Best of Year: Fashion Retail

Annie Block -- Interior Design, 12/1/2010 5:38:00 PM

Project: David Yurman
Firm: Gabellini Sheppard Associates
Location: NEW YORK

Turning an Italianate town house into a flagship for David Yurman jewelry, Interior- Design Hall of Fame member Michael Gabellini and partner Kimberly Sheppard discovered that the scope of the project included not just a 6,000-square-foot location but also a brand reinvention. The top two levels were relegated to offices, while the lower three are dedicated to a boutique that encompasses women’s, men’s, bridal, and couture collections. Staggered voids create vertical flow and what Gabellini describes as a “Rubik’s Cube of complexity and delight.” Materials such as cast bronze, walnut, striated gray marble, hand-troweled plaster, and gray-painted canvas establish a muted luxury. And the pièce de résistance is the skylit staircase. Cantilevered walnut treads and stainless-steel risers spiral around a cascade of stainless rods, a reference to both Yurman’s cable- bracelets and Harry Bertoia’s sound sculptures. As for the glass balustrade, its hexagonal shape was inspired by the cut of gems.

Merit Winners:


Project: Christian Louboutin
Firm: 212box
Location: Miami
Standout: At a Design District boutique, an installation- of stilettos and stretched stockings defines a gallery around the enclosed sales floor, clad in one-way mirror.


Project: Bay
Firm: Yabu Pushelberg
Location: Toronto
Standout: This department store’s luxury St. Regis Room is now simply the Room, defined- by screens built from stainless steel, lacquered plywood, and acrylic.


Project: Carina Duek
Firm: Isay Weinfeld
Location: São Paulo, Brazil
Standout: Vintage wooden wardrobes line the two-level boutique as well as the showroom on the top story.