Anchored in the historic Seaport District of Lower Manhattan sits Seaport Studios. A joint venture between the Howard Hughes Corp. and WWD, Seaport Studios is a rotating pop-up shop curated with the most promising designers in the fashion and art landscape of NYC. The environment subtly alludes to the maritime history of the Seaport by using materials, details, and tectonics that are reminiscent of the nautical trade. This ensures that the history of the neighborhood is seamlessly translated into a modern design aesthetic that is continuously admired by the creative and design-focused trendsetters of NYC.
The retail environment used a minimal palette of natural materials to create a warm industrial aesthetic: Clear-coated maple wood, white rope, furniture-grade plywood, polished concrete, blackened steel, white-powder coated steel, bent aluminum, frosted and clear glass, and weathered corten steel. The walls are finished in white and 50% gray. This creates a canvas for the showcased products to be the accents highlighted within the space.
An adaptable infrastructure was needed in order to display various products in different ways. Since there would be a range of retailers, brands, and designers within the space, it was essential to balance different techniques of display with a strong architectural vocabulary. A range of physical components and smaller display fixtures were designed to create a consistent kit of parts that could configure to adapt to every retailer.
Key words: Contemporary, clean, detail-oriented, considered, sophisticated