Architectural Design Plan for St. Mark's Bookshop
Printer-friendly versionBrian Connolly Principal, Zivkovic Associates Architects P.C., 511 West 25th Street, Suite # 201, New York, NY 10001; Phone (212) 807-8577; Fax (212) 807-9575
PROJECT: ST. MARK'S BOOKSHOP LOCATION: EAST VILLAGE NEW YORK CITY
ARCHITECT: ZIVKOVIC ASSOCIATES ARCHITECTS S.D. Don Zivkovic, Brian J. Connolly (Project Designers)
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
1.) PROGRAM: The project involved the fit-out of 2,500 square feet for a counter-culture bookstore located in downtown Manhattan's bohemian East Village district. A separate shipping and receiving area is located in the cellar floor below. The design for the retail level had to be configured within an awkwardly shaped, 'bottleneck' space already hindered by a significant number of structural columns distributed throughout the floor. To satisfy the client's 'alternative' clientele, they requested that the image of the store be dissimilar to that of the established chain stores throughout the city. The client wished especially to avoid the use of expensive moldings and hardwoods that typified the more traditional appearances of several 'superstores' opening throughout Manhattan at that time. It was thought to be more desirable that the imagery of the interior would bring together some of the raw aesthetics associated with the bohemian East Village neighborhood, collectively with essential, functional requirements of the program (shelving, power, lighting and air-conditioning), to form a cohesive whole growing, not out of a stylistic preference, but from a direct response to their limited, technical needs.
2.) DESIGN SOLUTION: Formally, the radiating, planimetric disposition of the central bookshelf units reflect the client's need to maintain visual surveillance of the sales area from a control desk located more or less centrally, in the space. This arrangement is spatially reinforced at ceiling level, with the distribution of power, lighting and air-conditioning systems emanating from an enclosure above this control desk. Selected use of a terrazzo flooring material dispersed in a series of discrete, but linked fields, radiating outwards, further augment the centralized nature of the plan. Limited funds and a short construction period prohibited the use or fabrication of custom or specialist components in the design. Conceptually, therefore, available, industrial materials and systems were chosen for their ability to satisfy functional needs but yet interact to form an aesthetic, cohesive whole. As foil, the perimeter of simple pine bookshelves provides warm contrast to their more technological, freestanding counterparts, each serving to highlight, by contrast, the features of the other system. This pine envelope develops into a folded, but still continuous shape at the window wall where clear interruptions of the shelving allow visual links between the store and its neighborhood environment of which it is a direct extension. Overstock shelving located perpendicularly to the retail shelves but above the level of a linking wooden canopy, similarly allow natural lighting to penetrate deep into the interior of the store.
3.) SYSTEMS / MATERIALS: An industrial, scaffolding frame of steel tubing is used to support not only the adjustable library shelving units, but also the lighting and ventilation systems. A canopy of white plexiglass sheets reflect the colder, fluorescent lighting upwards for general illumination of the interior and, at the same time, shields the lamps from view of customers below. Incandescent bulbs, located below the level of this canopy, provide warmer lighting, focused without shadow, on the merchandise itself. Flexible ductwork, at a higher level, is threaded through the structural system leaving the aisles largely free of mechanical and electrical services and contributing to the overall spaciousness of the interior. Visual relief and subtle counterpoint to these more complex constructions are provided by large expanses of walls and flooring uniformly painted deep green, the complimentary opposite to the predominantly red tiling elsewhere on the floors.
ST. MARK'S BOOKSHOP 31 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10003
PROJECT CREDITS ARCHITECT: ZIVKOVIC ASSOCIATES ARCHITECTS S.D. Don Zivkovic & Brian J. Connolly (Project designers)
CURRICULUM VITAE: PROJECT DESIGNERS
S.D. DON ZIVKOVIC: Architect, Australian born, principal of Manhattan based Zivkovic Associates Architects; Graduated from Columbia University New York and the University of Western Australia.
BRIAN J. CONNOLLY: Architect, graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland; principal at Zivkovic Associates Architects since 1991. ST. MARK'S BOOKSHOP
AWARDS
- SOCIETY OF AMERICAN REGISTERED ARCHITECTS 1993 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
- IALD (International Association Of Lighting Designers) 1993 LIGHTING DESIGN AWARD
- IIDA (International Illumination Design Awards) 1994 AWARD OF MERIT
- IES (Illumination Engineering Society): 1993 LIGHTING DESIGN AWARD
- GENERAL ELECTRIC LIGHTING AWARD PROGRAM 1993 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
PUBLISHED
- ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW April, 1994 (United Kingdom)
- A + U [ARCHITECTURE + URBANISM] Aug., 1994 (Japan)
- INTERIOR DESIGN Sept.. 1995 (United States)
- INTERIORS [Lighting Section] May, 1994 (United States)
- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY April 18, 1994 (United States)
- STORE PLANNING & DESIGN Nov., 1994 (United States)
- SHOPS & BOUTIQUES (Book) Fall, 1994 (United States)
- INTERIOR LIGHTING (Book) Spring, 1995 (United States)
- STORES OF THE YEAR 1995 (Book) Spring, 1995 (United States)
- GREAT RETAIL DESIGN (Book) Spring 1999 (United Kingdom)
- NEW YORK’S 50 BEST BOOKSTORES (Book) Spring 2000 (United States)
- NEW YORK CITY ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN Fall 1999 (United States)
- VISUAL MERCHANDISING & DISPLAY October, 1994 (United States)
- ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING July/Aug., 1994 (United States)
- NEW ZEALAND ELECTRICAL FOCUS Oct./Nov.,1994 (New Zealand)
- NEW YORK PRESS July, 1993 (United States)
- NEW YORK TIMES May 30, 1997 (United States)
- TASARIM Architecture & Design] Issue # 62 (Turkey)
- WORLD INTERIOR DESIGN Winter, 1996 (Japan)