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Coco's New Digs

Chanel rewards its loyal Beverly Hills customers with a renovated flagship boutique designed by Peter Marino.

Mark McMenamin -- Interior Design, 7/17/2007 12:00:00 AM

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Is there anything more closely associated with the house of Chanel than the elegant box of its legendary perfume, Chanel No. 5? Probably not. That's likely the reason why New York-based architect Peter Marino used the iconic image as the exterior inspiration for his extensive renovation of the Chanel flagship boutique in Beverly Hills, which is slated to reopen next month at 400 North Rodeo Drive. By using milky white Microglass outlined in blackened steel, Marino recreated the shape and proportions of the perfume box to serve as the building's façade.

Inside the 14,700-square-foot, four-floor space is both a 9,360-square-foot fashion boutique and a 2,460-square-foot Fine Jewelry and Watch boutique, each with separate entrances, as well as a 2,880-square-foot rooftop penthouse suite and terrace that will be used for private client events. On the rooftop, thousands of tone-on-tone LED lights create the couturier's distinctive double-C logo.

A grand interior staircase follows a series of display terraces, past an LED-illuminated wall, to the second floor's ready-to-wear collections, where custom-designed wool and silk carpets are fashioned after Chanel's classic tweed pattern. The fourth-floor VIP salon pays tribute to founder Coco Chanel's apartment in Paris with elements such as a fireplace with rock crystal centerpiece, custom plaster wall finishes and a cast-bronze chandelier.

Accenting Marino's new architectural designs are specially commissioned, site-specific works by five acclaimed artists, from Johan Creten's porcelain version of Coco Chanel's signature camellia flowers to the 105-foot-long double strand of overscaled glass beads, lined in gold leaf, by Jean-Michel Othoniel.