Burberry had been updating and repositioning its different products for more than a decade, yet the offices it was calling its United States headquarters, at 1350 Avenue of the Americas, at 55th Street, were a far cry from the look of its new ads and apparel.
The company solved that situation by moving into new space at 444 Madison Avenue, between 49th and 50th Streets. The space is a gleaming, modern, four-story backdrop to what Christopher Bailey, the creative director of Burberry, the 153-year-old, London-based company, called the “disheveled elegance” of its clothing.
Its new home offers more than 68,000 square feet of right angles, dark woods, white walls, dark chrome and smoked glass. It was designed by TPG Architecture of New York.
“These slick, sophisticated, hard surfaces with a gloss are a good setting for clothes that have a softness and are able to move,” Mr. Bailey said. “They stand out.”
Also standing out is the neon-lighted Burberry logo fixed to three sides of the building’s exterior, 400 feet above Madison Avenue. Although illuminated signs are prohibited on new towers in Manhattan, the outdoor signs on this building, which opened in 1931, have been grandfathered in. The original sign said “Newsweek,” and changed to “New York” when that magazine occupied space there from 1996 to 2007.
Burberry occupies floors 13 through 16, all of which are linked by interior staircases. Visitors enter on the 14th floor, coming into a reception area lined with dark oak paneling and contrasting marble flooring in white. The Burberry logo gleams in polished chrome behind the reception desk. Large sofas on either side are covered in a mouse-gray fabric with a linen texture.
Mr. Bailey said the feel of the entry and the rest of the common areas was meant to be a “welcome with a smile,” in keeping with the brand.
“The culture of the brand is that it is accessible as well,” he said, “not something that makes you feel afraid and stand-offish.”
Hallways on either side of the reception desk lead to the main showroom area for women’s and men’s clothing and accessories. Around the periphery of the slightly irregular rectangular footprint, TPG created a series of what it calls “selling suites,” where buyers for retailers can meet with Burberry sales staff members.
The size and shape of each of these areas was dictated by the overhead ductwork, according to James T. Doherty, a TPG principal. He collaborated on the project with Michael Lopez, an architect at TPG. The ductwork also dictated ceiling height, which differs around the floor.
Furniture throughout was created or chosen by Mr. Bailey, who oversees all aspects of the Burberry image, from product to advertising and store design. On the 14th floor, where most of the selling suites are, walls and floors are white. Furnishings include dark oak tables and armchairs whose color mimics the paneling in the reception area, and dark wood, black chrome and smoked-glass fixtures for displaying merchandise. Lacquer in a shade that Mr. Bailey calls “trench” provides an accent color throughout.
Vignettes of clothing and accessories punctuate the sales area. There is also a runway for fashion shows and accessible outdoor terrace space along East 49th Street and parts of 50th Street and Madison Avenue.
There are additional selling suites on the 13th floor, primarily for the Burberry children’s line and women’s outerwear. All areas reserved for buyers take their cues from the retail stores, which have been undergoing a redesign for the last five years, according to Mr. Lopez. The idea is to offer consistency in design as well as to communicate merchandising ideas, he said.
The children’s clothing area is partly partitioned off by frosted-glass folding screens and is adjacent to a small cafe area with five smaller versions of the tables in the selling suites. The 13th floor also has an enclosed carpeted room for V.I.P. and celebrity customers who don’t wish to be seen shopping in public. An area reserved for the media is partitioned off by shiny, open-work chrome panels whose pattern is derived from the signature Burberry plaid.
Administrative and executive offices are distributed over floors 13, 15 and 16. There are fewer than 20 executive offices, glass-enclosed and located around the core of the building. Other staff and department directors occupy long, low tables around the periphery that serve as workstations, with no partitions to block the flow of light. Each table measures 5 feet wide by 36 feet long, and each cluster is separated by a low file cabinet.
Ambient light directed upward softens the stark effect of an all-white décor and a strictly enforced policy of leaving nothing on desktops at the end of the workday.
BURBERRY was founded in 1856 in Basingstoke, England, by Thomas Burberry, then 21 years old. His small shop quickly developed a specialty in durable, weatherproof outdoor clothing, made for grouse shooting, game hunting, fishing, riding horseback and cycling.
Burberry is the inventor of high-performance gabardine cloth that led to the development of the coat worn by Allied officers in World War I. It featured D-rings and epaulets to hold military paraphernalia like maps, flasks, grenades, binoculars and gas masks. It later became the trench coat — “the basis of everything we do,” Mr. Bailey said.
from:http://www.nytimes.com
