Ellis Preserve is a 218-acre master planned development located in the heart of Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. The project is testament to the legacy of Charles E. Ellis, a local early 20th Century entrepreneur, with an eye on the future as it creates a new sense of place for today’s business community. Originally constructed as Ellis College facilities, the Ballroom at Ellis Preserve, the newly renovated Ellis Athletic Center and six stone cottages remain on the property, representing Ellis Preserve’s distinct history and provide amenity services to the community.

The Shoppes at Ellis Preserve is a new, two-phase mixed-use project in this planned community. When complete it willcomprise retail, residential and office space buildings. Whole Foods Market is an anchor retail tenant in this development’s first phase. The grocer’s 55,000-square-foot facility is easily accessible to nearby arterials and makes up more than 35 percent of the retail space in The Shoppes at Ellis Preserve project.

Two other retail buildings located adjacent to Whole Foods comprise an additional 45,000 square feet. The design of all three was intended to replicate the old barns prevalent in Pennsylvania’s Brandywine Valley area and was accomplished by providing different planes of standing seam metal panels, aluminum, glazing, faux wood siding, stone veneer, masonry, sliding barn doors and exposed steel over Knight Wall Systems CI®System continuous insulation rainscreen attachment systems.

“We have been using Dow Thermax rigid insulation with Knight’s CI-System on (approximately 30) rainscreen projects over the last couple of years,” BCT Architects principal Chris Holler said. “We like the ability to build up the cavity with girt sections to achieve some relief in the façade while keeping the weather barrier drainage plane consistent without a lot of bump-ins and outs. We like that the girts are engineered by Knight as well.”