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CASE STUDY · DOWNTOWN SPIRITS
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Case Study · Downtown Spirits · 1815 7th Ave, Seattle

The drawing becomes the store.

Downtown Spirits is a Warren Group wine & spirits store at 1815 7th Ave, Seattle — drawn by Best Practice Architecture, rebuilt around Amazon's Just Walk Out system, open checkout-free since August 2023. GeekWire called it "the first liquor store to use Amazon's cashierless technology." The as-built record documents every sheet of how.

Architectural elevation of the Downtown Spirits storefront on 7th Avenue drafting itself: construction lines appear first, then object ink — two-story glazing, the glass canopy with its bulb string, the entry with the Downtown Spirits sign band — and dimension callouts carry the record: established 2012, Just Walk Out entry since August 2023, as-built set by Best Practice Architecture, owner Marques Warren.

STOREFRONT ELEVATION — 7TH AVENUE, SEATTLE SCALE: NTS · AS-BUILT SET, CD UPDATE 2023-02-02

Construction lines first. Ink second. Gates last.

Sheet S-102 · As Drawn, As Rendered

Keep scrolling — the linework holds.

Sheet A9.0 of the closeout package carries six color renderings of the salesfloor. The red is not a rendering flourish: the ceiling grid is powder-coated steel, item PC1 in the drawings. Scroll, and the draft becomes the rendering.

Rendering from sheet A9.0: the Downtown Spirits salesfloor — red powder-coated ceiling grid, black wire shelving, white-oak counter, the deco Downtown Spirits signage wall, and the entry gates in the foreground
AS DRAWN — CONSTRUCTION LINES, THEN INK AS RENDERED — SHEET A9.0 · BEST PRACTICE ARCHITECTURE AS DRAWN, AS BUILT — GRID PC1, POWDER-COATED RED

Six renderings on one sheet. One store on 7th Avenue.

Sheet S-103 · Specialty Shelving Details · A7.1

The shelving is furniture-grade white oak. The checkout is invisible.

JUST WALK OUT · AUG 2023 SHEET A7.1 AS-BUILT · 2023-02-02 1815 7TH AVE

There is no checkout line at Downtown Spirits. Entry takes a credit card, a mobile wallet, or the app — membership not required. The store keeps the ledger while you shop; you pick up your bottles and walk out, and the system settles the basket.

The engineering lives inside the millwork. Sheet A7.1 details shelving built from two layers of white-oak veneer plywood, each shelf edged in solid oak with a lip that rises above the shelf line to conceal the service assembly beneath it — the technical fit-out drawn into the casework before a single bottle went up.

The record is external:

  • GEEKWIRE · AUG 21, 2023
    "Inside the first liquor store to use Amazon's cashierless technology"
  • EATER SEATTLE · AUG 14, 2023
    "A Seattle Liquor Store Is Letting Customers 'Just Walk Out' With Bottles"
  • BEVERAGE DYNAMICS · AUG 10, 2023
    "Downtown Spirits: An Alcohol Retailer Goes Checkout-Free"
  • MARKET WATCH · AUG 18, 2024
    "Seattle's Downtown Spirits Embraces Frictionless Checkout"

Elevation of the Just Walk Out gate area traced from sheet A6.1: gate pedestals with card readers beneath the powder-coated ceiling grid; the dimension line reads Entry and Exit Gates, FOIC.

GATE AREA — NORTH · FROM SHEET A6.1 GATES FOIC
Sheet A7.1, Specialty Shelving Details, from the Downtown Spirits as-built set: plan, section and elevation of white-oak shelving with concealed AOS the concealed technical fit-out and removable back panels — Best Practice Architecture title block, owner Marques Warren
SHEET A7.1 — SPECIALTY SHELVING DETAILS · TWO LAYERS WHITE-OAK VENEER PLY · TECHNICAL FIT-OUT CONCEALED BEHIND A SOLID OAK LIP

Drawn around the the technology. Built around the bottles.

Sheet S-104 · The Store Today · Downtown Seattle

Open on 7th Avenue.

Downtown Spirits has traded downtown since 2012; the checkout-free store opened in August 2023. It runs the way the sheets drew it — tap in at the gates, shop the floor, walk out. The same operating company holds Esquin Wine Merchants in SODO, est. 1969.

Owned photograph inside Downtown Spirits: the lit Downtown Spirits sign beside shelves of Washington craft beer with shelf tags
OWNED PHOTOGRAPH — ON THE FLOOR · JULY 2021
Owned photograph inside Downtown Spirits: single-malt and bourbon bottles on black shelving against amber-lit brick
OWNED PHOTOGRAPH — THE WHISKY WALL · DECEMBER 2021

1994HMS Host subtenant 2004Hudson JV lease ~20 stores 2027Duty-free Downtown Spirits Esquin · SODO 2026AI-NATIVE

32 yrsat Sea-Tac · est. 1994
20locations at SEA-TAC · Hudson partnership
2027duty-free effective · awarded, Avolta
$7M+2022 combined Downtown Spirits + Esquin revenue

SOURCE: WNG OPERATING RECORDS · AS OF 2026 · WNG HAS NOT BORROWED CAPITAL FROM HUDSON