Showroom
New York USA

The Showroom is a 2000 square foot street front space located in The Upper East Side in Manhattan. The project started in 2008 with a half million dollar budget to design a high end showroom for the Italian architectural hardware company Valli & Valli. Subsequently, the global financial crisis occurred right before construction, instantly reducing the project budget by 25%. This changed the design direction from a high quality high end design to a cost effective high performance design.

A monolithic semi-glossed concrete floor covers the entire space, providing a coherent and integrated surface that is durable, long lasting and easy to maintain. Ceilings are uncovered exposed with all building services, which are painted all black to minimize visual clutter while maximizing ceiling height.

The display wall panels are arranged to divide the showroom into a series of collection specific displays. The custom made panels are 8’x8′, constructed and assembled on site from a set of four 2’x8′ plywood panels in natural color, cut from the standard 4’x8′ panels to minimize material wastage. Arranged in pairs, they are freestanding and movable to freely customize the space if required. Each panel is detailed to hold Valli & Valli’s existing modular display system (1’x1′, 1’x2′ and 1’x3′ panels) on both the front and the back, providing further flexibility to rearrange the collections in various combinations. These display wall panels provided more than 1200 square feet of display surface at less than $10 per square foot.