Peter Marino Designs Bulgari Renovation

Bulgari SpA (Rome), celebrating its 130th anniversary as a luxury brand, has reopened its Rome flagship store with a design by New York-based architect and designer Peter Marino.

Paolo and Nicola Bulgari, grandsons of the company founder, Sotirio Bulgari, participated in the reopening ceremony on Via dei Condotti, much as their grandfather had cut the ribbon at the original store opening in 1905.

According to the New York Times, “it was clear that Marino had sought to recapture the spirit of the original. He has restored the store’s travertine stone slabs, the green African marble cornices and the bronze letters above the entrance doors.”

 “It took all my skills to get a new concept that was as eternal as Rome, as sexy as Bulgari’s clientele,” said Marino, who looked to the boutique’s first architect, Florestano Di Fausto, for inspiration. His goal, he says, was to capture “the Roman-ness of the brand in the neoclassical-baroque marriage — the sun-filled yellow walls, the extraordinary mix of ancient and new.”