Quarry Trails Retail Building Honored at the 2026 Building Columbus Awards

News | 2026 Building Columbus Awards

Quarry Trails Retail Building Honored at the 2026 Building Columbus Awards

Columbus Business First has named Meyers+Associates a 2026 Building Columbus Awards honoree for Excellence in Interior Design for the Quarry Trails Retail Building, the 16,000-square-foot building that brings Bada Bean Bada Booze, The Athletic Cos., and the leasing office together at the heart of Quarry Trails in Columbus, Ohio. Thrive Companies developed the community and operates all three.

Congratulations to our Business Partners at Meyers+Associates. The Columbus architecture and interior design firm has worked with Thrive at Quarry Trails since the first phase, designing South Bank and the community center along with the retail building, and this recognition reflects the care they bring to every project. Business First announced the honorees on September 2, featuring 25 projects across Central Ohio, with Meyers+Associates one of two firms honored for interior design.

Inside the retail building

Walk in from the trails and the building feels like part of the park. It sits at the edge of Quarry Trails Metro Park, the Columbus and Franklin County Metro Park built on the former Marble Cliff Quarry, across the street from the community’s apartments, on a site that drops about two feet from one end to the other. Rather than fight the slope, Meyers+Associates used ramps and short runs of stairs so the spaces flow into one another at a comfortable, walkable level. Glass block walls carry daylight deep into the interior, back-lit signage marks each space, and inside The Athletic, garage doors roll up onto a yoga patio facing the park. The roof was kept flat and the building low so Residents across the street keep their view of the quarry.

For neighbors, the result is a place worth returning to every day. Bada Bean Bada Booze is the only café-bar in Columbus inside a Metro Park, serving craft espresso in the morning and cocktails in the evening with the quarry lake out the window. Next door, The Athletic Cos. offers Members group classes, personal training, and 24-hour access. The leasing office completes the building, so a first visit to Quarry Trails begins in the same space where Residents already gather.

Built with award-winning partners

Thrive’s roots are in land that had been overlooked, and Quarry Trails began as a working limestone quarry on the west side of Columbus. Turning that site into a neighborhood people want to live in takes design partners who share a long view, and Thrive’s Development team works with the same Business Partners across projects for that reason. The results have been recognized more than once this year. At Grandview Crossing, landscape work with Environmental Management, Inc. earned a Gold Award of Excellence from the National Association of Landscape Professionals. Trace Quarter was named Columbus Multifamily Development of the Year in the CoStar Impact Awards in March. Quarry Trails itself was Business First’s Project of the Year in 2024.

What those awards share is the everyday experience they point to: a café with a lake view, a fitness center that opens onto a park, a leasing office that feels like a natural part of the neighborhood. The Business Partners who design and build alongside Thrive are a large part of why each community feels complete and lived-in from the day it opens. Learn more about how Thrive plans and builds its communities.

Honoree reception October 28

Business First will celebrate the honorees on October 28 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Hilton Downtown Columbus, with a panel featuring Brad DeHays of Connect Real Estate, Sandy Doyle-Ahern of EMH&T, and Jonathan Moody of Moody Nolan. Profiles of all 25 projects will run in the October 30 issue and online that week.