Ports 1961 Boutique
New York, New York

The Gabellini Sheppard Associates retail design for Ports 1961 was incubated as a two-project concept for the United States’ east and west coasts—for Melrose Place in Los Angeles, and the Meatpacking District in New York—in a reflection of the East-meets-West nature of the brand itself. Conceived as a private boudoir for the modern, cosmopolitan woman, the new Ports 1961 environments embody the brand’s modern identity and old-world romance.

The 1,600-square-foot New York boutique, located one block from the High Line, fills the ground level of a restored, wisteria-covered 1849 brick townhouse within the Gansevoort Market Historic District. Designed in collaboration with the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, a one-story, zinc-clad expansion to the west yields a functionally larger space, while preserving the existing typology of a townhouse with rear yard: though the courtyard was infilled, the expansion contains a cloister-like interior that reveals a new garden within it.

Inside the boutique, customers meander between the older, more intimate building and the new, light-filled expansion. Continuous American Walnut flooring with a dark tung oil finish links the two areas visually and imparts a material richness to the space. Walnut furnishings and plush, hand-loomed Tibetan carpets in silk and wool further contribute to the warm, casual atmosphere, where customers are invited to linger and relax as in an upscale living room.

The focal point is a striking rectangular glass cube Weather Room, a sensory space which extends floor-to-ceiling to an outdoor second-floor terrace used for special events and entertaining. Open to sun, rain, and snow alike, it draws the energy of the weather down like a vortex and concentrates it in the center of the retail volume. This courtyard in miniature, like a theater in the round, offers different methods of conceptualizing space—from pocket park, to terrarium, to gallery, to performance venue—while programmatically and visually linking to the exterior terrace above and creating a voyeuristic, public, see-and-be-seen connection between the boutique and event spaces.

As in the Los Angeles boutique, the merchandise displays rely on concepts of lightness and suspension, inspired by the layered draping techniques of the Ports 1961 collections. Clothing and accessories are displayed on custom-designed, backlit acrylic molded shelving and acrylic fixtures swathed in sumptuous fabric. Signature twisting hangbars in solid nickel silver allow a glimpse of the front side of each garment and form a rhythmic display ribbon against golden metallic wall curtains. Inside and out, this study in contrasts and complementary proportions, surfaces, and materials creates a modern, embellished frame for the designer’s continually evolving collections.