16 minute read
A New Landing
The project team for the new Timothy Oulton East Coast flagship store and showroom in Manhattan: left to right: McAlpine Contracting Director of Construction Mark Montalvo, Vice President John Nolan, and CEO Troy Caruso; and Timothy Oulton Regional Sales Manager U.S. Javier Hernandez.
Photography by Ola Wilk Photography
Inside the stunning NYC showroom of internationally renowned British luxury furniture brand Timothy Oulton
By Peter Wilk
Converting a landmarked 19-Century retail space into a modern showroom providing a sensorial, interactive customer experience is a challenging assignment. Hong Kong’s HALO Creative & Design teamed up with New York City-based design/builder McAlpine Contracting to successfully complete just that—a stunning new East Coast flagship store and showroom for Timothy Oulton.
The innovative British furniture, lighting, and home décor accessories brand—known for its subversive take on luxury—is unleashing a 7,170-square-foot retail space at 901 Broadway at 20th Street, in Manhattan’s fashionable Flatiron District. Timothy Oulton has an international presence, with 47 retail galleries worldwide, including eight in the US. The brand’s roots date back to 1976 when Tim Oulton’s father opened an antiques shop in Manchester, England. Tim later took over the business, refocusing on epic product design inspired by the past, yet relevant for modern lifestyles.
Located on the southwest corner, the Timothy Oulton’s new East Coast Flagship showroom in Manhattan extends for 25 feet along Broadway and 85 feet along East 20th Street and has full-height windows at the first floor that provide clear views into the interior space.
901 Broadway is a portion of a larger building designed in 1870 in the French Second Empire style by architect James H. Giles and constructed for the retailer Lord & Taylor. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated it as a historic landmark in 1977. The building extends for 25 feet along Broadway and 85 feet along 20th Street and has full-height windows on the first floor. The new store features a 1,890-square foot main showroom area on the first floor and a 344-square foot mezzanine. An open stair connects to a 1,221-square foot lower level that provides additional showroom space as well as a café bar, reflecting Timothy Oulton’s ethos of hosting. “This $1 million project provides the perfect setting in which to showcase the Timothy Oulton brand,” says McAlpine VP John Nolan. “Oversized plate glass windows provide clear views of the interior that draw passersby in to personally experience the showroom.” Stepping inside, the visitor encounters Derek the Diver, a figure clad in a 1940’s deep sea diving helmet and vintage Russian diving suit. He is submerged in a Jules Verne-inspired custom built freshwater fish tank, surrounded by 200 African cichlids. Tethered to thin air lines, Derek serves to remind us of the most incredible feats of human endurance and curiosity—a repetitive theme throughout the showroom. Just steps beyond Derek, a replica of the iconic NASA Apollo 11 command module that assisted the moon landing in 1969 has more recently landed itself in the center of the showroom as an expression of the brand’s craftsmanship, creativity, and manufacturing capabilities. “Rendered as an intimate, luxury lounge, the 4,144-pound module is wrapped in a polished stainless-steel shell. Its interior features a hand-tufted leather banquette, alabaster table and a crystal chandelier,” says McAlpine project manager Tim Olsen. “The Apollo module was built entirely in-house by Oulton’s craftsmen and assembled inside the store by the McAlpine team.”
A showroom’s showroom
With only three notable exceptions, every item within the showroom is for sale. Oulton’s collections are rooted in beautiful, authentic materials, including hand-finished leathers, century-old reclaimed timbers, natural stone, industrial metals and ancient rock crystal, all of which are beautifully displayed in the new space. The design of the space was a collaborative effort. The HALO design team, based in London and Hong Kong, met regularly with New York City-based McAlpine via Zoom to coordinate the construction and installation of the curated items that would be brought from stores and fabricators in the U.K., Hong Kong, China, and the U.S. In addition, McAlpine’s Director of Construction Administration Adrian Vasile coordinated preparation and filing of the design documents by a local expediter with the NYC Department of Buildings (NYCDOB) and the LPC. “Although only the building exterior is officially landmarked, LPC requested that the interior renovations be included in the approval process as well,” Vasile says. “The project took place shortly after the COVID-19 shutdown was lifted in New York City, and as a result approvals took longer than usual. The construction team had only five weeks to deliver the project to the client on time. McAlpine worked at a non-stop pace, often in three shifts, and used an extensive amount of manpower to meet the deadline.”
