The first project for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, David Adjaye, in California will take place in a surprising location: the Beverly Center.
Adjaye designs an 11,000 square meter store for The Webster, a “luxury multi-brand retailer” selling high quality clothing. Adjaye has designed a number of other stores around the world, including two stunning rooms in historic New York buildings for designer Proenza Schouler and a base room for the Aishti Foundation, a collection of bars and in Beirut.
Adjaye’s addition to the nearly 900,000-square-foot Beverly Center – supposedly pink and concrete – could draw attention to the mall, which opened in 1982, that has tried to stay relevant.
Last year, the Hulking Center completed a $ 500 million renovation that promised to let in more natural light and add world-class restaurants in place of the traditional food court. (Plans to add a trendy food hall were put on hold earlier this year.) Most of these upgrades changed the interior of the mall rather than the exterior.
In a statement, Adjaye says that Webster founder Laure Heriard Dubreuil “has given us a lot of freedom and has been very trusting throughout the process, resulting in a distinctive form that she can be free to recreate for different collections or new art programs to shape. “
Current location photos show that the lower part of the existing facade has been opened and the interior space has been reduced down to the tunnel. Adjaye designs the new facade and interior of the shop. The flagship store will have its own entrance and valet parking and is scheduled to open in January 2020.
Although he’s only just arriving in California, Adjaye, whose practice is based in London with offices in New York and Accra, Ghana, has been active on the east coast. Adjaye led the team that designed the award-winning Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC. Its first skyscraper in New York City is currently under construction.
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