The Emerald

For upscale retail shoppers, the Neiman Marcus experience is unique and luxurious. With a corporate policy that specifies each store must be tailored to its business location, Neiman Marcus captures the attention of its clientele through merchandise, artwork and architectural design.

When the retailer decided to open an anchor store in the Natick Collection Expansion, a premium shopping center near Boston, they hired local Elkus Manfredi Architects to create an architectural design that responds to the store’s nearby coastal landscape and predominantly female customer base.

The inspiration for the Natick Neiman Marcus was a dress designed for the architect’s wife: a dress soft in image and form, with bronze skin tones and elegant highlights of champagne and silver. Equally important to Neiman Marcus was the desire to unite its clientele with the native New England landscape of birch groves, sea grass and the Atlantic Ocean.

To evoke these architectural themes, the building’s exterior is a collection of oversized stainless steel sheets patterned together in undulating ripples. The visual effect is a light fabric caught in the wind. Beneath the metal wrap, a glazed façade follows suit in wavelike curves around the building.

To create the image of a monolithic scarf floating in the wind, the architects sought a glass façade to delineate the upper metal wrap from the ground frame. Further, the architects sought glazing that could follow the tight curves of the stainless steel entry.

Elkus Manfredi found their solution with Pilkington Profilit™ channel glass from Technical Glass Products (TGP), Snoqualmie, Washington. “We’ve used Pilkington Profilit for a number of projects,” says Rob Halter, Senior Architect for Elkus Manfredi. “It’s a truly sophisticated material that has continually expanded our design options.”

Pilkington Profilit’s “U”-shaped, linear cast-glass channels are selfsupporting and mounted in an extruded metal perimeter frame. Because of the shape of the glazing system, it can achieve very tight radiuses or be used in serpentine applications.

Available in a variety of colors and textures with varying translucency, Pilkington Profilit allows for the passage of natural light without loss of privacy. Or, in instances such as the Natick Neiman Marcus, Pilkington Profilit may be used as a screen with lights between it and the primary thermal wall to produce a backlit effect.

Pilkington Profilit can be installed vertically or horizontally and is available in lengths up to 23 feet. Intermediate vertical mullions are generally not required for vertical installations. Tempering or filming options are available to meet impact safety requirements, and additional benefits include strong thermal performance, sound transmission control and adaptability to seismic code requirements.

“We were drawn to Pilkington Profilit’s natural grained texture and vertical lines,” adds Halter. “It appears as sea grass blowing in the day and transforms to a backlit façade at night.”

In honor of the building’s outstanding design, Chain Store Age magazine named the Natick Neiman Marcus as the 2007 “Retail Store of the Year.”

For more information on Pilkington Profilit, along with TGP’s other specialty architectural glass and framing, visit www.tgpamerica.com.