retail/urban
luxury retail
public/urban
hospitality
retail centers
art/exhibitions
residential
Gabellini Sheppard Associates is a multi-disciplinary architectural and interior design firm based in New York City. The 35-person studio has gained international acclaim for its signature design aesthetic in which space and light are used as sculptural materials. The firm embraces a wide range of scales and typologies: from urban and commercial master plans to private residences, fashion boutiques, hotels, restaurants, contemporary art galleries, and urban spaces. The design approach is defined by a specific set of criteria: the unique needs of the individual client and
context; the development of a seamless and sophisticated background for the programmatic requirements; and creating an aesthetically pristine environment. The firm’s signature vocabulary is identified by essential reductivism, attention to detail, and sensitivity to the intrinsic properties of building materials and location. Beyond the architectural design of a space, the client’s vision is shaped through strategic branding and an integrated approach. The mix of commerce, culture and design translate the experiential into
commercial value. Through an expansive network, creative and technical expertise, the studio provides a highly enhanced design and implementation process for its clients. Gabellini Sheppard Associates has designed luxury retail environments in Europe, Asia, and North America, ranging from 30 square mile shop-in-shops to 20,000sm retail centers. Clients include iconic brands: such as Giorgio Armani, Jil Sander, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Salvatore Ferragamo, Vera Wang, JBrand, La Perla, David Yurman and Gianfranco Ferré. Large retail center commissions include Armani Center (Milan), Davide Cenci (Rome/Milan), The Village at Westfield (London), the Village at Westfield (Milan), the Ambani International Convention Center (Mumbai), the World Trade Center Temporary Plaza and Mall of America (US). With extensive experience and capability designing, managing and implementing projects abroad, we provide an enhanced level of service to each project, from conception, to development, to implementation. Residential and hospitality design has been central to the practice since its inception, from individual homes to condominium and hotel projects, such as the Istanbul Edition hotel in Turkey, the Milford NYC Hotel, and the Knickerbocker Hotel. In addition to numerous townhouse and loft renovations throughout Manhattan, the firm has designed homes in London, Rome, Denver, Miami, Michigan, Seoul
and Riyad. Michael Gabellini’s expertise and passion for contemporary art has led to exhibition design and facilitation projects with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Florence Art and Fashion Biennale, Swarovski Crystal Palace, and the Smithsonian Institution Cooper–Hewitt, National Design Museum. The firm has also designed gallery spaces in New York for the Anthony Grant Fine Art gallery and the Marian Goodman Gallery, among others. For the past two decades, Gabellini Sheppard Associates has been passionate about breathing new life into iconic landmark structures around the world. With an unblinking contemporary spatial view, the old and new can be forged into a singular vision that encompasses past, present, and future possibilities. Historic renovation projects include Rockefeller Center, Top of The Rock, various projects for NBC, and the world-famous Rainbow Room. In 2006, Michael Gabellini received the National Design Award in Interior Design from the Smithsonian Institution Cooper– Hewitt, National Design Museum. The firm has also won 19 awards from the American Institute of Architects, the prestigious Progressive Architecture Award, and multiple awards from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design; several prestigious international lighting design awards; Architectural Record, i–D magazine; the International Interior Design Association and the Municipal Art Society of New York.
MICHAEL GABELLINI, FAIA
Michael Gabellini founded the firm in 1991. A registered architect in the states of New York and Nevada and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Architecture degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design. Gabellini also studied at the Architectural Association in London and conducted extensive architectural research in Rome. Gabellini is recognized for luxurious, elegant and elemental design in which light and space are primary materials. An innovator in fashion
and residential environments, he is also active in the contemporary art world through numerous galleries, museums, and artistic collaborations. Mr. Gabellini has participated in several international symposiums and lectured at prestigious academic institutions. He was selected as a National Design Award Winner by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in 2006. Prior to founding Gabellini Sheppard Associates, Mr. Gabellini worked at Kohn Pederson Fox Architects in New York for six years.
DANIEL GARBOWIT, AIA
Daniel Garbowit joined the firm in 1994 and became a partner in 1996. A registered architect in the states of New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and a member of the American Institute of Architects, he earned his Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Science in Management from Syracuse University. He serves on the New York State Board for Architecture, is a member of the NCARB construction document licensing exam committee and is a member of the AIA NY Chapter Finance Committee.
As Managing Partner, Garbowit is responsible for business management, technical overview, project budgeting, scheduling and contracts. Garbowit is involved with lease and community board reviews and has been a construction panel member of the American Arbitration Association. Prior to joining Gabellini Sheppard Associates, Garbowit worked as an associate at Sasaki Associates, a manager for the firm of Peter Marino Architects, and nine years as Vice President of Rafael Vinoly Architects in New York.
KIMBERLY SHEPPARD, AIA
Kimberly Sheppard joined the firm in 1994 and became a partner in 1998. A registered architect in the states of New York and Nevada and a member of the American Institute of Architects, she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Architecture degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design. Sheppard has been project designer and manager of many of the firm’s major projects for Jil Sander, Giorgio Armani, Nicole Farhi, Gianfranco Ferré, and David Yurman. Kimberly Sheppard has also been deeply involved in designing many of the firm’s residential and
large-scale retail projects. In addition to her studio work, she teaches design at Parsons the New School for Design. Prior to joining the firm, Sheppard lived and worked for seven years in Milan and London, gaining extensive design and construction experience with Laboratorio Associati.
luxury retail
Jil Sander Showroom Paris LOCATION | Paris, France SIZE | 12,000 sf STATUS | complete 1993
Gabellini Associates has been collaborating with German fashion designer Jil Sander since the design of her inaugural flagship store in Paris, which opened in March of 1993. Since that time, the firm has designed and implemented over 80 Jil Sander boutiques and showrooms worldwide. All of these spaces share the same spatial vocabulary, defined by pure, linear geometries; translucent, light filled planes; floating surfaces and suspended forms, yet each environment is designed to reflect the specificities of its site. The 12,000 square foot Paris boutique, located at 52 Avenue Montaigne, was constructed in 1890 as a private dwelling for
Count de Lariboisiere by architect Tournade as a quintessential example of French Beaux Arts architecture. The facade received landmark status in 1990, but the interior had already been destroyed. In response to the building’s history, Gabellini Associates created a dialogue between its architectural heritage and its current state by creating an open court and revealing the vertical expanse of the front interior bearing wall. The exterior limestone was brought inside to clad the entire interior face in a metamorphic exchange between the old and new.
