Frankie Flagship store, Downtown Arts District, Los Angeles

Frankie Flagship store, Downtown Arts District, Los Angeles

📅27 Febbraio 2017, 15:13

The interdisciplinary Los Angeles-based architecture and design practice, Bureau Spectacular, unveiled their latest design with the launch of the flagship store for high-end and ready-to-wear line, Frankie.

Formerly known as Frankie B., founder and chief creative, Kevin Chen, has re-launched the brand under the moniker Frankie in a one-of-a-kind retail space in the Downtown Arts District designed by Bureau Spectacular’s Founding Partner, Jimenez Lai. Lai also designed the exterior graphic on the building’s historic facade.
FRANKIE Flagship store Downtown Arts District Los Angeles

The innovative store interior has been outfitted with one of the firm’s iconic Super-Furnitures, a structure too small to be a building but too large to simply be a piece of furniture.

The nine-piece, 28-foot-long modular staircase when assembled accommodates activities such as seating, a fashion runway or a performance stage. When disassembled, each one of the nine modules is designed to meet the needs of retail functionality, from product display to fitting rooms to storage and transactions.

The vision behind the store’s design takes inspiration from an earlier project of Lai’s entitled Briefcase House – a house within a house located inside a 1400 square foot Chicago warehouse loft. It also references Speechbuster / 99 Chairs, a sculpture that operates as both furniture object and performative space.
FRANKIE Flagship store Downtown Arts District Los AngelesThe 2000 square foot multi-dimensional retail space will feature products from the Frankie line, as well as fragrances, candles, accessories, and books from other companies. In addition to its role as a retail store, Frankie will act as an incubator and collaborative center for fashion and design talents across the globe.

Frankie is located at 1129 E. 5th St. in the Downtown L.A. Arts District.

BUREAU SPECTACULAR

Is a group of individuals who practice architecture through the contemplation of art, history, politics, sociology, linguistics, mathematics, graphic design, technology, and storytelling. We often find ourselves at the crossroads of all disciplines, yet comfortably embracing the healthy intersections between the many intellectual human discourses.

JIMENEZ LAI

Works in the world of art, architecture and education. Previously, Jimenez Lai lived and worked in a desert shelter at Taliesin and resided in a shipping container at Atelier Van Lieshout on the piers of Rotterdam. Before founding Bureau Spectacular, Lai worked for various international offices, including MOS and OMA. Lai is widely exhibited and published around the world, including the MoMA-collected White Elephant. His first book, Citizens of No Place, was published by Princeton Architectural Press with a grant from the Graham Foundation. Draft II of this book has been archived at the New Museum as a part of the show Younger Than Jesus. Lai has won various awards, including the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Debut Award at the Lisbon Triennale. In 2014, Lai designed theTaiwan Pavilion at the 14th Venice Architectural Biennale. In 2015, Lai organized the Treatise exhibition and publication series at the Graham Foundation.


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