Hyde Park Post Office Revival: From Mid-Century Structure to Trendy Community Hub

The one year renovation led by Side Angle Side transforms post office building into specialty market, bar and cafe, with the outdoor dining.

Project: Tiny Grocer Hyde Park

Location:
United States

Architects:
Side Angle Side

Typology:
Adaptive Reuse, Stores

Area: 3500ft² (+ 1500ft² outdoor dining space)

In a remarkable one-year renovation, Side Angle Side architects Annie-Laurie Grabiel and Arthur Furman breathed new life into Hyde Park’s U.S. Post Office building, an iconic structure dating back to 1967. The adaptive reuse project houses a 3,500 sq ft specialty market, bar, and cafe, along with a 1,500 sq ft outdoor dining space.

Preserving the essence of the mid-century-utilitarian design, Grabiel and Furman turned the post office into a vibrant community space, with Tiny Grocer. Arthur Furman, founding partner of Side Angle Side, emphasizes the importance of maintaining the building’s integrity, stating, “The Hyde Park U.S. Post Office was an important neighborhood hub since the 1960s – so we were especially careful to keep the integrity and spirit of the mid-century-utilitarian design.“

The original scope of work was just the grocery store and cafe, but during the schematic design process owner Steph Steele requested the addition of the 1,500 sq ft dining courtyard. The space is now a lively outdoor cafe and wine garden paved with antique red brick, a cast-in-place concrete banquette, live oak trees, and bookended with a steel trellis and greenspace. The architects added a stucco restroom building on one side and a linear steel planter on the other to turn the former loading area into an outdoor room and provide separation from the car park.

The interior layout and design features intricate mercantile shelving and bar millwork, the back of the house layout includes kitchen, office, storage, and bar equipment. Working closely with the owner, design finishes hint at the building’s midcentury past. The large, centered bar features terracotta tile across the front, topped with concrete gray and white quartz countertops. The architects exposed the original ceiling and open web joists adding metal decking and industrial lighting. The team chose to polish the existing concrete floors leaving the weathered imperfections and patched grooves amassed over time. A custom, built-in leather banquette (by Undercover Austin Upholstery) lines the length of the back wall for bistro dining at Bureau de Poste.

“We absolutely loved working on this project. When a client has a strong vision, our job is to embrace that dream and usher it into reality. This was very much the case with Steph and Tiny Grocer, we could not be prouder of the results,” says Annie-Laurie Grabiel, founding partner, Side Angle Side.

Project Images

Tiny Grocer Hyde Park - Side Angle Side | Image © Likeness Studio

Tiny Grocer Hyde Park - Side Angle Side | Image © Mackenzie Smith Kelly

Project Details

Project team:

Structural Engineer: Creative Engineering
MEP Engineer: ATS Engineers
Builder: Archive Properties
Commercial Interior Design: Side Angle Side
Architects: Side Angle Side
Side Angle Side, architect of record Tiny Grocer and Bureau de Poste
Building shell: Thought Barn Studio
Landscape Design: Side Angle Side & Wild Heart Dirt
Owner: Steph Steele

Sourcing:

Light Fixtures:

Industrial – AQ Lighting, Italian warehouse pendant
Black cones – All Modern, Johnston Single light metal dimmable pendant

Chairs/Tables:

Bar Stools: Wooden Soule, Cilla Chair
Exterior Dining Chairs & tables: Isimar, Portofino

Custom Cabinet and Banquette Builder: Mike Wallgren
Custom Tables: Second Chance Custom
Build-in leather banquette: Undercover Austin Upholstery
Cabinet paint color: Benjamin Moore, Dunmore green
Terra cotta tile: Seneca, Monrovia Red
Countertop: Quartz, Rough Concrete (gray), Quartz, Fresh Concrete (white)