MPA checks out UK and US stores for Burberry

Burberry will open a flagship store in New York and a revamped outlet in the well-heeled London retail haunt of Knightsbridge at the end of this month, as the company seeks to strengthen its market position.

The interior design of both stores is an updated version of the style first seen in the brand’s Bond Street flagship in London, which was developed by Mark Pinney Associates and US designer Randall Ridless (DW 21 July 2000).

The New York outlet is a 2787m2 space over six storeys, while the Knightsbridge shop covers 929m2 over two floors.

The New York property – at East 57th Street – features an exterior facia of glass, metal mesh and stone, created by Gensler New York, that references Burberry’s signature plaid in a grid-like framework.

MPA principal Mark Pinney says, ‘The interior style takes the Bond Street design detail and philosophy forward and slightly reinvents it each time to make it relevant to the locality. The tweak we give it should reflect the influences of the particular city and its architecture.’

The centrepiece of the East 57th Street interior is a grand staircase that seems to ‘float’ in a three-storey space. It bears the brand’s ‘icon materials’ – red plaster, oak and dark bronze – as a ‘memory of the Burberry check’, Pinney explains.

Other elements include a ‘loft-like’ space on the sixth floor, an illuminated ceiling and an illuminated back wall.

The Knightsbridge store – on Brompton Road – will feature a glass facia (pictured) and a circular interior space that reincorporates the Tartan Room, housed on the site for more than 100 years. Pinney says he has worked closely on the project with Burberry’s in-house architect Steve Gilbert.

MPA won the Knightsbridge and New York work in October and December last year respectively.