— John Nolan, VP, McAlpine Contracting
The most dramatic object within the showroom is located on the first floor: Timothy Oulton’s signature NASA’s Apollo 11 command module replica that serves as an expression of the brand’s craftsmanship, creativity, and manufacturing capabilities. Featuring a stainless steel shell and bespoke tufted leather interior with crystal lighting, the object is rendered as an intimate, luxury lounge. The McAlpine team assembled it inside the store as part of the interior fit-out.
Original brick piers in the basement were exposed and incorporated into the new design. Other walls are painted matte black, although an accent wall on the mezzanine that is visible from the main floor is finished with a lime wash coating that provides a plaster-like texture with gradations of gray that highlight the furnishings on that level. The first level ceiling is painted black, while the original wood ceiling beams in the basement have been exposed. Ductwork and track lighting are painted black to meld into the ceilings above. The original wood floors on the first and mezzanine levels were refinished, while the basement level has a new polished concrete floor.
A stair between the first level and basement that remained from the location’s previous tenant, Brooks Brothers, was retained and refinished to match the new design. Treads and risers were painted black. One of the two wood handrails was also painted black, while the other was wrapped with a brown faux leather that the fabricator modeled on a sample provided by Timothy Oulton.
The innovative British furniture, lighting, and home décor accessories brand—known for its subversive take on luxury— is unleashing a 7,170-square-foot retail space at 901 Broadway at 20th Street, in Manhattan’s fashionable Flatiron District.
Retro rocks the inside
The interiors convey a mix of a traditional British men’s club with the glitzy design of more modern clubs from the ’70s and ’80s. The lower level showcases comfortable leather sofas, a Steinway piano, a motorcycle, displays of nautical flags, and an operational model train track that is suspended along the perimeter of the room. The highlight of the space is the Art Deco-inspired marble bar that features hand-cut glass baguettes. The bar is open to serve beverages to customers, who can order customized versions of the bar. The lower level features two items that are not for sale: matching busts of Queen Elizabeth II.
McAlpine Contracting has completed the new East Coast Flagship store and showroom of Timothy Oulton, the innovative British furniture, lighting, and home décor accessories brand known for its subversive take on luxury. McAlpine built the dramatic 7,170-square foot retail space at 901 Broadway at 20th Street in New York City’s popular Flatiron District, known as the design and architectural center of Manhattan.
An open stair connects to a 1,221-square foot lower level. The downstairs bar features a marble top and the front and sides of prismatic glass crystals assembled in a geometric pattern evocative of jet engine turbines.
Timothy Oulton’s signature NASA’s Apollo 11 command module replica is rendered as an intimate, luxury lounge and features a stainless steel shell and bespoke tufted leather interior with crystal lighting. Installation of the custom furnishings added to the complexity of the project. The 1,441-pound Apollo module, which was delivered to the site in pieces, took ten workers more than three days to assemble. Likewise, the bar—delivered as kit components—also required careful on-site assembly. Not only did each glass baguette need to be installed individually, but the bar had to be plumbed and wired to support an ice maker, dual sink, and blending station. Derek the Diver’s three-ton tank also required special attention. Support equipment for the fresh-water tank, including a UV sterilizer, chillers, motors, automatic feeders, and electricity are housed in a basement back-of-house area. McAlpine installed reinforcing steel, designed by Serman Engineering, to support both the tank and the Apollo model. The third display item that is not for sale is on the main floor: an oversized feature wall that displays the Timothy Oulton brand logo—the traditional British bowler hat. The 16-foot-high by 9-foot-wide display case is recessed into the wall behind the Apollo and holds a total of 70 hats. After installation of LED lighting around the interior perimeter of the recessed case, the walls were faced with red velvet. Hangar pegs were mounted, and each hat hung and aligned so that they all match exactly. Three separate face glass panels—each 16-feet high by 3-feet wide—were then placed, levelled, and anchored, with the use of rigging machines, to enclose the cabinet. This signature piece required several days for installation. Because construction occurred during the pandemic, material procurement was a challenge. McAlpine treated all purchases as long-lead items by ordering key elements, such as millwork and bar appliances, far in advance, and maintained close communication with suppliers to successfully meet the project schedule. “This project had many challenges, ranging from the demanding schedule to the intricate coordination required to install the custom fabrications arriving from three different continents,” Olsen says. “The entire team worked seamlessly together to make this project a success.” CCR
Peter Wilk is founder of Wilk Marketing Communications, a PR and architectural photography agency focused on the A/E/C and real estate industries. He is a regular contributor to Commercial Construction & Renovation magazine.
