From high-end malls to the best locations on Madison Avenue to premium destination centers on both coasts, Alexander Zilberman Architecture is leading in luxury retail design. The firm’s recent projects include works with Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo and Versace, among many others.
Dotted with retail projects by AZA, New York City’s premiere retail avenues have added a new boutique for Versace, the iconic, Italian luxury fashion house. “We’re so happy to again work with this world-leading project team, led by artistic director and vice president Donatella Versace, who has led an acclaimed reimagining of the brand’s global retail presence,” said Alexander Zilberman, AIA, NCARB, founder and principal of Alexander Zilberman Architecture, P.C., which served as architect for this and several other Versace locations.
With a design concept recalling the opulence of classical Italian villas, Versace New York Madison spans about 5,000 square feet on two floors at 747 Madison Avenue in Manhattan, New York. The elegant, modern interiors welcome shoppers with marble surfaces alongside artisanal plaster and gilded metal finishes. Greco-pattern marble, inlaid soft carpeting, herringbone parquet floors, fluted wood-paneled walls with cove lighting, and a receding, neutral ceiling foreground the displays and merchandise.
About 50 miles north into the scenic Hudson River Valley, AZA worked with owner-developer Simon to design a new ground-up building for Michael Kors to expand the Woodbury Commons Premium Outlet in Central Valley, New York. The team at AZA handled both building architecture and the interior program for the new 12,000-square-foot pavilion, with large glass openings and distilled forms, including its commanding pediment and prominent dormers.
Replacing four structures previously on the site, AZA conceived a long-spanning, lightweight steel structure with glass façades and an inventive, high-end cladding of slotted fiber-cement panels for the façades and pilasters, all below a slate gray, standing-seam metal and asphalt roof matching the mall’s material motif. Inside, AZA worked closely with the in-house Michael Kors design team to create a welcoming, elegant shopping experience, meeting all brand identity and merchandising standards for the international client.
“We started the design process with a vision of the ideal Michael Kors shopping experience, then developed the architecture from the inside out to house that experience, creating a consummate showcase for their brand identity while meeting all merchandising requirements,” Zilberman said.
Across the country at both the Shops at Merrick Park in Coral Gables, Florida, and South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California, AZA worked with another recurring client, Jimmy Choo, the shoe and bag designer known for immersive shopping experiences. In both settings, AZA worked closely with Jimmy Choo’s in-house designers to incorporate delicate shelving materials with onyx-panel bases as well as screen partitions, adeptly detailing minimalist settings for the colorful product showplaces.
Other recent luxury projects by Alexander Zilberman Architecture include Aston Martin’s Q New York showroom at Park Avenue and 57th Street, an honoree in Interior Design Magazine’s 2023 Best of Year Awards program.