Jil Sander Showroom Paris
Jil Sander Showroom Paris
Jill Sander Showroom Hamburg LOCATION | Hamburg, Germany SIZE | 8,000 sf STATUS | complete 1996
Jil Sander’s Hamburg Showroom is located in a landmark villa on the banks of Lake Alster. The villa, built in the mid-nineteenth century, sustained considerable damage during the Second World War and the subsequent occupation by the German Finance Ministry. The conversion from Ministry to Showroom after years of neglect required extensive renovation and restoration of the building’s interior, exterior and the three acre park in which the building is situated. While the quality of the original villa and the remaining details suggested a historic restoration of the Belle Etage, the extensive program of showroom and offices, and associated technical considerations demanded radical restructuring of the space and function of the villa. Gabellini Sheppard Associates’ approach to the project was to maintain the balance between old and new, with precise
interventions where required. Meticulous restoration of the villa’s plaster reliefs and woodwork is complemented by a bold but unobtrusive reconfiguring of the interior, which is filled with furnishings and fixtures designed by Gabellini Sheppard Associates. The entire space is unified by a new floor of Spanish limestone. The stitching together of old and new is most apparent in the main foyer, where a pre-existing grand stair to the first floor is balanced by a new stair to the lower level. This former basement was excavated in order to create a buffet, dining area and meeting rooms. Invisible light sources dissolve surfaces and corners in contrast to the more ornamental treatment of the floors above. A terrace, formed as part of the excavation, connects the dining area to the surrounding park.
Jil Sander Showroom Hamburg Hamburg
Jil Sander Showroom Hamburg
Jil Sander Showroom Hamburg
Jil Sander Showroom Hamburg
Jil Sander Showroom Hamburg
Jil Sander Showroom Hamburg
Jil Sander Showroom London LOCATION | London, UK SIZE | 10,000 sf STATUS | complete 2002
The Jil Sander London Flagship, located in the former Royal Bank of Scotland at the corner of Savile Row and Burlington Gardens, opened in March 2002. The prominent landmark building has undergone a series of changing identities since it was built in 1721 as a residence for the Earl of Darnley. This grand historic site was a natural fit for the world of Jil Sander as a space for contemporary retail development. In recent years its grand double-height sky lit banking hall has been a popular site for London Fashion extravaganzas. Its beautiful decorative detailing has now been meticulously restored and complemented with a signature minimalist intervention characteristic of the Jil Sander design sensibility. While the design is clearly anevolution of the original Jil Sander concept, with which Gabellini Associates has been involved from the inception of the first boutique that opened on Avenue Montaigne in Paris in 1993. It exhibits the same elegant nickel silver, macassar ebony fixtures and honed limestone flooring. The concept has been adapted to suit this unique environment by its innovative use of light and detailing that are developed specifically for this location. The former banking hall features three floating walls that divide the space into
various product groups while curving subtly around existing Corinthian columns. The ornate coffered ceiling and walls have been restored meticulously in collaboration with English Heritage and the City of Westminster. The lighting concept has been developed to illuminate and enhance the balance between old and new. The new collection walls blend metal halide uplights to create a modulated filtering of natural and artificial sources to simulate a nuanced daylight exposure. Metal halide spotlights in slender slot fixtures are recessed into the ceiling beams while the circular domed skylights within the coffers emit an ambient glow. The staircase to the showroom and VIP rooms on the second level features a dramatic domed coffered ceiling that has been highlighted with several light sources. Hidden light coves at the base of the dome provide a soft upward wash of light towards the light emanating from the skylight above, while a custom tubular fixture, extending ten meters down from the skylight to the ground level atrium, provides a shaft of light suspended within the atrium stair.
Jil Sander Showroom London
Jil Sander Showroom London London
Jil Sander Showroom London
Rosenblat Showroom and Atelier LOCATION | Hamburg,Germany SIZE | 4,600 sf STATUS | omplete 1998
The Rosenblat Jewelry Showroom is located in a former carriage-house in the historic Pöseldorf section of Hamburg, Germany. The client, an established jewelry designer renowned for her design with one of a kind gems, was looking for an intimate environment to house her collection together with her showroom, design studio, office, and a small apartment. The interior has been thoroughly reconfigured within the existing landmark carriage-house shell which required extensive restoration and repair. The showroom presented the unique possibilities of displaying jewelry: highlighting precious gems through the development of atmospheric light and the need for security, while maintaining a sense of openness and accessibility. The display cases were conceived as miniature misen-scenés carved out of a masonry wall in the showroom and united by a 40 foot long American Walnut shelf. Recessed fiber optic lighting and a sliding groove allow the line of glass to float freely in front
of the display wall creating the sensation of a suspended optical plane. Gabellini Sheppard Associates’ design concept for the showroom was to create an elemental environment complementing the refinement of craft and detail found in Rosenblat’s hand-made jewelry. To complement the precious stones and metals on display, the palette is expressed with four refined materials: imperial plaster, honed Spanish limestone, translucent optical glass and select wenge heartwood. Each material was chosen for its chromatic uniformity and light absorption, against which the precious gemstones radiate. In addition, American Walnut designed by George Nakashima Woodworkers is introduced in the built-in and free-standing furnishings, as a fluid counterpoint to the otherwise geometrically pure rooms. The space parallels many of the designs of the client, where rough-cut stones are placed in crisply crafted settings.
