VMSD - September 2020 - 11

befor

lengthy pre-construction
process paired with an enthusiastic team made for a winning
combination in the mammoth
task of designing and constructing Nordstrom's (Seattle) Manhattan flagship
store - the largest retail construction New York
City has seen in decades.
"Nordstrom was looking to operate in a big
way in New York City," says Trevor Willis, Project Manager, J.T. Magen & Company Inc. (New
York), the contractor that implemented the
project's design. The massive Nordstrom flagship urges onlooking, making up eight floors
and three adjacent buildings, and located on
Columbus Circle.
"The enormity of taking on the challenge
of planning and designing a world class flagship destination for Nordstrom was daunting at

first," says Murf Hall, Design Director
for Nordstrom Design and Construction. "From the very inception of the
project - starting at the Men's store, really - we
had a singular vision of the once-in-a-generation
opportunity we had to add a retail landmark to
the Manhattan landscape. Keeping true to that
vision even as the project evolved through the
planning and design process allowed us to end
with such an amazing result."
A project this size almost requires a few hiccups. Take, for instance, the façade, designed by
New York-based James Carpenter Design Associates. "5 Columbus Circle is a pre-war building,
and it's landmarked," Willis says. The team was
tasked with bringing the façade into the 21st
century without sacrificing the integrity of its historical bones. It's a subtle undertaking with many
headaches, and Willis says the greatest accolade
is when people don't necessarily notice. "People
walking past that building will never know the
amount of work it took to get it in place," he says.
"People walk by and think it was always there,
which is a huge compliment when you're doing
something like this, given the enormous complexity of the project."
Bridgette Hyde, Associate VP from Baltimorebased interior design firm CallisonRTKL's Seattle office also mentioned the importance of the
façade. "This project is really the culmination of
design tenets we introduced years ago - clear,
light, warm, timeless," she says. "We've been gradually peeling back the hard edges of department
store design to create open, inclusive spaces with
more natural light and better amenities. Why limit
yourself to storytelling in a display window, when
the entire building can be a display window?"
While the façade is one of Willis' favorite
aspects of the design, what takes his breath away
is what happens once you walk in the front doors.

"When you walk over to the escalators and you
look up, it's amazing," he says. "You have twelve
huge escalators perfectly stacked up on top of
each other over eight floors. That to me is one of
the wow factors of the project."
The escalators' design is organized, pleasing and economical - and just one of the many
aspects that consumed the imaginations of the
judges. "I'm completely taken with Nordstrom,"
says 2020 Renovation Competition judge Eric
Daniel, Creative Director, Fitch (Columbus,
Ohio). "The quality of the design is incredible.
The real advantage of this project is the level of
experience the designers have raised in this box
- the restaurants, the special shops, the cocktail
bar in the shoe department. That's a social event
in the midst of what Nordstrom is best at."
With almost 100 consultants on the design
team and the enthusiasm from the Nordstrom,
JLL and various other design teams, Willis says
it was a true collaboration. That collaboration,
upon Willis' account, was the key to their success. "The JLL team was the conduit between
us, the ownership group and the developers," he
says. "They did so much of the behind-the-scenes
work to help make it go smoothly."
"You pick up the papers or you read online
all these stories about retail being dead - 'brickand-mortar is on the way out.' Nordstrom made
a massive investment here in New York City. People really love working for the Nordstrom brothers. When we walked through the spaces with
them, they were so appreciative and so down to
earth. I'll be honest, we just wanted to succeed so
much for them - and we did," Willis says.

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VMSD - September 2020

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