How to Make Your Advertising in CCR…
By Jim Nowakowski, President Accountability Information Management, Inc.
We do a lot of advertising research. And today, there’s a lot of confusing information about what advertising is and isn’t.
The Readership Circles chart on the right will help you cut through this confusion. Because today, an “ad” is just part of the equation: readers get information digitally. They go through Google to fi nd you (over 4-billion searches each day), so your ad investment in CCR is just part of the equation. This article explains how to maximize that investment.
Content is the Key
Your ad appears in the print and digital version of the media outlet. The publisher of CCR, David Corson, invests most of his time and money building his “overall audience” for your ad (you can see his audience in this auditing tool: http://intrln.com/ccr)
But he also has his website to handle the audience he can’t control: the Google audience. Therefore, you can help maximize your investment by sending in your company information for CCR's website. The more content you have on the internet, the more chances you have of being found and purchased. Simple, huh?
Your Product is Really Information
No matter what product or service you are selling, your real product is information. Thus, you are in an information war competing for the attention of buyers with not just your competitors, but with everyone on the internet. The more content you have that’s yours, the more opportunities for them to see you and go through the readership circles.
Why We Know This
AIM places a tracking code on CCR’s website and each month monitors visitors. Then, because you advertise, you receive 10 “dossiers” seen on the right on companies who have consumed data – companies that represent high-valued targets because their need is NOW for what you are selling. ACCOUNTABILITY WEBSITE AUDIT Accountability Information Management, Inc.
SEPTEMBER 2020
David Corson has us audit this activity. You receive this audit if you advertise, and it represents a rich fi eld of leads for you. Call David Corson 678.765.6550 today to fi nd out more details! Or, call us and we’ll help you understand the powerful information at your disposal.
Always Trusted Information Accountability Informati on Management, Inc. 553 N. North Court, Suite 160 Palati ne, Illinois 60067 847-358-8558 www.a-i-m.com
CCR-MAG.COM
IMPORTANT. This audit covers the above website for the period of September, 2020. It was conducted by allowing Accountability Information Management, Inc. (AIM) by placing a proprietary Code on the website to provide deeper analytics from the thousands of monthly visitors to the website to the publisher (i.e., the companies utilizing the website). AIM is in the business of auditing and verifying data. For information, contact: AIM, 553 N. North Court, Suite 160, Palatine, Illinois 60067. PUBLISHER’S STATEMENT. Commercial Construction & Renovation, CCR-MAG.COM, is a community of leading commercial construction professionals within the retail, restaurant, hospitality, health care, federal, multifamily and other commercial sectors. The website content spans the design, construction and facilities operations of major commercial construction segments to meet the information needs of today’s high level executives. Visitors will find information relevant to the collaborative management process required to complete projects on time and on budget, and to efficiently manage these facilities. PRIVACY. F&J Publications, LLC discloses the information we collect on this website and how it is used. This report is based on visitors to CCR-MAG.COM. Specifically, the information in this report is aggregated to provide our advertisers information on website usage. F&J Publications always reserves the right to release information about visitors, including non-personal information.
