Project by: Peter Marino
Place: New York, USA Photographer: Massimo Listri
Publications:Architectural Digest October 20, 2017
To celebrate its 130-year anniversary, the Italian luxury goods titan Bulgari turned to a familiar figure in fashion circles: Peter Marino — the architect known for his luxurious retail environments for clients like Chanel and Louis Vuitton — brought his transformative techniques to the brand’s Rome flagship. Sotirio Bulgari, the company’s founder, oversaw the shop’s first ribbon cutting on Via dei Condotti in 1905. At the reopening ceremony last Thursday, which was attended by Bulgari’s grandsons, Paolo and Nicola, it was clear that Marino had sought to recapture the spirit of the original. He has restored the store’s travertine stone slabs, the green African marble cornices and the bronze letters above the entrance doors. “It took all my skills to get a new concept that was as eternal as Rome, as sexy as Bulgari’s clientele,” says Marino, who looked to the boutique’s first architect, Florestano Di Fausto, for inspiration. His goal, he says, was to capture “the Roman-ness of the brand in the neoclassical-baroque marriage — the sun-filled yellow walls, the extraordinary mix of ancient and new.”
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