Rolling Out with Au Bon Pain

Remember in school, when you made that new cool friend and it changes your world for a while? We rarely have that same opportunity as professionals in the business world, but sometimes you get lucky and land that cool client. JL Architects’ business development team did just that this year when they landed Au Bon Pain Corporation as a new client.

Au Bon Pain translates to "where the good bread's at". The concept for a gourmet café offering fresh baked products was started by a Boston businessman, Louis Kane. In 1978, Mr. Kane was visiting Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall Marketplace.  As he walked through the Marketplace, he got a whiff of the aromas from bread baking in a display for French bakery ovens.  Out of that experience, Au Bon Pain was started.

ABP on campus at Duke University

 

Today there are over 200 cafés worldwide.   Many of the Au Bon Pain Café Bakery locations are in urban centers, like Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Washington and Chicago; traditionally they have had success in airports, train stations and hospitals.  Recently, Au Bon Pain has followed a new direction by opening on college campuses and offering nutritious fare to the American college student. 

JL Architects have been fortunate to be chosen as the project architect for the three new locations on the main campus of Pennsylvania State University.   The main café and two kiosks follow the vibrant fresh design of the Au Bon Pain brand. The full service café will offer the complete ABP menu and an USB port at every seat.  The kiosks will provide grab and go cuisine and plenty of coffee.

 

ABP in Washington, DC at Reagan Building

 

The construction schedule will be fast and furious in order for all locations to be in operation for the first day of Fall semester 2013.  JL Architects looks forward to this challenge and working with the general contractor, Gilbane Inc., and the Design and Construction departments at Au Bon Pain.  We want to give a shout out to Eric, Mario and Rod from Au Bon Pain. We look forward to tackling future projects together.

ABP in NYC at 111 Fulton St.