Bruce
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
McKinley Dang Burkart Design Group

Lifestyle Retailer Depicts Urban Mood

© Robert Lemermeyer

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

Bruce is a lifestyle retailer which features clothing, furniture, housewares, eyewear, art, magazines, CDs, and a cafe, located in a two-story space in the heart of Vancouver’s shopping district. Like other members of a new breed of retailer—from Colette in Paris,to Egg in London, and Kirna Zabete in New York—Bruce offers a complete range of products for a particular lifestyle. In this case, the Bruce ethos is based on the optimistic lifestyle of the urban modernist. The designer and client looked closely at intentional minimalism so common in retail design today and questioned how to understate their theme without austerity, a design compatible with the urban modernist. While products are segmented into distinct areas, they rub up against each other and sometime comingle. The store was given white walls and an apoxy-finished concrete floor with a series of white lacquer plinths and boxes that can be modified with oak trays and backdrops of clear or white glass and plastic. The design allows the product to dominate and everything is for sale.

Formal name of building:
Bruce Lifestyle Retailer (Interior Project)

Location:
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Gross square footage:
7,500 sq ft

Owner:
Campbell McDougall

Architect's firm:
McKinley Dang Burkart Design Group
805a 17th Avenue
SW Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Phone: (403) 229-2037
Fax: (403) 229-2517