Gabellini Sheppard

Within a landmark structure on Geary St. off Union Square in San Francisco, Gabellini Sheppard Associates created a highly unique women’s ready-to-wear boutique utilizing lighting, color and rigorously selected materials as primary design elements for Ultimo of Chicago. The Ultimo boutique is conceived as a red chinoiserie box within which a vaulted ivory ceiling plane floats to conceal an illumination system that creates veils of ambient light on the walls and perimeter vitrines. To address the approximately three foot change in floor level from Maiden Lane to Geary Street, a ramp and display platform lead to a stair sited between a silicon bronze wall and a two-story wall of luminous Rosa Portugalo marble rising up through the double height atrium. The two floors may be viewed simultaneously from the stair, as elliptical columns and suspended bronze panels puncture and delineate both spaces.

The floating bluestone display plinth on the first floor, conceived as a flexible stage, is reinterpreted as a low platform along the second floor storefront windows.  The second floor ceiling complements the floor below as a series of overlapping floating light vaults. The material palette extends into custom display fixtures designed by Gabellini Sheppard Associates.  Silk scrolls, water white mirror panels and walnut trapeze bars are suspended from the ceiling by black tensile cord.  The walnut furniture was designed in collaboration with George Nakashima Woodworkers to create a dramatic backdrop to the collections on display.

The 3,767-square-foot Ultimo Boutique, adjacent to Jil Sander, is conceived as a red chinoiserie box within which a vaulted ivory ceiling plane floats to conceal ambient lighting which spills onto the walls and perimeter vitrines as luminescent veils of projected light. A ramp and bluestone display platform lead to a stair placed between a silicon bronze wall and a two-story wall of transluscent Rosa Portugalo marble rising through a double height atrium.

The luxurious material palette extends to custom display fixtures designed by Gabellini Sheppard Associates. Silk scrolls, water white mirror panels and walnut trapeze bars are suspended from the ceiling by black tensile fabric cord. The walnut furniture was designed in collaboration with George Nakashima Woodworkers to create a dramatic backdrop to the different collections on display.