Rosenblat Showroom and Atelier
Nicole Farhi Flagship LOCATION | New York, NY SIZE | 21,770 sf STATUS | complete 1999
Located on East 60th Street, the Nicole Farhi Boutique and Restaurant, which opened in fall 1999, occupies three levels of a 1901 landmark structure. The exterior of the building, most recently home to the famous Copacabana nightclub, was restored with honed Indiana limestone and Deer Isle granite to match the original stone tracery.
flooring of the retail platform creates a floating field that finds a counterpoint in the blue-lit plaster ceiling of the restaurant below. This double-sided blue field hovers within a wrap-around border of American Walnut. Four large elliptical plaster columns penetrate both levels, traced by thin reveals. Veiled by walnut and paper shoji screens, the women’s fitting rooms provide a translucent, luminous background.
The women’s boutique floor is suspended between two soaring, double-height atria that reveal the carved lower level. Evoking the historic exterior limestone, the interior street façade in architectural plaster connects the two levels with understated grandeur. A bridge of water-white glass and American Walnut traverses the 26 foot high atrium from the street entrance to the boutique. The honed New York bluestone
A second stair descends to the home and men’s collections. From this point one may enter the lowered floor of the restaurant by floating wooden steps. Custom fixtures designed by Gabellini Associates, including cantilevered shelves and abacus-inspired tables, display merchandise throughout the space.
Nicole Farhi Flagship
Nicole Farhi Flagship
Ultimo Boutique LOCATION | San Francisco, CA SIZE | 4,000 sf STATUS | complete 1997
Within a landmark structure off Union Square in San Francisco, Gabellini Associates created a highly unique women’s ready-to-wear boutique utilizing lighting, color and rigorously selected materials as primary design elements for Ultimo of Chicago. The Ultimo boutique is conceived as a red chinoiserie box within which a vaulted ivory ceiling plane floats to conceal an illumination system that creates veils of ambient light on the walls and perimeter vitrines. To address the three foot change in floor level from Maiden Lane to Geary Street, a walnut ramp and display platform lead to a stair sited between a silicon bronze wall and a two-story wall of luminous Rosa Portugalo marble rising up through the double height atrium. The two floors may be viewed simultaneously
from the stair, as elliptical columns and suspended bronze panels puncture and delineate both spaces. The floating bluestone display plinth on the first floor, conceived as a flexible stage, is reinterpreted as a low platform along the second floor storefront windows. The second floor ceiling complements the floor below as a series of overlapping floating light vaults. The material palette extends into custom display fixtures designed by Gabellini Sheppard Associates. Silk scrolls, water white mirror panels and walnut trapeze bars are suspended from the ceiling by black tensile cord. The walnut furniture was designed in collaboration with George Nakashima Woodworkers to create a dramatic backdrop to the collections on display.
Ultimo Boutique
Salvatore Ferragamo LOCATION | Venice, Italy SIZE | 4,600 sf STATUS | complete 2001
The Venice Flagship, located on two levels in a palazzo on the corner of Calle Large XXII and Campiello Barozzi, opened in September of 2001 and introduced the new Salvatore Ferragamo worldwide design concept. Surrounded by the magical and iconic city of Venice, the large arched window openings frame views into the boutique’s interior, whose understated furnishings blend with the rich historic context. Conceived as a grand salon, the environment evokes both an openness and intimacy that reinforces the Ferragamo brand characteristics of traditional quality and craftsmanship paired with an energetic and modern spirit.
Full height sliding nickel silver chain mail panels with integrated ambient lighting act as theatrical scrims defining the window displays, which provide various degrees of translucency and changing views into the boutique interior. The classically proportioned interior space is animated by floating plaster ceiling planes and suspended vitrine walls surrounded by ambient frames of light. Merchandising fixtures of ivory corian, nickel silver, Italian walnut and ultra clear glass compliment the space.
Salvatore Ferragamo
Davide Cenci LOCATION | Rome, Italy SIZE | 30,000 sf STATUS | complete 2002
The Davide Cenci flagship, located on Via Campo Marzio in Rome’s historic center, is a composition of separate buildings or ‘wings’ connected by a grand central atrium. A fundamental aspect of the project is an extensive exterior renovation that unifies the disparate facades by matching the original window profiles and materials. The 30,000 square foot project debuted the Davide Cenci retail concept opened in 2002. A unique challenge of the design concept was to accommodate the client’s request for high volume display while creating a luxury design identity commensurate with the Davide Cenci tradition: one of Italy’s leading designers of timelessly elegant men’s and women’s clothing The architecture is punctuated by three dramatic atria with floating elliptical Botticino marble stairs providing a sinuous and engaging connection between the three
display floors. While the primary stair is located within an elliptical skylit volume at the heart of the complex, another reinforces the angular street corner and is visible through 13 foot high display windows. The display areas are defined as a series of small rooms connected to the next by Botticino marble framed portals and flooring, each with display windows veiled by sliding resin and linen panels. Further articulating each room environment is a curved plaster ceiling panel with a perimeter halo of ambient light and a glowing center of backlit Portuguese Estremoz stone. The merchandising concept of men and women is emblematic of the Davide Cenci trademark colors: orange lacquer and luxurious mahogany. In addition, within the special women’s areas a new signature blue is similarly introduced. The entire concept is reminiscent of 1930’s early modern design, marrying the quality of tradition with a vision of modernity.
Davide Cenci
Gianfranco Ferre LOCATION | Milan, Italy SIZE | 8,000 sf STATUS | complete 2003
New Gianfranco Ferre boutiques opened in Milan and Paris in 2003 based on a new worldwide retail concept developed by Gabellini Associates. The 4,000 square foot Paris boutique, located along Avenue Montaigne, displays the Women’s collection. The 8,000 sq. ft. Milan store occupies two levels of a grand palazzo on Via Sant’Andrea and features the full Men’s and Women’s Collections. Both boutiques feature an expanded accessories program and introduce the Ferre home collection.