NUMBER OF COMPANIES XXX This is the number of companies that the Code identifies. This number is the monthly universe of companies that can be identified from the thousands of visitors to this website. NUMBER OF TIMES THESE X,XXX This is the number of times these companies visited the website. The average per company is 1.41. PAGE VIEWS BY X,XXX This is the number of page views that these companies viewed on the website. The average pages viewed by a company this month is 2.04. SEARCH TERMS USED BY XX This is the number of identifiable different search terms these companies used to arrive on the website. The search terms, for example, were put into a browser which delivered results. Among the results was a page on this website. For example, while many people find it by typing in “commercial construction and renovation” or “CCR” in a search engine like Google or Bing, other terms deliver specific pages from this website based on what users type into the search engine. These searches account for less than 5% of the total search terms used. The top ten (listed) account for 48% of the identified total (not counting CCR itself). INDUSTRIES XX This is the number of companies that the Code is able to classify. It represents 5% of the total companies that visited this website, and is supplied for reference only. See UNDERSTANDING THE DATA. FIRST PAGE VIEWED X,XXX The Code keeps track of the first page viewed by the companies, and is the same number of times the companies came to the website. The chart Key First Pages Viewed lists the top ten landing pages from this grouping (excluding CCR-MAG.com itself, which is among the top, but not more than 12%).
SEARCH TERMS USED TO REACH US
• “Christopher Bushnell” AND Social Security • gary falco architecture • hi macs color TERRAZZO LUNA • inverter eon model el3 10 watt pricing • metal work very essential tools • mulehide jts1 colors • penncolor uv dispersions • permeable pavement concerns • rampart yellow wallcovering • silicone molds
KEY FIRST PAGES VIEWED (other than CCR-MAG.com)
• 7-essential-tools-for-your-metalworkingprojects • what-is-soil-reinforcement-and-how-is-it-done • 8-important-safety-measures-forconstruction-sites • new-menards-store-in-paducah-ky • construction-procurement-101 • conversations-with-bennett-van-wert-dwm • conversation-withbobby-darnell-cmc • american-dream-mall-in-nj-to-reopen-onoctober-1 • cny-group-names-new-vp-of-people-andculture • the-impact-of-building-materials-inconstruction
COUNTRY BREAKDOWN OF COMPANIES
United States XX%
India X%
Pakistan Canada United Kingdom Other (64 countries)
UNDERSTANDING THE DATA
This report is provided to you from the publisher to help you understand the creation, distribution and consumption of information on the digital highways. The companies that are provided to you in this report have visited CCR-MAG.COM and consumed information. Knowing the name of the company gives you a “heads up” to pursue for your sales efforts. If you need to explore additional ideas, including ways to utilize this information, please contact the publisher or AIM directly. In addition to the INDUSTRY/COMPANY listings, you will see a list of companies that are not categorized by Code into industries. These are sometimes more valuable and should be considered carefully for your sales efforts. Finally, often a company will utilize a general channel (like Comcast), which does not provide the individual company’s IP. These visitors are often just as valuable in terms of “what” they consume on our website. We would happy to help you pursue this type of analysis.
No matter where you place your message, this is the pattern of what we call the “Readership Chain.” And the weakest link in the chain will break it. That’s why you need as much content as you can on the Internet. People, your buyers, get distracted easily. Your messages must be compelling.
...Pay Dividends.
The magazine or newsletter or website has a specifi c number of possibilities - the overall audience. possibilities - the overall audience. You must factor that into ROI.
Some convert into readers of your message.
Not all people will "see" what you are selling. You must know some of these basics.
Some also raise the hand and ask for information.
Accountability Tools from CCR
The audience audit tool (on the left) enables you to see CCR’s audience for yourself. The Company Dossier tool on the right highlights 10 companies who have consumed CCR content that month for your marketing purposes. Advertising in CCR gets you these dossiers. And there’s much more. Below are the highlights from the prior month for your review. Imagine being able to see who is consuming content like this, and then putting them in your marketing sights!
ACCOUNTABILITY WEBSITE AUDIT
Each month advertisers receive powerful information to help them market their products and services. Here is a taste. 98,819 pages were consumed by over 2,000 companies. Among them:
• Architectural fi rms like HDR Inc. and Smithgroup • Universities like Illinois Wesleyan, Yale or University of Massachusetts • Energy companies like BP America or Schlumberger • Financial companies like American Express, Mckinsey & Company and Wells Fargo • Materials companies like USG Corp and Carlisle • Industrial companies like Aecom, Eaton and General Dynamics
And thousands more like CBRE, Texas Instruments, Goodyear, St. Lukes Episcopal Hospital. All these companies have projects going on – projects you can access to sell your products and services.
Call the publisher, David Corson for a complete details. 678.765.6550. Or email him at: davidc@ccr-mag.com.
