Lollipop Kids

It was the perfect project: an “anything goes” client, an over-the-top budget, a 300-foot-long storefront and a space begging for an explosion of colors and materials. When New Yaohan (Macau) commissioned Seattle-based Callison to create a kids concept for Macau’s Cotai Strip (think Vegas on a smaller scale – Las Vegas Sands Corp. is a leading developer on the strip), they gave the firm free reign with one condition: they wanted something worthy of a heady casino environment.

Macau’s Cotai Strip, the reclaimed land between the Coloane and Taipa islands, is now home to the Grand Waldo Hotel, Venetian Macao, Wynn Macau and MGM China resorts, as well as the recently launched Sands Cotai Central, where Kid's Cavern is located.

Two casinos, three hotels and a mall make up the complex. New Yaohan purchased an anchor space in the central shopping center and, with a nod to China’s family-oriented culture, decided to create a children’s-only spinoff.

New Yaohan reached out to Callison designers, asking for an extraordinary design for a children’s store. “They wanted to create an over-the-top children’s store and overall experience within this space,” says Christian Jochman of Callison, who led design on the project. “They said, ‘Here’s the product mix: toys and electronics, candy, high-end designer children's clothing, a multi-shop with various shoe and apparel brands – we want something completely unique.’ It was like working with a blank slate.”

After developing a dynamic, fanciful kid’s concept, Callison creatives turned to local specialty designers to animate the space. They tapped former Disney Imagineer Mike Dillon of Dillon Works! (Mukilteo, Wash.) and his team to add movement and theatrical effects, such as a 15-foot-wide spinning candy chandelier with 603 cast resin lollipops and multi-colored candy ribbons pre-printed on vacuum-formed plastic. And they paired with Seattle-based Mode Studios to design and program abstract, changeable content for 40,000 LEDs on the storefront. Managers can change colors, swap programs or even shut the display off – the LED panels are set behind etched white glass – leaving colorful glows only around entryways, to create a beautiful white storefront.

Without clear sight lines or hard edges, the store’s flow mimics a kid running through it – dashing around corners, stopping to gaze at fantastic displays.

“It’s a flowing space,” Jochman says. “As you meander through it, there are no real direct sight lines or typical hard aisles, and it’s kind of an organic experience. This really adds to the sense of exploration; you can’t see everything all at once and there’s something around every corner.” Even entryways and structural columns were rounded or clad to smooth away straight lines.

Throughout the space, glossy white display tables with two levels rotate in opposite directions. In the toy area, a bright yellow track like the rotating racks at a dry cleaner proffers dangling, oversized toys which playfully zip through the space.

To aid in wayfinding, curving, multi-colored flooring works like Dorothy’s yellow brick road, carving a path through the store. More than a dozen different colors and flooring materials were used, including porcelain tile, terrazzo, artificial turf and rubber, with similar diversity in lighting types, including a squiggle-shaped, color changing “LED river” in the ceiling which runs from designer shops to a multi-shop. A mixture of metal halides and LEDs was used, Jochman says, to balance costs and efficiency and keep the number of fixtures to a minimum.

For the designers themselves, there was a sense of wide-eyed fun in creating the project. “There were no pre-existing brand expectations,” says Jochman. “If this were in New York City, there would be so many other things going on around it that it might not be as successful. In these casinos, everything is new and people want to see the next best craziest thing. It was fun.”

Project Suppliers

Retailer & Design: New Yaohan, Hong Kong: Coco M. W. Cheok, director, children’s department; Sam Lee, project manager

Design & Architecture: Callison, Seattle: Christian Jochman, director; Jeany Kim, associate principal; Mitch Pride, associate principal; Kyle Culver, associate; Edward Kwitek, associate

Lighting & Special Features: Dillon Works!, Mukilteo, Wash.

Lighting Design: Hennessy Lighting, Portland, Ore.

Audio/Visual: Mode Studios, Seattle

Flooring: Eurostone, Los Angeles; Stone Source, Culver City, Calif.

Photography: Chris Eden, Seattle