The interior architecture of the stores complements the creative and innovative spirit of the Gianfranco Ferre design tradition. Linear geometries, translucent and lightfilled planes, and floating surfaces animate the retail space. The environment highlights the qualities of the ready-to-wear and accessory product groups through spatial techniques of framing: suspension, illumination and material layering. The rich coordination of materials and forms creates an active backdrop to the products on display.
B&B Italia Store, Soho LOCATION | New York SIZE | 6500sf STATUS | complete 2007
Fusing the typologies of home, lounge and boutique, this classically proportioned SoHo loft forms a dynamic backdrop for the B&B Italia and Maxalto furniture collections. Its flexible mise-en-scène display concept allows for the presentation of modern and contemporary design sensibilities within a unified spatial narrative. Hovering ceiling planes contain a recessed track system that accommodates color-corrected theatrical light fixtures and layers of printed scrims. These full-height, moveable scrim panels articulate a series of interlocking salons within the open space. Within each floating walnut frame, two layers of translucent fabric overlap to create a diaphanous spatial veil. Additional scrim overlays along the cove-lit walls enable moments of variable opacity and translucency throughout the two-level store. Brazilian Walnut flooring on the main level contributes to the warm loft atmosphere, while the lower level’s natural-finish con-
crete flooring conveys a downtown edge that suits the pure modernity of the Collection. A floating walnut stair descends to a landing, allowing guests to survey the lower level space from a theatrically lit platform before stepping down to the shop floor. Deceptively minimal in its structural design, it nevertheless displays an exposed steel brace connecting with an original cast-iron column. The sculpted walnut stair treads, dramatically beveled on the underside, echo the knife-edge detailing of the floating plaster ceiling. The adjacent ADA elevator is wrapped in iridescent metal mesh panels for a subtle moray effect. The conceptual intent of the project was to harness and express the creative and innovative qualities of the B&B Italia brand, founded in 1966. Designed as a living, changeable laboratory for the incubation of new ideas, this unique showroom presents a graphic, contemporary identity for an ever-evolving brand.
B&B Italia Store, Soho
B&B Italia Store, Soho
Ports 1961 Boutique LOCATION | Los Angeles, CA SIZE | 1,300 sf STATUS | omplete 2008
The Ports 1961 Los Angeles boutique reflects designer Tia Cibani’s vision of the modern, cosmopolitan woman. Conceived as a private fashion salon that evolves with each season, the space unfolds as an intimately sculptural environment of natural warmth, a layered backdrop for experiencing the sophisticated elegance of the Ports 1961 fashion brand. Within the loft-like interior, a meandering progression of three open rooms creates an alluring flow of pace and Collection display amidst a vibrant palette of natu-
ral materials: light putty-colored concrete flooring, modeled plaster walls in warm mocha gray, the newly revealed and restored walnut truss ceiling, and freestanding walnut display platforms that frame the perimeter of the space. Other signature design elements include backlit acrylic molded shelving draped in technical fabric, a signature twisting hangbar in solid nickel silver, and silver metallic wall curtains, all illuminated by glowing light coves and theatrical lighting.
Ports 1961 Boutique
Ports 1961 Boutique
Ports 1961 Boutique LOCATION | New York, NY SIZE | 1,600 sf STATUS | omplete 2009
The Gabellini Sheppard Associates retail design for Ports 1961 was incubated as a two project concept for the United States’ east and west coasts: for Melrose Place in Los Angeles, and the Meatpacking District in New York, in a reflection of the East-meets-West nature of the brand itself. Conceived as a private boudoir for the modern, cosmopolitan woman, the new Ports 1961 environments embody the brand’s modern identity and old world romance.
wool further contribute to the warm, casual atmosphere, where customers are invited to linger and relax as in an upscaleliving room.
The New York boutique, located one block from the High Line, fills the ground level of a restored, wisteria covered 1849 brick townhouse within the Gansevoort Market Historic District. Preserving the existing typology of a townhouse with a rear yard: though the courtyard was infilled, the expansion contains a cloister like interior revealing a new garden within
The focal point is a striking rectangular glass cube Weather Room, a sensory space which extends floor-to-ceiling to an outdoor second-floor terrace used for special events and entertaining. Open to sun, rain and snow alike, it draws the energy of the weather down like a vortex and concentrates it in the center of the retail volume. This courtyard in miniature, like a theater in the round, offers different methods of conceptualizing space: from pocket park, to terrarium, to gallery, to performance venue, while visually linking to the exterior terrace above and creating a voyeuristic, public, see-and-be-seen connection between the boutique and event spaces.
Inside the boutique, customers meander between the older, more intimate building and the new, light-filled expansion. Continuous American Walnut flooring with a dark tung oil finish links the two areas visually and imparts a material richness to the space. Walnut furnishings and plush, hand-loomed Tibetan carpets in silk and
The merchandise displays rely on concepts of lightness and suspension, inspired by the layered draping techniques of the collections. Signature twisting hangbars in solid nickel silver allow a glimpse of the front side of each garment and form a rhythmic display ribbon for the designer’s continually evolving collections.
Ports 1961 Boutique
Ports 1961Ports Boutique 1961
Vera Wang Boutique LOCATION | New York, NY SIZE | 2,200 sf STATUS | complete 2008
The new Vera Wang boutique, located in a historic cast-iron masonry building in Manhattan’s landmark Soho district, reflects and extends the designer’s sensibility of elegant, performative luxury. Created to showcase the ready-to-wear and Lavender collections, the 2,000 square foot, two-level environment is infused with light and based on the dynamic qualities of a white box theater, an infinitely changeable space that shapes a variety of brand narratives and collection experiences. The lighting concept serves as the primary spatial element, an LED-infused ambient light volume molding and saturating the space with a diffused lavender hue. The design comprises three main areas: the storefront entrance, considered as a proscenium frame, is followed by the center-stage main collection, and finally by the more intimate collection and changing backstage areas. The whimsical, acrobatic display concept exhibits lightness and a graceful interplay of suspended elements: simple shell-like hang bars and cascading, translucent shelving units that drape from the ceiling in groups of three. Diaphanous, translucent scrims form a backdrop to the hang bars and the collection on display.
