The Webster Store in Los Angeles by David Adjaye

For his first Californian project, Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye has contributed a curving pink concrete structure to the multi-year, $500 million renovation of the Beverley Centre. The Webster store sits on the street level corner of the luxury retailer, taking over 1,022sqm of prime window shopping real estate. The curvilinear façade is clad with pink-tinted concrete to give a ‘tough yet gentle’ effect, both contrasting and complementing the remainder of the brutalist-style building.

Curving to mirror the existing shopfront above, The Webster’s front is separated into two halves, one of which projects upwards and outwards to create a covered entranceway. On the inside of the cantilevered wall, Adjaye implemented a series of alcoves fitted with lights, acting as a large-scale digital screen that will showcase artworks at an intentionally subtle, low resolution. Beneath, the lower half of the concrete curves around the building and doubles as a street side bench.

The store’s interior is clad with the same dusky pink concrete, giving the impression that it was carved from one singular, monolithic block. Display shelves and plinths appear to levitate, while curved walls enclose the changing rooms. Delicate bronze display racks and mirrors, terrazzo floors and vintage floral wallpaper provide contrast to the rough concrete.

The Beverley Centre flagship is the seventh branch of the multi-brand design and fashion boutique, founded by Laure Hériard Dubreuil in Miami in 2009. Rather than consider the project as a purely retail destination however, Adjaye approached the store as a destination experimentation in material and colour, and a sculptural landscape to house objects.

Adjaye’s experiments with pigmented concrete extend back to the beginning of his career, Saturated red and pink hues have been his focus for the past five or so years, with other examples such as the crimson Ruby City art centre in Texas.