Customers can not only buy a vase, but might see one being made by an acclaimed potter and interior designer as they shop at a new store in New York.
Jonathan Adler has opened a three-story hybrid space that serves as a retail flagship/pottery studio/headquarters on West Broadway in downtown Manhattan. The new Atlelier Adler brings the entire world of Adler — from creation to commerce — under one roof and back to where the company began (Soho). It is the brand’s 11th store globally and its fourth in New York City.
“This retail concept is a dream come true for me, and if you had told my twelve-year-old self (or for that matter my forty-two-year-old self), that I would return to Soho with a building on West Broadway as my creative headquarters, I would have thought you were kidding,” stated Adler.
Atlelier Adler is both whimsical and zany, accented with pop art, wicker-woven animals and more. The main floor (the retail store) features the brand’s complete offering, ranging from pottery and furniture to bedding and candles, against a backdrop of pastel-coloured walls, custom-built displays and a floor-to-ceiling wall of the brand’s signature vases.
The back of the store houses a pottery studio where Jonathan and his team sculpt the prototypes and models for the brand’s products. (Customers can view the studio and potters at work through a glass window.) Unfinished vases and other objects of various sizes line the shelf of a back wall.
The mezzanine, above and visible from the retail floor, houses the product and interior design studios, bringing customers closer to the behind-the-scenes of the brand.
The lower level features work stations, meeting rooms, a photo studio, and a “Zoom Room” for private calls — a completely wallpapered jewel box of a room tucked under the stairs. The chairs are by Humanscale, surfaces are by Caesarstone, and window treatments are from Adler’s collaboration with The Shade Store.
The two-story facade showcases more than a dozen of the brand’s chandeliers hung at varying heights and configurations. The leather-covered cashwrap is covered in Adler’s iconic Arcade pattern, as are the panels in the building’s custom-clad elevator, to match.