Interspersed throughout the retail area, these decorative scrims, along with sliding translucent acrylic partitions, veil a layered procession of spaces and shape a meandering path throughout the boutique area. As with the stacked neoprene tables, all display elements are flexible and can be removed for special events, such as the seasonal runway shows and contemporary artists’ exhibitions. A significant change in floor elevation created a challenge in this uniquely Soho space. As part of the design solution, the spatial sequence now unfolds down a full-width, white Corian grand stair at the center of the store, which transitions into the more intimate display and changing area at the rear. With the removal of a structural beam at the lower-level ceiling threshold, a more gracious proportion was created above the stair. LED backlighting behind the individual white steps makes them appear to float above the floor, and translucent acrylic platforms allow the stair to double as a display riser or seating for events.
Vera Wang Boutique
David Yurman Townhouse LOCATION | SIZE | STATUS |
New York, NY 3,500 sf retail 6,000 sf total complete 2010
Set within a landmarked, six-level townhouse on Madison Avenue, the David Yurman flagship boutique in New York is conceived as the “home of David Yurman.” The spatial concept symbolizes and embellishes the rich artisanal David Yurman tradition of modernity by conceiving an environment of graphically focused comfort and accessibility. The Townhouse reinterprets the iconic American Modern architecture of the mid-1900s; from the residential designs of Frank Lloyd Wright to the Case Study houses in California, to provide a window into the world of the David Yurman collection and the modern, luxe sensibility of their jewelry design. The window displays, like a dramatic theater stage, are designed for flexibility and transformation from one collection presentation to another. The front elevation and main entry are defined by a two-story proscenium frame of limestone and patinated Cor-Ten steel, with glass panes of varied height and depth forming a Mon-
drian-like composition that animates the façade. Scenic layers of custom designed etched Starfire glass and suspended screens partially veil the interior, giving the boutique an alluring presence that draws people inside. The men’s-floor palette is darker, more masculine, while the bridal and couture floor is lighter and more ethereal, yet the boutique is unified by using similarly rich materials throughout. Geometric, illuminated wall cases and optical display vitrines line the perimeter of the space, along with cantilevered, live-edge wood countertops that provide an organic counterbalance to the graphic rectangular space and display fixtures. The lighting concept heightens the emotional quality of the space and enhances the anticipatory quality of the jewelry, spotlighting the timeless, American classic that is David Yurman.
David Yurman Townhouse
David Yurman Townhouse
David Yurman Townhouse
David Yurman Beverly Hills Boutique LOCATION | Beverly Hills, CA SIZE | 2,700 sf STATUS | complete 2012
The Beverly Hills flagship for David Yurman occupying a prominent corner storefront at the intersection of Rodeo Drive and Brighton Way, adapts the brand’s spatial concept to the relaxed, informal lifestyle of the Pacific Coast. The space is thought of as a studio: a loft-like environment that generates a casual expansiveness and meandering sense of discovery. Inspired by the mid-century California modernism of Richard Neutra, Craig Ellwood, and the Case Study House program, the interior is defined by an overt horizontality and a flowing sequence of spaces. The open, informal arrangements of display fixtures and partitions encourages guests to explore the collection areas. The light colored ceiling and honed marble flooring unifies the space while alternating free-floating wall panels, ambient ceiling light slots and subtle directional shifts in the flooring pattern define individual “rooms” for each collection. Throughout, materials such as textured plaster, natural concrete, and artisanal metal finishes, reflect the casual, artistic character of a sculptor’s studio .
Fabric wall coverings and silk area rugs soften the space while imparting an individual identity to each collection area: the men’s area palette is darker, more masculine, while the bridal and high jewelry areas are lighter and more ethereal. Geometric, illuminated wall cases and optical display vitrines line the perimeter of the space, along with cantilevered, live-edge walnut countertops that provide a soft, organic counterbalance to the graphic rectilinear space and display fixtures. The display fixtures, with naturally curving edges, swivel display drawers, and integrated lighting, emit a casual, residential feel. As along the Big Sur coast, lighting plays a dramatic role in shaping the emotional quality of the Studio environment. The ephemeral lighting enhances the anticipatory quality of the jewelry, highlighting the timeless, Californian classic that is David Yurman.
David Yurman Beverly Hills Boutique
retail centers
Armani Retail Center LOCATION | SIZE | STATUS |
Milan, Italy 100,000 sf 3 levels complete 2000
The Armani Center was conceived as a multi-use complex bringing together the various collections associated with the Giorgio Armani label, within a development occupying three levels of a 1947 landmarked building on Via Manzoni and Via Montenapoleone in Milan, Italy. In addition to the designer’s Emporio and Jeans lines, and Casa home collection, the center includes a Bookstore, Florist, Café, Noburestaurant, and Sony World electronics emporium.
The commercial components of the Spazio Armani surround an internal public street whose cruciform plan is reminiscent of Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele. The Center’s softly lit, translucent ceiling panels move around two, three-story skylit atriums, creating a dynamic public environment that is animated by graphic color walls and large-scale LED screens. These elements extend into and articulate the boutique areas, highlighting the distinctions between the unique elements of each line, while conceptually integrating the entire project.
