Taubman College Unverzagt Designs Detroit Wine Shop
On Wednesday, November 25, House of Pure Vin, a new wine shop, held a soft opening to debut for the holiday season. House of Pure Vin’s location in Detroit was designed by Detroit based design studio M1/DTW. The design director of M1/DTW and head of the project was Christian Unverzagt, Assistant Professor of Practice in Architecture.
House of Pure Vin is expected to do well in their first year, filling a void in the market for wine in the niche of gift-giving in many downtown businesses as well as for consumers to try some of the nearly 500 wines, almost a 100 Michigan produced, that House of Pure Vin has to offer.
This business will also be one of the “very small percentage” of businesses in the central business district of Detroit that is African-American-owned. Regina Gaines, Terry Mullins and Andrea Dunbar are the owners of this newly opened business and hope to see its growing success in the community.
For Gaines, House of Pure Vin is a chance to show others that Detroit and Michigan do things other than manufacturing — and at a high level.
“We are more than just the automobile industry,” she said. “Few people understand that but us.”
The shop’s partners looked to architect Christian Unversagt of M1DTW to design the space in a way that was “distinctive with a blue collar feel.” Unversagt’s design uses over 3000 industrial cardboard ‘core tubes’ to create a 50 foot long wine ‘library’. As a minority, woman-owned business in Detroit, Pure Vin’s owners desire is to create a welcoming environment. “What we didn’t want to do is be luxurious and uninviting,” Gaines explains.
For more information on House of Pure Vin’s opening: http://detroit.eater.com/2015/11/24/9793338/new-house-of-pure-vin-wine-shop-opening-downtown-detroit#4887285
