Hospitality & Retail BBB has more than 30 years of planning and design experience in hospitality projects including hotels, clubs, restaurants, and retail — both new construction and renovation. Many of our projects include landmark-designated properties, adaptive reuse of his toric properties as well as a diverse mix of uses. All of our hospitality and retail projects benefit from our keen understanding that brand identity and lifestyle amenities are as critical to success as program and functional requirements. Projects Hospitality 11 Howard Hotel, New York, NY 11 Howard Hotel Hermès ‘21’ Club, New York, NY New York, NY New York, NY 215 Chrystie Street Hotel, New York, NY 220 Eleventh Avenue, New York, NY Double Tree Times Square Feasibility Study, New York, NY Essex House Feasibility Study, New York, NY General Theological Seminary, Desmond Tutu Center and Hotel, New York, NY Natick Collection ‘21’ Club Hilton Times Square, New York, NY Natick, MA New York, NY Hotel 130, New York, NY New York Palace Hotel, New York, NY New York University Torch Club, New York, NY Old Post Office, Washington, DC General Theological Reno Freight House District Restaurants, Reno, NV Seminary: The NYU Torch Club Desmond Tutu Center New York, NY Retail New York, NY 4 Union Square South, New York, NY 42nd Street Development, New York, NY 401 Fifth Avenue - Old Tiffany Building, New York, NY 600 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL Grand Central Hilton Times Square Terminal Ballpark Village, St. Louis, MO New York, NY New York, NY Cartier New York, New York, NY Fourth Street Live!, Louisville, KY Grand Central Terminal, New York, NY Henri Bendel, New York, NY Hermès Madison Avenue, New York, NY Reno Freight House Holly Hunt Showroom District Hermès Men’s Store, New York, NY New York, NY Liz Claiborne, New York, NY Reno, NV Natick Collection, Natick, MA Prada Madison Avenue, New York, NY Rosslyn Central Place, Rosslyn, VA Schmidts Brewery Site Redevelopment, Philadelphia, PA Henri Bendel 215 Chrystie Street Hotel South Street Seaport Museum Block, New York, NY New York, NY New York, NY Sun Building, New York, NY Tysons Galleria, McLean, VA World Trade Center Retail Redevelopment, New York, NY 11 Howard Hotel Originally built in 1961 as a postal storage facility and converted into a hotel in 1992, 138 Lafayette Street is now a fully renovated and re-envisioned boutique hotel—11 Howard—in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood. In collaboration with the developer and operator RFR Realty, creative director Anda Andrei Design, and interior designer Space Copenhagen, BBB led a full interior renovation of 226 keys on 12 floors. 11 Howard features new terrace suites with expansive views of the skyline, and two levels of public hotel spaces including a high-end restaurant, bar, retail, lounges and meeting rooms. BBB’s redesign of the facade at the first two floors relocated the main lobby to Howard Street and maximized frontage for the new restaurant. The design introduced new steel storefronts, an entry marquee, and facade detailing that celebrate the industrial character of the building and neighborhood in a contemporary and refined aesthetic. Location New York, NY Client RFR Realty Size 110,000 SF Completed 2016 Construction Cost Confidential HOSPITALITY & RETAIL Natick Collection Through the renovation and expansion of one of America’s first enclosed shopping centers, BBB designed a new model for the ubiquitous suburban mall. BBB transformed The Natick Collection, a well-known Boston-area shopping center that first opened its doors in 1966, into a dynamic and architecturally significant, high-end retail environment. In addition to renovating the existing facility, BBB incorporated 100 new stores and 550,000 SF into an overall development that also includes luxury condominiums and below-grade parking. Natick, a Native American word loosely translated as “Place of Rolling Hills,” provided inspiration for a design that incorporates a softly undulating arcade ceiling with curved clerestories and expansive skylights that filter in natural light. Large-scale custom porcelain tile in circulation zones, accented with curved patterns, evokes the richness of stone, and wood flooring on the second level provides an unexpectedly high-quality finish for a retail environment. To further animate the interior, landscape architect Martha Schwartz created a series of transformative vertical elements consisting of hanging canopies of colored metal leaves floating over groves of abstracted birch stalks. Location Natick, MA Client General Growth Properties, Inc. Size 1.5 million SF (gross leasable area) Completed 2007 Construction Cost $300 million HOSPITALITY & RETAIL General Theological Seminary: The Desmond Tutu Center BBB transformed three turn-of-the-century buildings on the General Theological Seminary’s campus to create an educational conference center and a new public face on Tenth Avenue. The Desmond Tutu Center, in the Chelsea Historic District of Manhattan, welcomes visitors with a new urban garden and double-height entrance lobby. The redesigned interior includes conference rooms, break-out