RH New York: a baby boomer in millenial's clothing?
There is no better place than New York City to experience the latest brick and mortar store concepts. Over the past couple of years we’ve seen Adidas, Nike, American Girl, Samsung, Dyson and Story all raise the stakes in terms of creating an enhanced customer experience. The newest kid on the block is the 6-level Restoration Hardware Store in the Meatpacking District. At over 90,000 square feet it is just as oversized as their catalog and joins a growing family of RH Flagship stores.
The Meatpacking District, where design chic meets urban grit, has a definite millennial vibe to it, with hipsters filling sidewalks and stores. The RH store fits right in: the outside features the original warehouse brick skin, juxtaposed with a new industrial-looking glass and metal addition. However, walk through the front door and a very different experience unfolds.
Outside: Hipster Millennial Chic (Photo: RH)
A doorman is there to let you in, and once inside you are greeted by a concierge seated at the base of the 5-story entry atrium. The industrial palette on the outside gives way to a world of golds and greys, with furnishings that have a contemporary Park Avenue/Art Deco feel. Take the glass/brass elevator or the curved stair and you will eventually end up at the rooftop restaurant, with chandeliers and greenery reminiscent of the Tavern-on-the-green. And not a man bun to be seen amongst the diners, whose average age during my visit was somewhere between 60 and 70.
The generation gap between inside and outside is not unique to this store: although Starbucks is perceived as a millennial brand (and your average Starbucks store does indeed seem to be filled with millennials and their Macbooks), it is the Baby Boomers ordering at the drive-through that are fueling Starbucks’ profits. They don’t have time to hang out inside, since they need to get to their jobs to earn the money to pay for their kids’ lattes and laptops!
Inside: Luxe Baby Boomer (Photo: RH)
A few years ago, I recall a retail developer telling me that he’d love to do mixed use and have residential units above his stores, as long as the folks living in them were young and good looking. So is it possible that the millennials are targeted by retailers not as customers, but as part of the décor and vibe? And as a boomer myself (I just squeaked in at the tail end of that generation), I’ll be the first to admit the appeal of anything that helps fuel my delusion that I’m still relatively young and hip! So although my RH furniture purchase may end up being rather conservative, I will still think I’m cool, because after all I did buy it in an industrial-looking building in the meatpacking district. .
Perhaps it’s the new aspirational retail: that term used to mean “I can barely afford it but it will make me feel upwardly mobile”, now it means “I can afford it, but I’m buying it because it’s going to make me feel young and hip again”. And as I look at my Allbirds and my colorful, not-always-tucked-in shirt, I realize that I too am just another Baby Boomer in Millennial’s clothing!
For an alternate (and more objective and in-depth) take on the new RH, see what the
New York Times wrote about it.
Upstairs: More Tavern on the Green than Bohemian Café Culture (Photo: RH)
Yann Taylor
Yann has been designing retail and mixed-use projects for more than 25 years. After working in the UK and the US on a number of different
building types (residential buildings, civic buildings, healthcare), he landed at
Field Paoli and has never looked back. His focus is on how the public realm
is experienced: how can the buildings we design create lively and energetic
environments that allow for positive social interactions between friends as
well as strangers? Some of the may groundbreaking projects he is proud to have designed include the master plan for Victoria Gardens in Southern California;
the redevelopment of Broadway Plaza in the San Francisco Bay Area; the first Whole Foods
store to include a full brewery; and the conversion of an old garment factory
into the open-air Forum Cuernavaca, located just south of Mexico City.
Beyond the office, you’ll find Yann enjoying his
daily bicycle commute to and from work; doing research on the great public markets
and food halls of London, Paris and Barcelona; and reflecting on the subtleties
of experiential urban design. Yann is a
frequent speaker and panelist; most recently he moderated a panel for the Urban
Land Institute's Fall meeting on the challenges faced by restaurants and
retailers in San Francisco and shared his thoughts on the joys of an urban walk
with James Cook on his "Where We Buy" podcast
Although he is energized by the richness and
vitality of urban retail environments, some of Yann's favorite
buildings tend to be located at the end of long dirt roads: it's nice to get
away sometimes.
