CORTE MADERA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--RH (Restoration Hardware Holdings, Inc. – NYSE: RH) announced today the opening of RH Leawood, The Gallery at Town Center Plaza at 4800 West 119th Street. RH Leawood represents the latest iteration of the brand’s next-generation design galleries. Commanding three levels and 56,000 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 Leawood also includes an interactive Design Atelier, a professional workspace that allows customers, designers and architects to conceptualize and customize a home.
“Our goal is to blur the lines between residential and retail, indoors and outdoors, physical and digital, creating spaces that are more home than store – spaces that inspire both ourselves and our clients to conceptualize a new and more contemporary way of living,” says Gary Friedman, RH Chairman & CEO.
RH Leawood 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. "Great architecture is at the core of our design ethos," Mr. Friedman continued. "We either find it and readapt it, or as in the case of RH Leawood, we build it."
Conceptualized as a transparent, multi-level contemporary structure filled with fresh air and natural light, RH Leawood features a charcoal-grey Venetian plaster exterior with an expanse of glass-and-steel French doors that open onto a streetscape lined with white oak and lacebark elm trees, winter gem boxwood and geometric topiaries. Looking overhead, guests will admire lush garden terraces on level two and a Rooftop Park with dozens of quaking aspen trees. As night falls, the building is transformed through dramatic illumination, highlighting the architectural details and landscaping.
Visitors will enter the Gallery through striking, 10-foot steel gates inspired by the work of late-20th-century Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa, and step into a bluestone and decomposed granite entry courtyard flanked by dramatic loggias and complemented by the sound of trickling fountains. Passing through a 25-foot wall of glass and steel, guests will continue into the Gallery’s central hall with soaring 13-foot ceilings and a cast-stone Tuscan colonnade. Once indoors, they will enjoy unobstructed views across the entire main level to the corresponding courtyard beyond.
Along the periphery, barrel-vaulted passageways lead to a classical arrangement of rooms with artistic lifestyle installations featuring RH Interiors collections from internationally renowned designers, as well as garden courtyards lush with Boston ivy and sweetbay magnolia trees.
Continuing their journey to the upper floors, visitors will ascend a grand double floating staircase awash in natural light via a massive skylight spanning 37 feet, three floors above. A spectacular installation of 18 Helix crystal chandeliers hanging 50 feet overhead highlights a composition of gilded antique mirrors cascading down the stairwell to create an endless reflection and further illuminate the way.
On the second 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 – showcasing fine art, sculpture and photography from a globally curated roster of artists – as well as two expansive garden terraces punctuated by striking crystal and iron chandeliers, billowing shade canopies and sculptural evergreens.
Level two also features RH Design Atelier – a dedicated 5,000-square-foot studio anchored by two, 25-foot custom tables offering a fully integrated workspace for architects, designers and customers 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 Design Services, 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.
At the top of the grand stair, visitors will arrive at the Rooftop Park. Symmetrically composed in the spirit of the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris, this nearly 10,000-square-foot garden space will first be experienced within a vestibule of glass and steel, complete with towering banana palms, that opens onto a spectacular grove of quaking aspen trees set within colossal steel planters accented with European blue fescue. This one-of-a-kind destination features a beautiful central trellis, white Japanese wisteria, glimmering chandeliers, trickling fountains, sculptural evergreens and fragrant lavender that further enhance a dramatic display of the latest RH Outdoor furnishings.
RH Leawood, The Gallery at Town Center Plaza is located outside of Kansas City near Overland Park, and can be reached at 816.931.6592. Hours of operation are Monday through Saturday from 10am to 8pm, and Sunday 11am until 6pm.
About RH, Restoration Hardware
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.
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 Leawood, The Gallery at Town Center Plaza, the presentation and layout of RH Leawood, the Company’s merchandise and business offerings within this location, including RH Modern, RH Contemporary Art, fully integrated RH Design Atelier, garden courtyards, expansive terraces, a Ben Soleimani rug showroom and a rooftop park with quaking aspen tree grove. 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.