Armani Retail Center
The Village at Westfield LOCATION | SIZE | STATUS |
London, UK 150,000 sf 3 levels complete 2008
Gabellini Sheppard was commissioned by Westfield Shoppingtowns to design a 21st century luxury emporium within the Westfield London retail center in White City. The Village is infused with light, sculptural public space, and a theatrically layered brand expression. It forms an alluring beacon of cosmopolitan culture, fashion, luxury goods, and special lifestyle amenities created to service its targeted affluent clientele. Reverberating with a unique mix of individual brand narratives, the Village environment creates a dramatic shopping experience of continual movement flowing from place to place, shop to shop, and level to level. The creation of a dynamic public space was the primary generator of the Village’s spatial character, foregrounding the image of the retail center itself over the individual brands. A sweeping visual harmony is achieved through spatial framing of architecture, lighting, and materials. The individual shopfronts, the supplemental generator of the spatial environment, uniformly layers behind an undulating sculptural ribbon
The central concept is one of modernity, yet it adapts to facilitate the distinct bespoke character of each brand. The storefronts comprise a full-height, layered glass display wall. This undulating ribbon demarcates the public galleria from the individual retail brand spaces. Designed to preserve the signature elegance of the Village environment throughout all three levels, the shopfront concept is flexible and adaptable to exhibit the identity and full expression of the brand without diluting the overall image of the Village public space. The tenant criteria for the Village were developed in a unique and close collaboration with LVMH. The undulating glazed storefronts were designed using the flagship Louis Vuitton brand as a hypothetical tenant, in a process that balanced Westfield’s desire for a unified spatial environment with LVMH’s desire for maximum brand recognition and display. The resulting criteria were then expanded to the emporium as a whole with Louis Vuitton leasing for the corner boutique used in developing the tenant criteria..
Echelon LOCATION | SIZE | STATUS |
Las Vegas, NV 400,000 sf 2 levels 2009
Working with a Boyd Gaming/ GGP partnership, at Echelon, Gabellini Sheppard developed a retail center fusing modern elegance with a sense of adventure to define a new pleasure paradigm. A signature luxury lifestyle experience is defined by grand public spaces including the Conservatory, Elliptical Courts, and the Atrium Cascade, which are interwoven within a meandering boulevard of designer boutiques and lifestyle amenities on two levels. Conceived as a retail emporium for the senses, the overall spatial aesthetic and specific design elements are inspired by forms and patterns found in nature. Weav-
ing sensory experience into a spatial narrative of meandering movement, the animated retail “streams� are characterized by gently undulating forms, a distinctive material palette, and a layered infusion of warm color. The unified architectural concept creates an alluring pedestrian shopping environment, infused with warm ambient and theatrical light, an array of lifestyle amenities, and the ever evolving spectacle of premium goods for the offering.
Echelon
Mall of America Renovation LOCATION | Minneapolis, MN 500,000 sf SIZE | STATUS | ongoing
The Triple Five Group commissioned Gabellini Sheppard Associates to renovate the South Avenue of Mall of America, the largest shopping center in the United States, in order to make the retail concourse more appealing to luxury tenants. The redesign, completed in 2010, proved so successful that the firm has been retained to renovate the other three avenues: East, West, and North, as well as to modify the southeast extension by expanding the retail concourse while reducing the size of the anchor tenant space The redesigned 66,000 sq. ft. South Avenue, an archetypal galleria similar in scale to the great retail arcades of Europe, is characterized by spatial clarity, a strong sense of place, and a refreshing new environment filled with light and crystal. A
phased construction schedule allowed the renovation to proceed with no interruption of commercial activity. Now, the retail brand identities of the South Avenue are unified within a luminous environment of new marble and ceramic surfaces, in a rich, tactile material palette of light beige, cream, and taupe. Polished surfaces are juxtaposed with matte: the painted columns and Botticino marble bases, the opalescent silk mirror panels and timeless, custom-designed floor pattern, achieved with an interplay of matte and polished ceramic tile, and Swarovski crystal light sculptures. The refined, contemporary furnishings lend a sense of comfort and ease, where guests can relax amidst the ever-changing theater of goods.
Mall of America: South Boulevard
Mall of America East Boulevard and East Rotunda LOCATION | Minneapolis, MN 500,000 sf SIZE | STATUS | ongoing
The 95,000 sq. ft. renovation of Soho East (formerly East Broadway), nearly complete, will envelop visitors within a warm environment inspired by the industrial-scaled loft spaces and artistic culture of Soho. Accents of illumination: with ceiling bays painted in graduating intensities of neutral grays, and pedestrian
bridges illuminated with backlit, overlapping, light-diffusing acrylic panels, and the dynamic effect of the striped flooring pattern create a youthful energy that is yet sophisticated and modern. Within the East Rotunda, the existing elevator core now imparts a dramatic presence, with new finish of backlit technical metal mesh.
Mall of America Southeast Court and Extension
The 45,000 sq. ft. Southeast Extension is designed as an elegant destination space within Mall of America, a cascade of activity animated by architectural frames of light and material. Concentric framing concepts reverberate within the spaces, first through the alternating polished and matte porcelain tile flooring, and also with stepped ceiling coves outlined by ambient light frames.
These expand outward from the open voids of the octagonal Southeast Court and adjacent Atrium Extension. The light frames accentuate the vertical spaces: culminating in a translucent glow from the newly refurbished skylight in the Southeast Court, and add to the sense of drama imparted by suspended decorative metal ceiling installations.
195 Broadway LOCATION | New York, NY 47,000 sf SIZE | STATUS | complete 2015
The monumental street-level lobby of 195 Broadway sits atop five subterranean levels that once supported the daily operation of AT&T’s communications empire. These spaces have grown increasingly dormant and isolated from the daily activity of the building and city. Concurrent with the intensive redevelopment of Lower Manhattan, Gabellini Sheppard proposes to reconnect these dormant basement levels to the street-level lobby and to adjacent public space both above and below ground. The infusion of over 70,000 square feet of new retail space within the lower levels of 195 Broadway will re-activate the relationship between the building and its environs. The provision of independent access paths to lower-level retail space will minimize the impact on the building’s historic lobby. Eighty percent of the proposed new retail space will occupy the building’s lower levels. Supported by this subterranean retail space, the lobby will become an elegant retail showroom with simple display fixtures designed to preserve its historic character and spatial continuity. The current Broadway entrances will provide retail connections at street level, while the cur-
rent Dey Street lobby, restored to its original design, will again become the entrance for office tenants occupying the building’s upper levels. A new floor opening in the lobby level will provide escalator connection from the street level showroom to the primary retail spaces below. Essential to facilitating both vertical circulation and a strong visual connection among the reunified lower levels, this incision creates a grand, two-story atrium which will link the lobby space with the subterranean retail spaces and adjacent public transit connections. Depending upon the number of retail tenants at street level, a second floor opening with stairs or escalators may be necessary. The pavilions flanking the Dey Street entrance lobby provide opportunities for such additional floor openings while preserving the integrity of the main Broadway lobby.
