First Floor Bookshelves are being installed and over 22,000 books will be arriving over the next couple of weeks. We are looking forward to opening all of the boxes and are getting excited about all of the books and other fun stuff that we have ordered for the store.

We had a nice little wine and cheese party for Margaret Marshall, the prior owner of the Penguin Bookshop, and past Penguin Bookshop employees this week in our upstairs Munchkin’s Loft children’s area. They seemed to be amazed at the transformation.

Our current target date for a soft opening is August 25th, which will give us a couple of weeks to check everything out before our grand opening week from Labor Day weekend through Harvest Festival weekend. In addition to working on organizing at the store, we are busy working on hiring outstanding people and on writing store policies on topics such as the use of our new community meeting room upstairs. This may be our last blog before we open. Our new website for online ordering will go live the day we open. It has been an incredible experience and we are all getting more pumped up everyday as everything is coming together!

We hope that you will love your new Penguin Bookshop as much as we do!!!

 

Windows are in and Munchkin’s Loft children’s area bookshelves are going in!

Things are booking at the Penguin! We now feel like we are making progress every day. The windows are in and we are thrilled with the overall look.

We have a beautiful new staircase that was installed last week and the elevator is nearing completion. The second floor children’s area, which we are calling the Munchkin’s Loft, is painted with low VOC (volatile organic compounds) paint and carpeted with “green” carpet.

Maryanne’s bookshelves from her prior store arrived on Monday and are already being installed. They look great in their new home as you can see from this picture with Maryanne standing by the new shelves.

We cannot give you a full picture of this area yet because it is still stuffed with bookshelves. We will try to post updates a little more often over the next couple of weeks, but please bear with us as we continue to work on everything that has to happen between now and our grand opening. It is so gratifying to see all of the pieces coming together to get the Penguin back up on its feet after this transition. We are looking forward to opening our doors to you!

 

Check out our new windows and front door!!!!!

The installation of our new windows and front door began today! This is the first picture that will give you an idea of the store’s new “face”. As you can see, the first floor windows and the front door have been installed, and the two side windows on the second floor are just about in. We had to make some design changes to the bow window in the center of the second floor, so it will be another 3 or 4 weeks before that one goes in. Book lovers are known for their imaginations, so picture it in your mind’s eye for now.

We would love to hear what you think about the Penguin’s new “look and feel”. Please let us know.

 

Back from Book Expo in LA and a Preview of the Inside

Leah and Maryanne spent four jam packed days at the Books Expo America (BEA) in Los Angeles at workshops, meetings with vendors, book signings (wait until you see what we have to give away during our grand opening, hint, hint), events with the American Booksellers Association and checking out acres and acres of vendors and publishers strutting their stuff in the LA convention center. It was, to say the least, overwhelming and exciting at the same time. If you would like to see a little of what Leah and Maryanne saw, look here. This article barely scratches the surface, but you can get a small taste.

Have you been checking the blog for new construction pictures? We have been busy behind the plywood constructions walls, but it is progress that is difficult to capture in photos. All of our time lately has been spent making decisions that will determine the look and feel of the store and the ultimate inventory. We cannot wait for the windows and doors to go in next week and hope that you will be happy with our “curb appeal”.

In the meantime, this is a picture of the fireplace on the first floor.

If you are standing at the front door on Beaver Street, the fireplace is on your left a little over half-way back. Just beyond the fireplace is the coffee area. Imagine enjoying a cup of coffee with a new book in front of a warm fire…OK maybe that is not the best image for this time of year. Imagine sitting out on the sunroom porch on the second floor with a new book. Anyway, we think you get the idea.

For those of you who will be away most of the summer, this will be the best place to keep up with our progress. The new Penguin Bookshop should be open for business by the time you return. For those of you who are here during the summer, you should see dramatic progress over the next couple of weeks. Since there will be paper over the windows, our blog is the only place you will be able to see pictures of the inside during construction, so check back. Better yet, subscribe to an RSS feed so that you will see our updates as soon as we post them.

Happy summer! Check back next week for the new pictures of the exterior. We have a lot to do between now and August and cannot wait to begin conversations about books with you in the new Penguin!

 

Penguin Bookshop Munchkin's Loft

The Penguin Bookshop Munchkin’s Loft is guaranteed to be the best children’s book department in the area with Maryanne Eichorn, the former proprietor of Munchkin’s Bookshelf in Wexford, PA, joining our management team. As our physical store is taking shape, we have seized the opportunity to purchase Munchkin’s Bookshelf's store fixtures and to persuade Maryanne to continue delighting customers at the Penguin. Maryanne’s store was suffering from its position in a strip center that was unable to compete with new retail to the north. We feel fortunate that the timing of the closing of her store and the reopening of the Penguin has worked to our mutual advantage. Maryanne will bring extensive children’s bookselling, publishing and teaching experience to our second floor children’s area, our new “Munchkin’s Loft”. She thinks that our Sewickley store location is perfect for the creation of a thriving children’s department.

