CORTE MADERA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--RH (Restoration Hardware Holdings, Inc. – NYSE:RH) announced today the opening of RH Seattle, The Gallery at University Village at 4645 26th Avenue NE. RH Seattle represents the latest iteration of the brand’s next-generation design galleries. Commanding four levels and nearly 60,000 total interior and exterior square feet, this innovative new retail experience features artistic installations of home furnishings in a gallery setting – including an entire floor dedicated to RH Modern with an integrated RH Contemporary Art Gallery. RH Seattle also includes an interactive Design Atelier, a professional workspace that allows customers, designers and architects to conceptualize and customize a home.
“Our vision for RH Seattle is to reimagine the retail experience by blurring the lines between residential and retail, indoors and outdoors, physical and digital, creating a space that is more home than store,” says RH Chairman & CEO Gary Friedman. “We believe the most pleasing design is a reflection of human design, thus RH Seattle is a study of balance, symmetry and the golden mean.”
RH Seattle marks Friedman’s ongoing collaboration with design architect James Gillam of Backen, Gillam & Kroeger, a firm recognized as one of Architectural Digest’s Top 100 architect and design firms in the world.
Conceptualized as a grand-scale, classical contemporary structure filled with fresh air and natural light, RH Seattle features a charcoal-grey Venetian plaster and brick exterior with an expanse of glass-and-steel French doors that open onto a streetscape defined by Japanese boxwood, Italian cypress and sweetbay magnolia trees. Looking overhead, guests will admire Juliet balconies, an expansive garden terrace on level three and a Rooftop Park & Conservatory with mature white crepe myrtle trees. As night falls, the building is transformed through dramatic illumination, highlighting its architectural details and landscaping.
Visitors arriving to the gallery via NE University Village Street will pass through a dramatic tripartite entrance – a series of three glass-and-steel openings towering 30 feet overhead – anchored by a garden courtyard with New Zealand flax, geometric topiaries and a trickling central fountain. Guests will then continue into a central hall with soaring 13-foot ceilings and a cast-stone Tuscan colonnade. Along the periphery, Palladian-inspired passageways lead to a classical arrangement of rooms with artistic lifestyle installations featuring RH Interiors collections from internationally renowned artisans and designers.
Arriving via the gallery’s 26th Avenue NE entrance, visitors will enjoy unobstructed views across the entire main level compliments of an arched corridor punctuated by a series of 19th Century Rococo Chandeliers. Continuing their journey to the upper floors, guests will ascend a grand double floating staircase spanning nearly 40 feet, with custom-designed iron handrails inspired by the work of late 20th-century Venetian architect, Carlo Scarpa. Natural light emanates from a massive skylight four floors above, and a spectacular installation of 20 crystal Helix Chandeliers hanging 60 feet overhead highlights a composition of gilded antique mirrors cascading down the stairwell to create an endless reflection and further illuminate the way.
Level two features RH Design Atelier – a 4,000-square-foot studio anchored by four, 10-foot custom tables offering a fully integrated workspace for customers, designers and architects to reimagine one room or an entire home, inside and out. Here, guests can work with a highly experienced team trained in the RH design ethos to create functional and elegant spaces. A place for collaboration and ideation, RH Design Atelier features access to RH’s vast library of fabrics, leathers and furniture and lighting finishes – providing an unprecedented level of design services.
“With the introduction of RH Interior Design, we have now moved the brand beyond creating and selling product to conceptualizing and selling spaces,” says Mr. Friedman.
Additional RH Design Atelier resources include a Ben Soleimani rug showroom displaying the fourth-generation designer’s hand-knotted and hand-woven rugs, and other specialized galleries for window treatments, bed and bath linens and bath hardware.
On the third level, guests will discover a 10,000-square-foot exhibition space presenting RH Modern, one of the largest curated and fully-integrated assortments of modern furnishings, lighting and décor under one brand in the world. Developed in collaboration with a select group of acclaimed global designers, RH Modern’s design vernacular represents a fresh and innovative point of view, defined by a minimalist aesthetic, the finest materials and maximum comfort. This immersive space incorporates RH Contemporary Art – offering a curated and engaging collection of artwork across all media – along with an expansive garden terrace punctuated by cascading Thorndale English ivy, striking crystal and iron chandeliers and tracery metal trellises accented with white Japanese wisteria.
At the top of the grand stair, visitors will arrive at the Rooftop Park & Conservatory. This 10,000-square-foot garden space will first be experienced within a structure of glass, wood and steel with towering banana palms. The indoor space opens onto a spectacular rooftop anchored by a series of monolithic bluestone slabs embedded in decomposed granite that lead to a circular La Vielle fountain. This one-of-a-kind destination features open-air pavilions, mature white crepe myrtle trees set within colossal steel planters accented with cascading rosemary, European blue fescue, sculptural evergreens, billowing shade canopies and glimmering chandeliers that further enhance a dramatic display of the latest RH Outdoor furnishings.
RH Seattle, The Gallery at University Village can be reached at 206.522.2775. Hours of operation will be Monday through Saturday from 10am to 8pm, and Sunday 11am until 6pm.
About RH
RH (Restoration Hardware Holdings, Inc. - NYSE: RH) is a curator of design, taste and style in the luxury lifestyle market. The Company offers collections through its retail galleries, source books and online at RH.com, RHModern.com and Waterworks.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements related to the customer experience when visiting RH Seattle, The Gallery at University Village, the presentation and layout of RH Seattle, and the Company’s merchandise and business offerings within this location, including RH Modern, RH Interiors, RH Contemporary Art, RH Design Atelier, RH Interior Design, the Rooftop Park & Conservatory and RH Outdoor. You can identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. We cannot assure you that future developments affecting us will be those that we have anticipated. Important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations include, among others, risks related to the number of new business initiatives we are undertaking; our ability to introduce new products and merchandise categories that will be of interest to our customers and to new customers; as well as those risks and uncertainties disclosed under the sections entitled “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Restoration Hardware Holdings’ most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and similar disclosures in subsequent reports filed with the SEC, which are available on our investor relations website at ir.restorationhardware.com and on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this press release speaks only as of the date on which we make it. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by any applicable securities laws.
