With a nod to early 20th century New York bayfront windows and column modulation of neighboring buildings, James Carpenter Design Associates designed a waving glass facade for the recently opened Nordstrom NYC flagship store. The curved shape perfectly allows for store displays and an interesting passer-by experience. A chain-mail curtain is added to give the option to hide portions of the facade behind a veil.
The 254 8 by 16 feet floor to floor insulated glass panels were fabricated by Cricursa and a ceramic frit pattern was added by Tvitec. The glass has a thickness of 10 mm with 12 mm air space between them. For the installation Permasteelisa had to develop a custom vacuum lift with German-based Wirth Gmbh with 54 suction cups adapted to the curvature of the glass to hoist the panels in place.
The new seven floors department store is the largest, with 320,000 square foot floor space, opening up in Manhattan since the 1920s. Alongside extensive retail options the open plan building will have restaurants, cafés and bars.
Architect of record CallisonRTKL has a longstanding collaboration with Nordstrom that produced over 250 stores. They used their extensive experience to develop a distinct retail experience for the new NYC flagship edition.
Emerging local and international artists were commissioned to create 54 original artworks and installations that are placed spread out over the different floors.