As you can see from this picture of Leah and Maryanne below, we are knee deep in the nitty gritty of packing up the Munchkin’s inventory for transport to the Penguin. In a couple of weeks, they will head to the BEA (Book Expo America) in Hollywood to focus on networking with publishers, authors and book wholesalers and to check out potential inventory for our store.

May Mart 2008 was last weekend and the weather cooperated for a great turnout. We set up a couple of tables and created a “Watch Us Bloom” banner. We offered blooming flower toys to people who filled out a flower with their favorite books which they placed on the banner. People checked out the floor plans and seemed genuinely excited about our progress. We were thrilled at the number of people who signed up for our email news.

Click here to see a picture on YourSewickley.com from May Mart of Penguin Future Meets Penguin Past. From left to right is Barb Carrier (past Penguin Bookshop employee), Karen Fadzen (Penguin Bookshop Director), Cameron Fadzen (son of Karen and Scott), Leah Lindemann (Penguin Bookshop Manager) and Maryanne Eichorn (Penguin Bookshop Manager).

 

Front Sign and the First View of the Inside

If you look through the scaffolding, you can see that the Penguin Bookshop is truly taking shape. The front sign is in place and so is the second floor front wall. People have been stopping us on the street to rave about the new sign! We expect that the windows and doors will be placed sometime in the next few weeks and that should really give people something to talk about. In the meantime, we have posted the renderings outside on the front plywood to try to give you an idea of how awesome your new bookstore is going to look.

Below is your first look at the first floor interior in case you are wondering what is going on behind the plywood. We are in a stage where it is difficult to see real progress but we assure you that a lot is happening (hey, at least there is a floor now). Basically, over the next few weeks we will be working on the guts of the building – HVAC, plumbing, and electrical. However, keep checking here for the new window and door pictures that should be posted by the end of May (fingers crossed).

Thank you to those who have sent us their favorite books. What an interesting and diverse readership we have! Keep ‘em coming as emails to booklovers@penguinbookshop.com or as comments below.

Question: What do a children’s bookstore in Wexford called Munchkins and the Penguin Bookshop have in common?

Check back soon and we’ll let you know!

 

The Penguin Bookshop Has Its Name Back!

The back sign was placed last week! If you haven't seen it in person, we highly recommend that you walk or drive by. We are very excited that the building officially has its name back and is one step closer to opening in a few months (a few months?!). The front sign will be very similar in font and stone to the back sign but it will span the entire front of the building. You can see a rendering of the front of the building with the sign in place if you look to the right in the purple section of this blog.

Also, as you can see from the rendering to the right, the front of the new store will be filled with windows. The picture below shows what the store looks like now. You can see that they are getting ready for the windows and the center door. They have also removed the front step so that the building will be accessible for strollers and wheel chairs.

In anticipation of our opening, we would like to know your top 5 books that everyone should read. Please either send an email to booklovers@penguinbookshop.com or leave a comment below.

Thanks! and as usual, we will keep you posted as work marches on!

 

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like...

Remember the post from March 26th when the trusses and floor joists arrived? Well, here are the roof trusses in all their glory actually on the building!

 

It almost feels like a cathedral when you are standing on the second floor - which by the way, will be gone by the end of the day today. It feels so open now that it almost seems a shame to have to put the walls back up! However, we do think it will be better for the books. You will also begin to see the front and back of the building beginning to take shape over the next couple of weeks. The old Penguin Bookshop sign came down today and our contractor was kind enough to deliver it to someone who really wanted to save it and give it a home. We are starting with the new brick on the front today. Come take a look sometime soon if you can. It is getting really exciting!

Now that the roof is well underway, we are getting more focused on what to put under that roof. We are very interested in hearing from you and hope that you will check our blog next week for a short survey.

 

Green FSC Certified Materials Arrive!

We have to be one of the first independent bookstores in the country working to achieve LEED certification. We know that we are the first green commercial building project in Sewickley. The first green materials for the Penguin arrived this Monday from Charlottesville, VA.

Since the truck was too large to enter Sewickley village, we created a staging area nearby and offloaded the roof trusses and floor joists onto smaller trucks.

LEED certification is achieved by meeting LEED requirements for a minimum of 26 points. We obtain one point for our project under the Materials and Resources category by purchasing at least 50% of the wood used in the building that is FSC certified.

 

FSC is the Forest Stewardship Council that sets standards for wood materials. The wood must follow a specific chain of custody and be harvested from “certified, well-managed forests” (for more information on this international organization, visit www.fscus.org and www.fsc.org ). Later this week, we will be getting another shipment of FSC certified decking and sheathing which will bring our percentage to well over the 50% required. Since all of these materials were also manufactured within 500 miles (Charlottesville is just over 350 miles from Sewickley), they help us to qualify for another LEED point. This Local/Regional Materials point is obtained by utilizing 20% of the cost of building materials and products from within the 500 mile radius of the site.

We are certainly developing an appreciation for the goals of LEED certification and their positive impact on the community. We are also amazed at the level of commitment required, on our part, to source materials and qualified labor and to continue to meet the minimum standards in all areas. This has been an incredible learning process…