As many as four direct connections will be made to adjacent public transit spaces. Two entrances at Basement ‘A’ level will connect to the existing Fulton Street Station and to the new Concourse Entry Pavilion at Dey Street and Broadway. One of these two connections will include the restoration of 195 Broadway’s historic subway wall at the Fulton Street Station.
Connections will also be made between Basement ’B’ and Basement ‘C’ levels at the east and west ends of the new Dey Street Concourse. For over seventy years, 195 Broadway hosted the dynamic, accelerating development of global communications networks.
Theodore Vail, President of AT&T from 1907 to 1919, asked the architect William Welles Bosworth to design a building that would express AT&T’s corporate power through the qualities of solidity and permanence. Bosworth responded by creating a building he later considered one of his greatest accomplishments. Today 195 Broadway maintains its historic grandeur,
but has retreated from its service as civic landmark and hub of activity. By reconnecting the building on several dimensions to its ever-evolving urban context, this proposal aims to reestablish it as a vital center of activity within the
Port Authority–Westfield World Trade Center, Retail Design Guidelines LOCATION | New York, NY SIZE | + 350,000 sf STATUS | ongoing
In 2011, Gabellini Sheppard began developing tenant storefront guidelines in collaboration with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Westfield. In collaboration with Westfield, Gabellini Sheppard Associates master planned the below-grade retail concourse at the World
Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan in 2008. When completed, over 350,000 square feet of retail will connect the towers on the WTC site to an extensive transit center and adjacent private developments. Hub Design by Santiago Calatrava and 3D renderings by dbox with Creative Direction by Gabellini Sheppard.
public/urban
Top of the Rock Observation Deck LOCATION | New York, NY SIZE | 55,000 sf STATUS | complete 2005
Top of the Rock opens a progressive new chapter in the life of an iconic New York building. A designated Landmark since 1985, 30 Rockefeller Plaza is home to GE offices, NBC broadcasting studios, and the legendary Rainbow Room restaurant as well as an underground retail Concourse and ground-floor public lobby. Following two decades of disuse, the historic observation decks atop the building have been reopened to the public and integrated with new interior spaces to create an enhanced visitor experience from the ground up. The project comprises six levels and was accomplished without encumbering daily activities within the skyscraper. Continuous collaboration with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission distinguished the design process from the outset. Blending contemporary forms with the Art Deco tradition of the 1933 building, the project celebrates Rockefeller Center’s ever-evolving narrative from old to new, from ground to sky, and from site to city. New public visitor space was carved from non-historic offices on the lower three levels of the building. Accessible to the public from the street or Concourse levels,
The new triple-height entrance atrium and elliptical stair evoke the expressive grandeur of the Center’s original 1930s lobbies and specifically the adjacent landmarked lobby of the GE Building. Along the elliptical stair, a subtle gradation of dark to light terrazzo flooring and walls creates an upward momentum which launches the journey to the upper observation decks. A hovering light sculpture of 14,000 iridescent crystals, designed by the architect, tapers downward as an inverted Deco skyscraper, creating an ever-changing visual field as visitors enter this public area. New ticketing and exit areas are completely integrated with Rockefeller Center’s extensive underground network of shops, transit connections, and outdoor skating rink. A new Mezzanine exhibition space offers visitors a multimedia exploration of Rockefeller Center while they prepare to board elevator shuttles with transparent glass ceilings to the upper decks. Full-height graphics and archival images punctuated by an original 1935 basswood model of 30 Rockefeller Plaza animate the curving exhibition space.
Top of the Rock Observation Deck
Top of the Rock Observation Deck
Elevator shuttles deliver visitors into the daylight-infused environment of the newly created 67th Floor Grand Viewing Room. This expansive, wrap-around space is designed to highlight the urban vista and the original, restored exterior architectural details of cast aluminum and limestone. Much of this 7,700 sq. ft. interior area was reclaimed from utility rooms packed with mechanical and broadcasting equipment, which was consolidated and repositioned. At the eastern end of the 67th level lies the Weather Room, a triple-height space proportioned as a chapel and saturated with natural light via restored windows. Three colors of honed terrazzo radiating from the center to the perimeter, gray to pale beige, render the floor in relation to the incoming daylight. Perimeter walls of limestone and architectural plaster reference the exterior limestone surface, bringing the material palette from the outside in. Radiance, a crystal geode wall designed by the architect, embellishes the skyscraper’s lighthouse-like identity within the heart of New York.
