REI SoHo is located in the historic Puck Building. The walls in the Puck Building are a mix of 150-year-old brick, plaster, and modern gypsum-board. The entry level walls are mostly street-facing windows. To add to our challenges, the city of New York stipulated that one had to be able to view into the store’s space through any fixturing in the windows.
During an early visit to the site, I realized that the racking we were then installing in REI's stores would have destroyed the brick walls. I completely re-designed the racking system to be self-suppporting, self-leveling, with minimal damage to delicate and aged wall materials. The “see past the window” issue was solved in the process, as this new system was easily configured to be freestanding several feet away from the windows, allowing passers-by to see past the racking and into the space.
This system proved so successful that it became standard for all new REI stores.