rooms, and 60 guest rooms, where modern amenities and contemporary design are juxtaposed against preserved 19th-century details. The historic oak-wainscoted Refectory in Hoffman Hall, with 40-foot-high vaulted ceilings, has been restored to its original decorative paint and gilding, and fitted out with a modern servery. The exterior of the building was restored as well, with double-glazed windows, a complete masonry restoration, and roof replacement. The Desmond Tutu Center was the first of three seminary buildings to be powered by a geothermal heating and cooling system, preserving the architectural integrity of the campus by eliminating the need for roof-level cooling towers. Location New York, NY Client General Theological Seminary Size 60,000 SF Completed 2007 Construction Cost $21 million HOSPITALITY & RETAIL Grand Central Terminal BBB’s retail revitalization of Grand Central Terminal has recaptured the building’s commercial appeal and reinvigorated its underutilized spaces. The plan called for reusing the structure of the vacant bank building at Lexington Avenue to create a new 43rd Street entrance with market food vendors mirroring the finest European open-air markets. The redesigned Hyatt Passageway, once bleak, has become an elegant arcade with storefronts and unique shops. Restaurants have been added to the vacant North and East balconies in the Main Concourse. The Lower Concourse, formerly one of the most deserted places in the Terminal, is now filled with quality food tenants. Location New York, NY Client Metropolitan Transportation Authority Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company; Grand Central Terminal Venture, Inc. Size 175,000 SF Completed 1998 Construction Cost $72 million HOSPITALITY & RETAIL Holly Hunt Showroom At Holly Hunt, BBB has created an elegant flagship showroom that complements the rich materiality and modern detailing of the furniture on display. BBB has transformed a former carpet showroom in New York City’s A&D Building into an exciting space to showcase the furniture, lighting and textile collections of furniture representative and designer Holly Hunt. The space provides a street-level presence and consists of ground floor, mezzanine, and second floor display areas, as well as a storage cellar. A large vestibule orients the visitor to the showroom, which is comprised of a progression of several “rooms” of varying proportions from intimate to grand. A view down the main space encompasses a floating concrete and glass stair, with a long skylight drawing the visitor in with natural light. On the exterior, a new façade complements the dynamic interior and creates a simple but monumental presence on the street that consists of an expansive curtain wall and Spanish limestone. One challenge of the design was to meld the grandness of a double-height entrance with an intimate interior more appropriately scaled for residential furniture. Client Holly Hunt Enterprises Inc. Location New York, NY Size 12,000 SF Completed 2001 Construction Cost $4 million HOSPITALITY & RETAIL Henri Bendel BBB has transformed two 19th century mansions into a retail stage for one of Manhattan’s famed luxury department stores, preserving and celebrating their original materials and details. To house the prestigious Henri Bendel flagship store, BBB was commissioned to restore two Fifth Avenue landmark townhouses, the Rizzoli and Coty Buildings, and to construct an adjacent, 5-story building at 716 Fifth Avenue. On each of the three building façades, new but traditionally-inspired bronze and steel storefronts were installed at ground level, and the old slate and copper mansard roofs were restored. The three buildings were combined to include 80,000 SF of interior retail space, featuring a 4-story central atrium of French limestone and marble, surrounded by galleries lined with designer boutiques. The galleries offer direct views of the Coty Building’s original cast lead-crystal glass window designed by the French Art Deco glass designer and craftsman, Rene Lalique. The four levels of the store are interconnected by new, elegantly proportioned staircases that recall the grandeur of the original 19th century mansions. Client Solomon Equities, Inc. & The Taubman Co. (base building); The Limited, Inc. (retail tenant buildout) Location New York, NY Size 80,000 SF Completed 1991 Construction Cost $30 million HOSPITALITY & RETAIL Hermès BBB has worked with Hermès of Paris for many years, assisting in the restoration and expansion of their New York flagship store and men’s store, located in two landmark structures across Madison Avenue. In association with Rena Dumas Architecture Intérieure, BBB has worked on the design of Hermès of Paris at 691 Madison Avenue and a prototype men’s store located directly across the street at 690 Madison Avenue. The flagship store was originally designed in 1927 by McKim, Mead & White, and later restored in 1984 with a two-story rooftop addition by BBB. In 2000, BBB completed a further rehabilitation of the store, featuring all new finishes, fixtures, and systems on four floors of selling space and a fifth floor comprised of offices and showroom space.