It references the Art Deco era’s flamboyant experimentation with geometry, surfaces, and new production technology; as well as the creative spirit of Rockefeller Center’s renowned sculptures, murals, and architecture. To produce the wall’s multi-layered, etched surfaces, traditional art glass fabrication techniques were used alongside new technologies for cutting, mapping, and layering glass and crystal. A new, open-air escalator atrium links the 67th floor to the 69th floor Skyroom and shop as well as the 5,200 sq. ft. outdoor viewing terrace. Clear optical glass panels function as subtly as a pair of rimless eyeglasses, preserving the building’s original appearance while providing the purest possible viewing experience. The 850-ft high plateau of the 70th floor observation deck, representing the ultimate conceptual and physical pinnacle of Rockefeller Center, evokes the upper decks of a 1930s oceanliner floating high above the metropolitan sea. Photos Paul Warchol, nigh time views photos: Peter Murdock
Top of the Rock Observation Deck
Top of the Rock Observation Deck
Top of the Rock Observation Deck
Rockefeller Center Restoration LOCATION | New York, NY SIZE | 300,000 sf STATUS | ongoing
In response to a request by Tishman Speyer Properties in 1998, Gabellini Associates proposed a renovation of the Rockefeller Center 5th Avenue facades to enhance their retail character. The challenge was to balance the conflicting criteria of greater store visibility with respect to the existing landmarked buildings. The scale, vertical and frontal organization, hierarchy and materials of the 5th Avenue buildings and the Rockefeller complex as a whole had to be carefully considered. Despite the preference of possible retailers for more glass area, Gabellini Sheppard proposed a modest alteration, maintaining the existing storefront width and raising it only the height of one stone wall panel. This addressed the two primary concerns: keeping the sense of human scale intact while maintaining the building’s solidity as a base for the complex as a whole. Retaining or replicating the original storefront details reinforced this sensibility. By relocating the existing 5th Avenue retail entrance doors to the building lobby, views into the store interiors are enhanced and window display area was increased.
Piazza Isolo LOCATION | Verona, Italy SIZE | 300,000 sf STATUS | Concept 1997
The firm won an international competition for the redesign of the ancient Piazza Isolo in Verona, Italy. Historically, Piazza Isolo existed as an island between the right and left banks of the river Adige, accessible only by bridges. After a flood in the late 19th century the river’s edges were altered significantly by perimeter retaining walls and the current site was landfilled. The programmatic requirements for this project consists of a two-level, under-ground garage for 500 cars, a garden park at the base of a new pedestrian bridge, and the Piazza Isolo itself, which is to be transformed into a marketplace
and performance center. The firm’s concept for the new urban center utilizes water as a metaphorical trace through the site’s history. Isolo’s public square and market are conceived as two trapezoidal ‘islands’, one concave and one convex, surrounded by a shallow moat that makes the Piazza appear to float within a pool of water. A new pedestrian bridge strengthens the existing connections to the old city, and the ground plane of the Piazza serves as the roof of the garage.
120 Park Avenue LOCATION | New York, NY 18,600 sf SIZE | STATUS | 2010 ConceptFeasibility
The privately owned indoor plaza in 120 Park Avenue, the Ulrich Franzen-designed tower across from Grand Central Terminal, and the building’s indoor public atrium was an under-utilized, largely ignored space. The Consulate General of Canada commissioned Gabellini Sheppard Associates to reactivate this public amenity, in order to promote Canadian culture and trade, host events and exhibitions, and create a welcoming environment for daily use, as it was considering leasing a large block of office space above. The design creates a flexible, highly technical performance space, like an urban theater open to the street, layered with proscenium, seating, and display areas.
The slatted ceiling and walls allow for the transformation of reconfigurable theatrical lighting and scenographic materials, while the existing stair platform is reconceived and reconfigured to create more gracious proportions and make it suitable as an event stage. The materials palette, consisting of wood, create a metaphoric exchange between Canada’s expansive natural world and its modern technical innovations.
art/exhibition
CFDA Exhibition LOCATION | New York, NY STATUS | complete Fall/Winter 1995 Spring 1996 Winter 1996
Gabellini Sheppard was commissioned to design five consecutive exhibitions spanning two and a half years for the Accessory Designs of the Council of Fashion designers of America (CFDA). These presentations were staged simultaneously with the seasonal runway shows of the CFDA ready-to-wear designers, which were presented in Bryant Park. These accessory designer presentations were conceived as ‘black box theatre’ environments. For the spring/summer exhibition, the three billboard-size pe-
rimeter walls were painted an iridescent green. Floating white, beveled platforms displayed the accessories of twenty-eight participating designers. Connected to these animated carousel-like structures were sixteen suspended light canopies hovering above the display surface. Theatrical light fixtures hung from the ceiling in a random celestial pattern puncturing and filling these canopies with alternating daylight and moonlight color intensities to create the sensation of being inside a clover field with changing natural light.
CFDA Exhibition
Grant Selwyn Gallery LOCATION | New York, NY SIZE | 2,500 sf STATUS | complete 1999
This gallery for contemporary painting, sculpture, and works on paper reinterprets essential qualities of the firm’s home and boutique designs. Evincing a close attention to detail in the art of display and spatial resolution, the 2,500 sq. ft. space opened in 1998 on the second floor of a limestone building on 57th Street. The reconfigured interior emphasizes the exhibition area while accommodating offices, library, archive, and art storage within a sequence of private spaces. A full-height pivot wall at the north end of the gallery rotates 360 degrees on a single ball-bearing mechanism to create a flexible viewing space. Along the full 18 ft. length of the interior façade wall, a honed New York bluestone window bench hovers as if emerging from the building structure. This bench provides a display base for small-scale sculpture as well as an informal viewing position.
Adjustable white HID lamps within slot-recessed fixtures illuminate the art works. A glowing light cove, visible to the street below through the full-height facade window, wraps around the perimeter of the gallery. This renders the 12 ft. high ceiling as a paper-thin plane hovering within a warm halo. Demarcating the entry and reception area from the main exhibition space, a single panel of translucent, colorless glass reaches from floor to ceiling. The library and archive space is designed as a place of reference and repose for clients as well as a working environment for gallery staff. A full-height, six foot long pocket door separates the library from the art storage space beyond. American Walnut flooring, furnishings by George Nakashima Woodworkers, and custom-designed floating shelving and desk surfaces lend a distinctly natural, domestic sensibility to the calmly neutral gallery environment.
Grant Selwyn Gallery
All Photos Paul Warchol unless otherwise noted GABELLINI SHEPPARD ASSOCIATES LLP 665 BROADWAY SUITE 706 NY NY 10012 T 212 388 1700 www.gabellinisheppard.com