Brooks Brothers'new 16,000-square-foot, two-level San Francisco flagship features the light, boxy look and off-white limestone flooring that mark the Fifth Avenue flagship, and something new: a flexible perimeter fixturing system that allows a variety of display possibilities to ably accommodate men's and women's clothing and accessories.
Light mahogany walls surround panels around Brooks'traditional dark mahogany cage system. The architecturally simple, versatile fixtures let the merchandise take center stage. The retailer's trademark cube system for displaying men's shirts is set in the back of the store. Canted displays on an angled, sequential format can be clearly seen from the entrance.
On the women's side, Gensler (San Francisco) designed a floating lightbox in the ceiling and placed an illuminated graphic panel of Brooks'founder at the store's rear. The strong light source, coupled with a colorful backwall treatment, also subtly differentiates men's from women's.
Client Team: Brooks Brothers, New York — Tom Dougherty, director of design and construction; Lisa Gold, store planning; Paul Sadowski, director of visual merchandising
Design Team: Gensler, San Francisco — Ray Shick, design director; Roy Militar, project manager; Christina Sum, project manager; Jason Jones, Vicky Mitrou, Daniel Scovill, Elinor Tuerk and Rikki Dy-Liacco, design team
Outside Consultants: Revolver Design, San Francisco (lighting); KPFF, San Francisco (structural engineer); Encon, Los Altos, Calif. (MEP engineer); Fisher Development Inc., San Francisco (general contractor)
Suppliers: USG Interiors, Chicago (ceiling); Proco Wood Products, Ossed, Minn. (perimeter fixtures); Distributed by Hoboken Floors, Wayne, N.J. (wood flooring); St. Marc Claire, distributed by Stone Source, New York (limestone flooring); Harbinger, Atlanta (carpet); Daltile, Dallas (ceramic tile); Armstrong World Industries, Lancaster, Pa. (resilient flooring); La Bruna Industries, Ontario, Calif., and Alpha Display Inc., New York (fixturing); The Retouchables Group Inc., New York (graphics); Indy Lighting, Fishers, Ind., Creative Systems Lighting, Valencia, Calif., Lab Lite, Buffalo, N.Y., and Juno Lighting, Des Plaines, Ill. (lighting); Goldsmith, New York (mannequins/forms); Benjamin Moore Paint Co., Montvale, N.J. (paint); Midtown Neon Sign Corp., New York (exterior signage); Zebra Awning, San Francisco (banner)
Photography: Sherman Tanaka, San Francisco, and Elliott Kaufman, New York