In the last few years, a lot of restaurants, hotels & other commercial business have been built from a shipping container. The giant North American coffee shop brand Starbucks is the latest addition to the list to make use of four shipping containers to built the ‘Reclamation Drive Thru’ in Tukwila, Washington. Designed by in-house Starbucks corporate architect Tony Gale, the coffee shop idea was inspired by the company’s very own shipping containers which are used to ship in the coffee & tea from across the globe. Unlike other shipping container restaurants & hotels, the entire Starbucks coffee shop structure has been designed to meet the LEED green building standards and features an integrated rainwater harvesting and xeriscaping to minimize water consumption. Even though the ‘Reclamation Drive Thru’ hasn’t yet received the LEED certification, but the company is hopeful of receiving LEED certification soon. The coffee shop is a prototype with a possibility of more such sustainable Starbucks coffee shops in future
Images ©Tom Ackerman, Starbucks