Designing for luxury retail these days demands solutions as big as the aspirational promises of luxe brands: the most exclusive, the best, the highest quality, and the rarest. 

That thinking got architect Alexander Zilberman involved in some of the biggest panels of glass ever seen gracing a North American storefront. While his firm AZA has been designing shop facades over 12 years for fashion icons such as Versace, Jimmy Choo and Michael Kors, it was the ultra-luxury auto and racecar legend Aston Martin that raised this record-setting design opportunity.
 
“With branding, presence, and positioning as the overarching goal, we worked with Aston Martin’s design team to create a glamorous showroom at Park Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan,” Zilberman recalls. “The solution for their Q New York experience had to showcase the cars to the public and curate an unusual immersive experience for clients to specify and build their own cars.”

While AZA has seen a trend toward larger and larger glass openings, Zilberman cautions it’s not a drop-in solution. “There’s a time and place for it — when it’s critical for retailer success and their architectural statement,” he says. “There is a high degree of difficulty, so this type of large-format installation suits only the right situations and budgets.”

To best connect Aston Martin’s car display areas to the passersby and shoppers outside — “making it feel like it is a part of the street,” Zilberman recalls — AZA and Aston Martin designed floor-to-ceiling, extra-large-format uninterrupted glass panels to replaced original building components, fitted within six column bays of the modern tower.

Technical Solution: Jumbo Glazing
 
“The windows and the glazing solution are designed to complement the existing building’s architecture, and we used super-transparent, low-iron glass for very clear, low-reflectivity views inside while allowing the highest possible visible light transmission,” or VLT, says Zilberman. The clear glass is treated with low-emissivity or low-E coating as well as an ultraviolet (UV) light reduction to improve energy performance.
 
The massive glass panels are set back about 3 feet from the building exterior, so AZA’s team of architects, in conjunction with project engineers, conducted solar simulations to determine the optimal specs for the glass type and coatings.
 
Aston Martin unveiled the Q New York showroom to great fanfare. “The unique window installation of epic proportion, named the ‘Champagne Frame,’ is one of the largest single panes of glass ever installed into a New York building,” said the British company. “The grand window frame looks into the stars — Aston Martin’s most iconic models — which are carefully illuminated by an impressive 2,100-bulb chandelier spanning 131 feet.”

It was all “conscientiously designed to immerse onlookers into the thrilling world of Aston Martin,” said the company.
 
The solution for this design opportunity included large-format insulated glazing units (IGUs), says Zilberman, designed to match the prominent building’s existing facade bays. The design team then added champagne chamfered metal panels and custom mosaic tiles within each column bay, which define the Aston Martin showroom from the street perspective, he explains. Each IGU is designed to resist structural deflection and wind and moisture ingress. The expert glass fabricator also had to use techniques to minimize or eliminate roller wave distortion.
 
Precision Joinery, Artisanal Application
 
Working with a leading façade glass fabricator, the 22-foot-wide by 11-foot-tall IGUs were trucked to the site and craned over the sidewalk for installation, which took place at night to avoid interrupting traffic and pedestrians. The crew of over 20 glass contractors and project team members implemented AZA’s architectural details so that the glass virtually disappears from sight into the existing building façade and sidewalk tiles.

“It’s a painstaking design solution, yet it uses glass in a way that keeps the focus on these beautiful automobiles and the space’s specification and brand experience, which car enthusiasts love,” says Zilberman. “Overall, the Q New York showroom is a study in fine quality, from choice materials, precision joinery, and artisan applications with a very high degree of technical difficulty — including these beautiful glass openings.”
 
According to the Marek Reichman, executive vice president and chief creative officer of Aston Martin, “Creating wondrous places, spaces and experiences are important design statements for us. And just as we belong in Formula One as British makers of ultra-luxury high-performance sports cars, Aston Martin belongs in New York City. It’s a place where dreams come true.”

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About the Architect Alexander Zilberman, AIA is founder and principal architect of Alexander Zilberman Architecture PC (AZA), and he serves in leading AZA’s team. Alex has served as designer and architect for flagship and rollout works for luxury brands around the world, from Jimmy Choo in Newport Beach and Helmut Lang in Atlanta to Victoria’s Secret in Savannah, Ga., Michael Kors Collection in Manhasset, NY, and new Theory stores on Madison Avenue, in Soho and at Palm Beach Gardens. Other recent works include storefront prototypes and a global rollout for a major fashion house, a new executive lounge for Equinox, a mixed-use commercial building outside Philadelphia, and new travel retail stores in airports and cruise ships globally. AZA is also noted for high-end hospitality works including Soho House as well as workplaces, headquarters offices and select residential works. Visit azarchdesign.com for more.