On Wednesday, March 16th, RDI sponsored an evening honoring the New York Chapter winners of the “Store of the Year” contest. The Haworth Group generously accommodated RDI for the evening in their beautiful showroom opposite Grand Central Station.
Although the awards were formally presented last January 10th, this occasion afforded an opportunity for each of this year’s local winners to give the membership a short presentation of their project that would outline the project brief and how each solution came about.
Each of us was asked to create a PowerPoint, and each presenter was limited to ten minutes! Ten minutes is tough, and I agonized over how to tell the story of Bloomingdale’s Santa Monica without belaboring any one point. I usually outline in my head what I’m going to say, and I never want to be guilty of reading from notes.
The most difficult part of the evening was finding out that I was “up first” – ! I really didn’t relish being the opening act. But that sudden rush of near stage fright and anxiety was quickly dispelled, and I proceeded with a far more spontaneous talk than planned.
The retail group attended and, to our great surprise and delight, our client Jack Hruska of Bloomingdale’s made a rare public appearance just to demonstrate his support. That small gesture was the greatest compliment to Mancini•Duffy.
Photograph by Gray Crawford.
Project Director Marian Crawford emailed us from GlobalShop in Las Vegas today to share the news that Mancini•Duffy has taken home the Grand Prize in the category “Specialty Store over 25,000 sq. ft.” for Bloomingdale’s Santa Monica Place in the 2011 A.R.E. Awards. Once again, congratulations to our hard-working team!
For more images of the project, go here for DDi's project gallery.
The GoaLight in situ.
The GOA in GoaLight stands for “Geometric Organic Atmosphere” and indeed the light’s shape, with its sinuous curves, energy-efficient LEDs, and elegant simplicity can call to mind all of the above. According to its designer, Filippo Paccagnella, the GoaLight was inspired by the oscillations of a light wave; although (just to cavil for a moment here) given the gentleness of its curves, it’s closer to a shortwave radio frequency. Whatever the wave, the GoaLight’s “long and lean” LEDs last up to ten times as long as compact fluorescents, and its ultra-sustainable body is made out of 100% recycled aluminum – actually, 700 used soda cans. The product, which is manufactured by the Veneto-based Esse-Ci, is getting great reviews in the design press: see this enthusiastic notice on 3rings, a product blog for architecture and design, and go here for the GoaLight’s own website. This link will take you to photos from the party held at Piola on East 12th Street for the GoaLight’s stateside release.
Filippo Paccagnella.
A project manager and designer at Mancini•Duffy, Filippo is a native of Venice, and studied architecture at the Università IUAV di Venezia. Working out of our New York office, he’s currently contributing to our projects for a law firm client and a long-term client in the financial services industry.
Congratulazioni, Filippo!
The GOA in GoaLight stands for “Geometric Organic Atmosphere” and indeed the light’s shape, with its sinuous curves, energy-efficient LEDs, and elegant simplicity can call to mind all of the above. According to its designer, Filippo Paccagnella, the GoaLight was inspired by the oscillations of a light wave; although (just to cavil for a moment here) given the gentleness of its curves, it’s closer to a shortwave radio frequency. Whatever the wave, the GoaLight’s “long and lean” LEDs last up to ten times as long as compact fluorescents, and its ultra-sustainable body is made out of 100% recycled aluminum – actually, 700 used soda cans. The product, which is manufactured by the Veneto-based Esse-Ci, is getting great reviews in the design press: see this enthusiastic notice on 3rings, a product blog for architecture and design, and go here for the GoaLight’s own website. This link will take you to photos from the party held at Piola on East 12th Street for the GoaLight’s stateside release.
Filippo Paccagnella.
A project manager and designer at Mancini•Duffy, Filippo is a native of Venice, and studied architecture at the Università IUAV di Venezia. Working out of our New York office, he’s currently contributing to our projects for a law firm client and a long-term client in the financial services industry.
Congratulazioni, Filippo!
Women typing social security cards, circa 1937. Not exactly the way we work now – thank goodness. Photo from the blog Old Picture of the Day.
