The same family that brought contemporary art to Virginia were pushing the idea of what a retail store should look like in the 1970s and 80s. Check out these (almost) forgotten photos and article from Failed Architecture on the influence of the Sydney Lewis Family across America.
The same family that brought contemporary art to Virginia were pushing the idea of what a retail store should look like in the 1970s and 80s. Check out these (almost) forgotten photos and article from Failed Architecture on the influence of the Sydney Lewis Family across America.
“In the mid 1970s, the Lewis Family (the owners and operators of catalogue company Best Products) hired Sculpture In The Environment (SITE) to create a series of facades for nine showrooms across the US. Regardless of the project’s relative financial benefits, the clients gave SITE the one thing all designers crave and fear: full creative reign.”
“No, the Showrooms were for people already shopping at Best, not for the architectural and artistic communities who would either sneer or cheer them. It was a community arts project at its least condescending. This was Street Art before Street Art was a thing. While the stores may not have been intended as a gimmick, the Lewise’s were right to see them as a risk”
“Instead of a gimmick, it’s best to see the storefronts as a re-branding. By aligning themselves with the artistic avant garde, Best would become more than a box from which you get junk. They would become the Anti-Walmart, using specificity to generate localised brand loyalty. As a faceless commenter in the 1981 documentary spouts: “[The Architecture] sure does take the squareness out of buildings.”
Check out the whole article HERE.
