BEST Products Company Buildings
BEST Products Company, Inc. - 1975 - 1984
In 1972 SITE was commissioned by BEST Products Company to design a series of nine ‘big box’ shopping centers. Since these retail structures are ubiquitous in the public domain, people’s reflex acceptance of their archetypal imagery has been used in each case to invert and change the meaning. Instead of approaching the BEST buildings as conventionally ‘designed’ architecture, they are treated as a ‘subject matter for art’ and a source of visual commentary on the American commercial strip.
BEST Indeterminate Façade – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store – Houston, TX – USA – 1975 - Main façade view from parking lot.
BEST Indeterminate Façade – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store – Houston, TX – USA – 1975 Façade brick pile, Parapet edge of the façade.
BEST Forest Building – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store – Richmond, VA – USA – 1980 Cutaway façade section, allowing the existing forest to penetrate the building as an ‘inside-outside’ experience.
BEST Forest Building – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store – Richmond, VA – USA – 1980 Existing forest incorporated as an intrinsic part of the building, Section of the façade with glass terrarium walls, revealing sections of the area’s geological strata.
BEST Forest Building – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store – Richmond, VA – USA – 1980 Existing forest as an intrinsic part of the building, plus an elevation view of the façade.
BEST Notch Building – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store – Miami, FL - USA – 1979 Water wall façade at dusk.
BEST Notch Building – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store – Miami, FL – USA - 1979 Detail of the water wall and section of tropical vegetation
BEST Notch Building – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store – Sacramento, CA - USA – 1979 Extracted segment of the façade, showing the ‘wandering wall’ in its open position.
BEST Notch Building – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store – Sacramento, CA – USA - 1979 Mechanized façade section in the process of opening the entrance to the building.
BEST Inside/outside Building– BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store – Milwaukee, WI – USA – 1984 General view of the façade, showing cut-away sections and inside/outside merchandise display.
BEST Inside/outside Building - BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store – Milwaukee, WI – USA –1994 Cut-away section of the façade to reveal the layers of normally enclosed technology and merchandise.
BEST Inside/outside Building – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store – Milwaukee, WI – USA – 1984 Inside/outside display of store merchandise, showing the transition from real objects to ghosted counterparts as they pass through the glass wall.
BEST Tilt Building – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store – Towson, MD – USA – 1976 Main view of façade.
BEST Tilt Building – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store – Towson, MD – USA – 1976 Lifted doorway, and Main view of façade from the highway.
BEST Anti Sign Building – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Catalog Sales Center – View of Façade from street.
BEST Anti Sign Building – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Catalog Sales Center - Richmond, Virginia - Detail of Façade.
BEST Parking Lot Building – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store – Designed for locations in Houston, TX and Los Angeles, CA – USA – 1976 Overview of the project model showing, a fusion of the asphalt parking lot with the retail building.
BEST Parking Lot Building – BEST Products Company, Inc. – Retail Store - Designed for locations in Houston, TX and Los Angeles, CA – USA – 1976 Drawing of concept, plus a detail of the project model, showing a fusion of the asphalt parking lot with the retail building.