Have a look at the article “Work Reworked” by Kriston Capps in the current issue of Architect for insights from Mancini•Duffy’s Center for Workplace Innovation, including the curious findings that “most office space is unoccupied 40 to 70 percent of the time.” Quoted in the article are design principal Alan Dandron, IIDA, LEED AP; T. Lee Trimble, AIA, our KPMG point person; and tireless strategic planner Priyanka Agrawala, FMP, LEED AP, who wrote her graduate thesis “Alternative Workplace Strategies” while getting her Master of Science in Facilities Management at Pratt in 2007.
Have a look at the article “Work Reworked” by Kriston Capps in the current issue of Architect for insights from Mancini•Duffy’s Center for Workplace Innovation, including the curious findings that “most office space is unoccupied 40 to 70 percent of the time.” Quoted in the article are design principal Alan Dandron, IIDA, LEED AP; T. Lee Trimble, AIA, our KPMG point person; and tireless strategic planner Priyanka Agrawala, FMP, LEED AP, who wrote her graduate thesis “Alternative Workplace Strategies” while getting her Master of Science in Facilities Management at Pratt in 2007.
Photograph by Grey Crawford.
Looks like Bloomingdale's Santa Monica has won yet another award, this time in the Association of Retail Environments' Design Awards program. As the A.R.E. writes in their press release, "out of a record-breaking 298 entries, 37 projects were singled out to receive 54 awards." We'll see what level of award Bloomingdale's won at the A.R.E. ceremony in Las Vegas on March 28th, 2011. Congratulations once again to the team!
Photograph by Grey Crawford.
Congratulations once again to the Mancini•Duffy Retail Group, whose design for Bloomingdale's Santa Monica has earned an Honorable Mention in the Department Store category in Chain Store Age's 2010 Retail Store of the Year design competition.
Best wishes go out to the team behind the Santa Monica Place design, which included Senior Associate Edward Calabrese, Creative Director; Senior Associate Lisa Contreras, Resource Director; Senior Associate Marian Crawford, IIDA, FRDI, Project Director; Stan Kao, Senior Designer; Courtney Kemper, Project Designer; George Winsper, Job Captain, 1st Floor; and Alex Mai, Job Captain, 2nd Floor.
Lanterns that double as retractable dressing room pods. Photograph by Grey Crawford.
The Retail Design Institute’s International Store Design Awards Gala was held on January 10th at the New York Times Building’s conference center. The evening coincided with the Institute’s 50th anniversary, and the awards were the Institute’s 40th presentation.
It was an interesting evening – to say the least.
No red carpet here, but all the “stars” of the retail design community were out in full force. We knew in advance that our Bloomingdale’s Santa Monica store was cited for an award, but until the announcement we didn’t know at what level.
Just to prolong the suspense…the awards presentation this year was set up differently than in past years. This year, each candidate in a particular category was announced and asked up on stage where the winner would be announced. And then the winner was asked to make a short acceptance speech – GULP!
What made our segment highly amusing was not only to have been nominated along with a competitor, but for the same client – Bloomingdale’s – in another location.
Well, it was the longest ten seconds I can remember…but happily, our project won. Off the top of my head all I could think of to say was, “Well, in any event, Bloomingdale’s wins!”
The next day, after delivering the good news, our client was very happy and quite pleased to have had their two newest stores nominated.
The Retail Design Institute’s International Store Design Awards Gala was held on January 10th at the New York Times Building’s conference center. The evening coincided with the Institute’s 50th anniversary, and the awards were the Institute’s 40th presentation.
It was an interesting evening – to say the least.
No red carpet here, but all the “stars” of the retail design community were out in full force. We knew in advance that our Bloomingdale’s Santa Monica store was cited for an award, but until the announcement we didn’t know at what level.
Just to prolong the suspense…the awards presentation this year was set up differently than in past years. This year, each candidate in a particular category was announced and asked up on stage where the winner would be announced. And then the winner was asked to make a short acceptance speech – GULP!
What made our segment highly amusing was not only to have been nominated along with a competitor, but for the same client – Bloomingdale’s – in another location.
Well, it was the longest ten seconds I can remember…but happily, our project won. Off the top of my head all I could think of to say was, “Well, in any event, Bloomingdale’s wins!”
The next day, after delivering the good news, our client was very happy and quite pleased to have had their two newest stores nominated.
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