations and look forward to serving this growing industry.