Grand Seiko Flagship Boutique
New York City
Merit Award
Sent by: Clune construction
Owner: Grand Seiko Corp. of America (GSA)
Main design company: Neumann and Rudy
General contractor: Clune construction
Structural Engineer: Silman Structural Solutions
MEP Engineer: Rosini Engineering
Owner’s representative: Watershed partners
The 580 square meter multi-level flagship store is the largest Grand Seiko store in the world. With a sleek and contemporary design that reflects Grand Seiko’s Alive in Time brand message, the store’s first floor includes a bar, lounge and semi-private consultation space. A spiral staircase leads to the lower level event spaces. Although the staircase’s initial design called for structural steel beams to be attached to a foundation wall, it was discovered that the wall was obstructed by existing building services. To overcome this, the team redesigned the structural steel and coordinated closely with the building’s structural consultants to obtain the necessary approvals to ensure the integrity and aesthetics of the staircase.
The 16-foot ceiling height required elevators to install HVAC and sprinklers, but building codes deemed the elevators too heavy. To address this, the team built a wooden structural platform for safe work at the required heights and built scaffolding to install the wall panels behind the ladder. The tongue-and-groove floor of the lower level had to be built around the legs of the scaffolding and backfilled after it was removed.
The eleven-month project was completed on budget and on time.
