Showroom Remodeling for a Furniture Company
A showroom for a commercial furnishings manufacturer in the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago. The showroom was designed to create a dramatic environment in which the chairs and tables made by the manufacturer are the highlighted “actors” on stage in a variety of settings.
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Display Niche - One of the manufacturer’s early and iconic chairs was treated almost as an art object, highlighting it in its own niche at a height that the viewer can appreciate the sculptural quality of the chair base as well as the sinuous frame holding the tufted chair back.
Entry – The entry to the showroom is intentionally dim, with open windows to the showroom beyond where the products are spotlighted, creating a level of anticipation, encouraging visitors to move further into the showroom to investigate.
Chairs – The manufacturer’s chairs were allowed to stand alone, in pools of light, creating a feeling of drama that accentuates their sculptural character. Note also in this picture the careful alignment of joints in a beam at the ceiling that continue onto the ceiling, organizing the plane of the ceiling into geometric panels.
Window Display – The continuous frameless glazing separating the showroom from the building corridor provides display space and also acts as a transparent zone allowing views more deeply into the inner parts of the showroom beyond.
Conference Space – A grouping of conference room furniture sits within a room with one wall replaced by a colonnade of piers, creating framed views, easy access, but allowing the viewer to feel how the furniture occupies the space.