We were blown away by this Home Depot! We, like most, are accustomed to seeing the hardware chain's ubiquitous long, low suburban box stores set behind vast parking lots. This Home Depot in Chelsea however, which opened in 2004, inhabits a side-by-side pair of gorgeous street-oriented buildings formerly occupied by the Hasbro Toy Company.
The superbly kept historic building facades are stunning, but the innovation doesn't stop there. The hardware store's 105,000 square feet are distributed on three floors arranged around a grand day-lighted atrium. At checkout, a same-day home delivery option is available which caters to customers largely arriving by foot, bicycle or taxi. What may seem most radical to those used to seeing Home Depot's typical suburban models is that this urban store has no dedicated parking. The surrounding streets have parallel parking, and the closest vehicular parking facility is a small independently owned underground pay garage in the block across the street.
It is wonderful to see a Home Depot contributing so much vitality to a walkable urban neighborhood. For more information and pictures of this beautiful Chelsea Home Depot, see a New York Times review of the store here.
