KEMO SABE

Client: Kemo Sabe
Location: Aspen, Colorado
Project Status: Completed in 2019

Kemo Sabe is a retail store occupying prime real estate in downtown Aspen, Colorado. The shop, specializing in western wear, desired to remodel their exterior space to reflect Aspen’s historic past and give passersby a taste of that period. As originally envisioned, Kemo Sabe would have taken over a parking space and provided a hitching post for horses. Connect One Design worked with the City of Aspen staff, mayor, city chamber and retail boards, and the Commercial and Lodging Commission to seek approvals for this atypical request in the City’s right of way. Ultimately, the parking space idea was set aside in favor of sidewalk improvements. Connect One Design specified a wood-look, all-weather porcelain tile, laid perpendicular to the store entrance, as both a design gesture to Aspen’s historic wooden sidewalks aligned so throughout the city at the turn of the century, and as an invitation to enter. Additionally, in lieu of horses in the street, horseshoes were embedded into the tiles and a decorative hitching post was added, as a final token to Aspen’s past.